Afro-Eurasia

James Baldwin accomplished things when he wrote “Sonny’s Blues—not only is the story a memoir of the lives of African Americans in Harlem in the 1950’s but also a story about the struggles and decisions that affect family and brotherhood. Harlem, the setting, traps the African Americans who call it home; it traps them in a life of poverty, crime, and anger. Two brothers choose very different paths: the narrator becomes a respectable teacher whose goal is to assimilate into a white society, and…

(McClurg) Du Bois examined the years that followed the Civil War specifically, the Freedmen's Bureau's role in Reconstruction. The Bureau failed due not only to southern opposition but also to mismanagement and courts that were biased. Dubois also examined the successes of the bureau as well. Its most important contribution to progress was the founding of African American schools. (McClurg) This book is still one of the most important parts of sociological and African American history.…

Double consciousness compels blacks to view themselves from their own distinctive perception and to additionally have to view themselves from the perspective that the rest of the outside world might perceive them. Double consciousness is the theory that W.E.B. Dubois wrote about in relation to identity and how it feels like to be black. Blacks have no choice but to navigate the world in duality, as a black person and as an American. Skin color is the mask that blacks are forced to wear, a…

Nikki Giovanni is an African American author and poet, also known to be as a member of the Black Arts Movement. Giovanni as an author and poet was very much underestimated. Much of Giovanni’s works focus on the racial digression of the African American race. Giovanni’s rebellious nature through her works was what galvanized others to fight the fight. She was an activist when activism was threatening. She was a feminist when feminism was ostracized. Giovanni was a womanist before the term was…

The main contention of the book A Lesson Before Dying is the inequality between white and black people. Throughout the book we see a change in the characters’ attitudes to this situation forced upon them by society. The author’s details suggest the ability to change the world through your beliefs and what you know is true. Jefferson and Grant’s realization helped to spark the country’s awareness to how wrong the oppression the majority of people were giving to African Americans everywhere.…

I’m a small, curly, half black, half Mexican women who doesn’t conform to gender norms. It’s not because I look down upon people who dress up and wear make-up, I appreciate the hard work that many people go through to look fabulous. The whole makeup business isn’t really for me though, and while I’m not super proud of how I look, I’m not really willing to put in the extra effort to put on make-up or shave the hair on my legs every morning. For the paper, I adhered to gender norm and I decided…

Racism, the reoccurring struggle for equality Most of the African Americans are still facing racism. In 2008, an Oregon archives exhibit stated that “African Americans, both nationally and in Oregon faced continuing discrimination and segregation during World War II.” During this time discrimination in employment continued for African American. Prior to the war, many blacks found jobs as hotel and train waiters and porters along with a handful of other unskilled positions. Thus, blacks…

“Black people are illiterate. Black people are rude. Black people are ghetto. Black people are ugly.” With the repetitive use of those words, it seemed as if the darkness within my skin was not beautiful melanin, but beastly mud; tainting the pure white porcelain of my ancestors. As a biracial girl in the deep south, it was very hard for me to find and have pride in my identity. Surrounded by a majority caucasian friends, I was stuck in a schlump. What’s so great about being black? In an…

ASAP academic advisor and professor, Uriah Brown, published The Black Bubble on December 11, 2015. The Black Bubble was a term he created to portray the bubble that the African Americans had been placed in as well as known as “the black experience.” “The Black Bubble is a term I created. It means, that black people have been placed in it and this bubble represents a barrier to success where African Americans cannot move up the ladder to become successful CEO’s, managers, directors,” said Brown…

Throughout the past 70 years, black actors have endured numerous standards of type-casting in network television. Nowadays African Americans have a better opportunity than ever before to star in roles that formerly were exclusively reserved for whites. Even though network television does a much better job depicting blacks in a variety situations, blacks continue to be, in many ways, similarly typecast. During the 1950s, black characters were portrayed in demeaning and stereotypical ways by…