Afro-Eurasia

Being black is not a matter of pigmentation – being black is a reflection of mental attitude is a quote from Steve Biko, a man who was significant in world history as well as in Apartheid history. In the movie, Cry Freedom, directed by Richard Attenborough, Steve Biko is portrayed in the movie with his associates and what he went through to achieve his goal of Black Consciousness. This movie is historically significant because it shows the atrocities that a white minority committed against the…

Desiree’s Baby by Kate Chopin. In 1893, this short story was published as “The Father of Desiree’s Baby” in a magazine. Madame Valmonde and Monsieur adopted Desiree for the reason she was found abandoned when she was just a little girl. As she grew older, she found the love of her life, Armand as they had so much love for one another. They had a child, and as soon as they had the baby, the relationship turned out to be bitter and complicated. After a few months passed, Armand and Desiree…

Through the experiences of the black characters in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, the damages of white femininity are exposed. Throughout the book, white girls and white movie stars often embody standards of cleanliness and beauty by containing funkiness (blackness) and creating order. Morrison often substitutes whiteness for cleanliness and demonstrates the dangers of this mixture in how the black female characters witness the supposed beauty and vulnerability of white girls and movie stars.…

Introduction: Womanism is used as a derogatory term particularly for the black woman. Womanism is related to the natural abilities of a woman like bearing children, sex-slaves, inferior to the male, adapts to the new situations easily, care-taking, devoted. The concept of womanism is related to black women and the women of colour as well as the colonial and post-colonial world of women. Womanism shows a kind of acceptance patience and tolerance. Rather than supporting separatism womanism…

Imagine if you were a black family living in the 1950's during the height of racism and the civil rights movement. How difficult would your life be, and what obstacles would have to be overcome? In Raisin in the Sun by Loraine Hansberry, the Youngers family live in a rundown Chicago Black neighborhood and face many challenges throughout their lives, including racial discrimination and sexism. Hansberry's message talks about the importance of achieving dreams, awareness of racial discrimination,…

“Invisible Man” is a novel written during the 1930’s. Written by a black author, Ralph Ellison, it could be seen as an attempt to illuminate the invisibility pertaining to the social difficulties faced by blacks. Central to this attempt are the motifs of invisibility and blindness. Ellison demonstrates these different, physical and mental states on different levels through allegories depicting the real acts of savage black people were subjected to. In this essay I will discuss how Ellison…

The Appeal of Black Folk Did David Walker’s Appeal influence the work of W.E.B. Dubois? What kind of themes are prominent in both of their works? William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born in 1968 in Massachusetts (Jarrett 909). He was the first African American to graduate from his high school. Later, he attended Fisk University, Harvard University (where he was the first African American to achieve a PhD), and University of Berlin. Dubois created the American Negro Academy and wrote many essays…

Morrison has created memorable African American characters who struggled to live their lives as full individuals with their triumphs and tragedies. Her characters overcome the brutality of slavery, racial and economic oppression and sexism; they depend on their own inner strengths, spirituality and love of their African American culture. In her writings, Morrison shows the invisible bonds of the African American community. According to Morrison, her characters go through difficult circumstances.…

Langston Hughes is an African American novelist and a social activist who demonstrates the conflict black Americans often encounter through his eloquent writing. Hughes has written numerous stories that acknowledges the discrimination in America, and his short story “Home” is a prime example of his moving work. “Home” follows an ill black violinist, Roy Williams, who returns back home to the United States after a brief stay in Europe. Unfortunately, he returned to his small southern hometown…

Racial discrimination represents an issue which damages the foundation of any civilized society – it turns people against each other and has no basis except ignorance and thirst for power. Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” approaches this problem through the eyes of a young black man, at the beginning of the twentieth century in America, an invisible entity without a voice in a divided society, in which political decisions are made by the white people in power. The main character is…