Afro

Recently, we’ve seen in the media that there have been numerous stories about police brutality against African Americans. This is a reoccurring problem that has affected many people of minitories in the past and is an ongoing problem in society. Constantly, we hear about African Americans males killed on a daily basis by authorities. The importance of the Black Lives Matter movement shines the light that these murders should require punishment to officers who have killed young innocent people.…

In the fight against racial policing, young activists have created campaigns titled #SayTheirName and #SayHerName. Under In the #SayHerName campaign, the activists have tried to spread awareness about the black victims who don’t have a voice to speak for themselves because they’re no longer here. The #SayHerName movement, another movement in connection to the #saytheirname campaign, focuses on police brutality against black women. Sandra Bland, an innocent black woman, was found dead in her…

Like One of the Family is an incredible series of monologues that, like Roxane Gay so eloquently said, encourages understanding about an underrepresented group within society-the domestic worker (xiii). Specifically looking at the female black domestic worker, Like One of the Family, asks its readers to test their assumptions about female black characters and to gain empathy for their situation in life. Unlike The Help, in which a white woman saves the day by telling the stories of the black…

Black Modernism and Situating Revelations The articles “Black Modernism” and “Situating Revelations” were written by Thomas DeFrantz. DeFrantz is currently a Professor of African and African American Studies, a Professor of Dance, and a Professor of Theater Studies at Duke University. He has done extensive research on dance studies and performance technology. In addition, DeFrantz was previously the president of the Society of Dance History Scholars, and he has been a part of Black Performance…

In Alice Goffman’s novel, On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City, Goffman looks into the life of five young African American (Chuck, Mike, Tim, Reggie, and Alex) on 6th street in Philadelphia. 6th street is a neighborhood where many poor, black individuals and families live. In this area, many individuals (mainly young black men) participate in a range of crimes from property crimes and theft to assault and murder. In the novel, Goffman discusses the legal entanglements the men face, the…

In Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen: An American Lyric” black people have been put through many tragic experiences. The Black culture has been stripped of many opportunities to be successful by the white people. So YouTuber Hennessy Youngman depicts a way for the black people to be successful in the art world. The African American race is seen as entertainment in the art and music industry by the white people to keep them occupied, but the black people use the white people to build their way to become…

“Black Stacey” is an autobiographical song written by Saul Stacey Williams. It reflects on how his childhood experience and personal insecurities were influenced by peer discrimination, and how he eventually embraced his own skin color. The song’s additional purpose is also to advocate for other musicians to speak on their own struggles with racial self-acceptance and skin color. Williams depicts how he was insecure about his color. He was dark-skinned, darker than anyone else at his…

James Weldon Johnson is very intentional in the way he spoke about the characters in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. The doctor is a character that Johnson uses to speak about self-hate within the African American community. The way the doctor conducts himself around the unnamed protagonist shows the way African American classified themselves during this time. The doctor shows the protagonist that on a larger scale, the self-hate in the African American community surpassed the status quo…

Invisibility can be defined as “the situation of men whose individual identity is denied” (Lieber, 1972: 86) Invisible Man, written by Ralph Ellison, tells the story of a refined and educated black man straining to endure and prosper in an ethnically and culturally divided society which rejects him as a human being. This essay attempts to examine the invisibility, anonymity and alienation of the modern subject, especially in relation to racism, the essay servers to select several key moments in…

The Butler Movie Review The Butler is an American movie, which was directed by Lee Daniels. The story was written by Danny Strong, based on an African American butler’s real life story. Lee Daniels managed to put the civil rights movement into this movie and reflect the hierarchy position, racist situation, and the right of black people in the society. This movie was filming about the life of a sharecropper’s son, Cecil Gaines’ life. Cecil grown up in a cotton plantation with his father and…