Black Friday

This is when the “black lives matter” movement started, after numerous black men and women had their lives taken by police officers. After this, there seemed to be a war with African-Americans and cops. America was divided on this topic, some believing that cops were genuinely racist, while others…

All beings possess a powerful weapon within their vessel. The Bible cautions its readers to not let it rule over them. The Quran apprises its readers that life and death resides in it. It can heal the emotionally wounded, and cut them even deeper in the same instant. It is the tongue, or in other words, Nommo which means the power of spoken word. Nommo is one of the terms I learn while taking Dr. Franklin’s African American history 101 course, and in my opinion, it is also the foundation for…

people of color rarely get a chance to hear from ethnic philosophers on what the self means to them. According to WEB Dubois, an American black, or other person of color, is unable to be both an American and a minority. This paper will argue that despite DuBois’ belief that a person is unable to formulate a self due to cultural differences, it is possible for a black person or other minority to have a self and succeed despite opposition from the Caucasian majority. Despite most Americans…

Passing, is her second work of literature and sets the scene in the 1920s. Throughout the pages, the reader is gradually faced with several conflicts such as race and identity as narrated by the main character of the novella, Irene Redfield, a married black woman with two children for whom these conflicts arise when she re-encounters an old acquaintance, Clare Kendry. Clare is presented as the antagonist and as the opposite of Irene, and the more Clare is around, the more Irene struggles with…

Halloween (Or Ever),” Julia Craven discusses the use of blackface on Halloween and how it shouldn’t be acceptable. She gives some statistics in her article that I found eye opening, 52 percent of white Americans think that it is fine to paint your skin black for Halloween (Craven). Just remember we are in the 21st century slavery and the civil rights movement might be a thing of the past but the battle for equality is still being fought as hard as ever. There is at no moment in this day and age…

War, African Americans were forced to deal with great discrimination. At the same time, two of the most influential black leaders of the time, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, attempted to improve African Americans’ situations in two very different ways. Though these men had very different philosophies, they shared a mutual goal: gaining equality and civil rights for blacks. Booker T. Washington was born a slave and emancipated at nine years old. He attended Hampton Institute in Virginia,…

experiencing is exposed through Countee Cullen’s, work. He brought new respect and awareness to the black race; through poems like “Heritage”, “Fruit of The Flower,” and “Incident”. His life experiences were quite different from most African Americans of his era; which helped shape his brilliance. This made him much of an economic figure, because it gave him the advantage of connecting to both white and black races. Countee Cullen was born on 30 March 1902,…

a system of government, or perpetrated by citizens that are then never prosecuted by the government, shows the African American race the reality of impunity and the face of American racism. The key to stopping racism and stopping the oppression of black Americans is education. Education is the antithesis of ignorance, and ignorance breeds racism, and when our children, and our citizens are educated in institutions that have proper funding, and good teachers, then the division between the races…

In Washington, D.C. on May 17, 2004, at a dinner sponsored by the NAACP, Bill Cosby spewed out words of judgment, criticism and condemnation against poor blacks. I was outraged by his words that indicated that poor blacks had betrayed the Civil Rights Movement by failing to do their part. Hearing Cosby’s words provoked my memory of the love spoken through the words of Dr. Martin Luther King in his final speech, I Have Been to the Mountain Top: I would say millions of people in the Negro…

because he is defending a black man. This shows his sangfroid and composure because most people would crack under that pressure. Instead he is seemingly unbothered, and actually has to deal with his children’s response and keep them in control. “My folks said your daddy was a disgrace an ' that nigger oughta hang from the water tank" (102). This is just one example of the way people talked about Atticus. The town was angry, and utterly confused about why Atticus would defend a black man.…