Blackness

own children reside in her seaside hometown, leaving her alone in this foreign country. She is frightened by the whiteness of the walls in her apartment and the people surrounding her. Brand creates a stark contract between the main character’s blackness and the children she watches’ whiteness. Kara Goodwin’s paper “Narrating Silences: Voice and History in the Prose of Dionne Brand, M. Nourbese Philip, and Joy Kogawa” poses the argument that the main character’s “negative experiences in Canada…

until 2007 when the group officially changed its name to Daara J Family. This group, whose names means “school of life” in their native language, Wolof, continues to discuss political realities such as the history of African slavery, the politics of blackness, and ultimately, local, as well as Pan-African issues.…

Native Son In the novel Native Son, Bigger, along with his family, faces an abundant amount of difficult decisions, each of which affects his life in one way, or another as the story progresses and develops. This novel deals with the hardships and pain that African Americans, particularly males, faced in the 1930s. Although Bigger is often viewed as being a villain of the novel, he was merely a product of the 20th century Chicago society. In the time period in which this novel is set…

“In my hole in the basement there are exactly one thousand three hundred sixty nine lights” (Ellison 7); if that is true, how can one still be hidden in darkness? The Invisible Man spent time in his well-lit hole in a basement because “it [allowed him] to feel [a] vital aliveness” (Ellison 7). The narrator aspired to be “a man of vision” (Ellison 7), yet somehow others didn’t see him. He desired so strongly to make a difference that he tricked himself into believing he had an impact on…

Richard Wright once said that “all literature is protest.” Believing that books are weapons and through writing anyone can create whatever their desires: people, places, objects, events, or a way to get others to understand a piece of information of his or her choice. Raised in poverty and barely educated in rural Arkansas and Mississippi, Richard Wright grew up in a world of deficiency and hopelessness. Richard Wright’s novel, Native Son is one of the best descriptions of the lives of African…

Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni, an american poet, editor, writer, and activist. Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 07, 1943 to Yolande Cornelia, Sr. and Jones “Gus” Giovanni. Giovanni shared an unique relationship with her forthright, maternal grandmother, who nurtured her of their African-American heritage. This abundant disclosure of her personal heritage resulted in further appreciation, and inspiration to take on her career as a poet. When Giovanni was still a young girl…

based founded on a solid identiy. The dramatic differences between the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic validate that race is a social construct of race. Ideologies that are a “complex consciousness of color” blurring the line between blackness and whiteness also pointing out that “color correlates with class and culture shapes their meaning” (Winn…

were so far away from each other in society, and that there was no way she could ever properly understand. The white environment that Bigger is in is inescapable and so actively present it is impossible to ignore. From the beginning of the novel blackness and whiteness, can begin to be seen as interdependent and naturally reinforcing (Van Hoose 46-47). To Bigger he did not think that white people were actually people, and this is also a part of his blindness to it all. He also knows so little…

Minorities in sitcoms were less portrayed in contrast to an accurate representation of the time period. Ironically, minorities in sitcoms were not always represented by minority actors and actresses. Sometimes makeup was used on a white actor so he could portray a black man. It was not until the 1950’s when African Americans were shown on television. African Americans were often portrayed as crooked people with poor English and less education. In the sixties, segregation and racism dominated…

Alluding light and darkness throughout the novel, Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter, gives light and dark an insidious meaning. In many important events Hawthorne writes details that seem insignificant, but are not because he creates a theme through them and makes the ideas of heaven and hell, truth and secrets,virtue and sin. Hawthorne writes a novel regarding sinners in the hands of an angry God. Meaning that any sinner will feel the wrath of God by the fear and pain that he…