The American Scholar

the Cornbread: The Spore Paradigm of Southern Studies (2016) with the purpose of arguing for “the continued importance of regional distinctions and, further, the importance of southern studies.” (Burnett 162). She starts her essay by stating that scholars seek to dispose of the Southern distinction of literature and states a couple of arguments that might be made for the disposal of it. Then she turns around and states her thesis and starts to argue for Southern literary studies. She develops…

West (as cited by Harris, 2009) suggests that “African American sexuality, generally, is not looked at in a favorable light by Whites and is always seen in relation to White sexuality and how (i.e., through rape and procreation) it can best serve Whites” (p. 437). Problems surrounding sexuality are often disregarded…

Africans and Native Americans did not believe in written records like the Europeans did; they preferred to pass stories and teachings of the religion to generation to generation by oral means. Most of what is known of Africans and Native Americans are views and written works by Europeans. Most if not all of the works are tailored to fit how Europeans wants everyone to view African and Native American religion and culture. The viewpoints are in disdain of African and Native American religions. So…

police brutality and the African American incarceration rates are both connected, the civil rights lawyer and author Michelle Alexander argues that “police violence, that isn’t the problem in and of itself. It’s the reflection of a much larger brutal system of racial and social control known as mass…

the article “Race and Reification in Science” by Troy Duster, the main argument consists of the idea that African Americans simply have more health problems than other races. Studies show that African Americans tend to die quicker, and have issues of hypertension or heart diseases in their early life. Duster emphasizes the differences between Americans of European decent and Americans of African descent in the field of science, medicine, and society by giving multiple examples of real life…

responsive evaluator was also described by Hood (2004) “To be responsive means to attend substantively and politically to issues of culture and race in evaluation practice” (Hood, 2001, P.32). This approach focuses on integration of the African American culture and values in the practice of program evaluation. The approach emerged from two interrelated domains: Stake`s responsive evaluation and culturally relevant pedagogy which considers the strengths…

World War II impacted the American film industry through the influences of the war effort. Films that were made during this time often worked in line with this effort by projecting messages of unity, where racial and class differences amongst Americans were put on the backburner in order to fight one common and external enemy. Scholar Anna Everett asserts that during the war the film industry temporarily suspended its usual racist and stereotypical depictions of Black Americans for the war…

wind” 46-7) The above quoted poetic extract indicates to the importance of ancestral stories of homeland in the American diaspora. These tales are regarded as fuel to the diasporic Arab-American spirits. Retelling homeland’s stories is a turning point in the cultural, political, social, and spiritual consciousness and identity of Arab-Americans. Throughout this project, Arab-Americans pass three stages of identity crisis; firstly, they are in a keen search for their roots (problem…

approach, but rather, by developing ways that allow them to capture the different ways and means African Americans expressed their resistance. No matter how long and how much historians tweak on the timeline or address conservative and liberal appropriations, this will not lead them to the essence of civil rights activism, as a specific period of the long-term resistance of African Americans against White racism, if we continue to rely on analytical frameworks that were mainly developed to…

Still images are not the only form of visual texts that rhetorical scholars have identified as perpetuating racism. Television productions have similar effects. In his piece, “May the Circle Stay Unbroken: Friends, the Presence of Absence, and the Rhetorical Reinforcement of Whiteness”, Phil Chidester examines how the popular sitcom Friends can function, just as the discursive practices mentioned earlier, to reinforce racial identity without explicit acknowledgement of race. Chidester contends…