Essays on African American

‘The Negro speaks Rivers’

In this poem, the relation to Dubois theory in regard to double consciousness ultimately establishes a boundary line that examines the ‘African American history. The theory related to suggest that African Americans possess two distinct identities; African and American. Nonetheless, since Caucasian American society do not conform to either identity, they have been observed to remain in constant conflict with each other. In this poem, the persona says “I built my hut near the Congo, and it eventually lulled me to sleep,” (6). This particular line is aimed at showing that African Americans origin is in Africa. One the

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Introduction

Apparently there are little similarities between Billy Collins’ “Introduction to Poetry” and Audre Lorde’s “Power”. In terms of theme, tone, subject matter or style, the two poems have more distinctions than common points. This essay analyzes Collins’ and Lorde’s poems with the purpose of comparing and contrasting “Introduction to Poetry” and “Power”, delineating how each poem makes use of stylistic elements for expressing the subject and theme of their poem to their audiences.

Body

In “Introduction to Poetry”, Billy Collins uses the first tense to develop a monologue. The monologue is in fact a critique addressed to the

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African-Independent political party movements can be understood in the context of the two-party system era. This is demonstrated by the theory of black electoral participation by Ronald Walter. According to Walter, there are two broad strategies that characterized the nature of African-American participation. These are: dependent leverage; this refers to paternal relationship between the Republican Party and the black political elites after the end of the Reconstruction period. Despite the fact that the Republicans retreated from promoting black policy interests, African-Americans still remained loyal to the party. This was due to lack of viable alternative and easy access to

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White people think that racism is non-existent because there are people in power who are black, influential, and successful people of color. However, this is not the case because there are more poor people who are black in the country. Bob states that there is no racism in the country because of President Obama, Oprah and Beyonce among others who are in power. However, Desmond has held this to be a fallacy because it is a misconception. This is referred to as Tokenistic fallacy where a person may be held tokenistic because they assume that the presence of people

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Black revolution on campus is the definitive account of a strange but forgotten episode of the struggle of black freedom. In the years 1960s, black college students organized protests, reforms, and negotiations that profoundly transformed college life by inclusion of African American programs in the curriculum
The students argued that whether black, white or whatever race one comes from, it is important to educate and teach one on other cultures to learn more about all people on earth. By putting African American programs it acted as assign of fighting racism where the Africans were viewed as important individuals in

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Introduction

The changes African American male students’ face, while joining high school can be quite overwhelming because they have to make some tough decisions that form the foundation of their future as well as having a goal and a vision of how they will graduate (Bloom and Unterum, 2012). African American male students joining high school undergo many changes and among these are physical changes in a new environment filled with new lecturers and new students with a whole range of expectations. New expectations from the teachers and administrators of the school can lead to a resultant perception of the

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Standpoint theory is a theory of the contemporary times that analyzes inter-subjective interaction and communication. This theory is influenced by a number of factors which consequently help in the making up of people’s viewpoints in their routine life. One of the most important aspects of Standpoint theory is that the social groups and social locations play a major role in shaping an individual’s mind and perspectives through different experiences. Factors defining our unique standpoint include viewpoint, perspective, outlook, and position. Our locations within society shape the way in which we understand and communicate with

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The American society today consists of people from all walks of life. Today’s American population is filled by Native Americans, black Americans and immigrants. We are going to look at the steady rise of the American society to what it is today. The three groups are responsible for sparking the rise of the American society. They had to suffer for America to move forward. A good example is the fact that the Native Indians lost their claim to land as the British invaded their lands. Then presidents of America made it illegal for them to own land. African

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Introduction

Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery is a compilation of three essays by psychologist Dr. Na’im Akbar, earlier it was called ‘Chains and Images of Psychological Slavery’. Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery includes specific sections that address to the process to eliminating mental slavery or the ghosts of plantation. Through these essays Dr. Akbar has attempted to develop two ideas; firstly, the psychological impact of slavery. Secondly, the influence that Caucasian images for worship has on the African-American psychology. Dr. Akbar presented a behavioural determinant that according to him doesn’t have great legitimacy in the Western

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Abstract

This study tested if stereotype threat affects people’s choices when answering Implicit Association Test for Race. Stereotype threat is used to describe the psychological phenomenon whereby a negative stereotype about one’s group puts an individual at risk for confirming that negative stereotype (Steele & Aronson, 1995). During President Obama’s inauguration, studies showed that the performance gap between white and black students diminished (Mattimore, 2009). We are interested to know through our study if this change in attitude is reflected by the people’s attitude to the different races as well. Our class gathered 74 participants, 60 females

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The process of stereotyping has done harm to the African-American male's image, in the eyes of their daughters, sons and society at large. African-American men have started to believe the stereotype and as a result are living down to the derogatory and demeaning assumptions about their behavior. The way they comport themselves as fathers, employees and as people come too often as a sarcastic resort to the expectations in the world about them. The news organizations, mass media, clothing manufacturers and other sources of input into society's mainstream have succeeded in rendering African-American males in a stereotypical way that

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Literature Review

The United States profile of HIV prevalence and incidence shows considerable disproportionate distribution of various aspects of the pandemic among male and female population as well as among different races. HIV infection is a serious communicable disease that has necessitated heavy government expenditure in a bid to minimise its incidence and prevalence. Studies have shown that the distribution of HIV prevalence and incidence rates differ between African-Americans and Whites and from one gender to another. Other studies have also sought to determine factors that may have led to this finding.
HIV prevalence has been reported to be higher among

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Contemporary times have seen the African race in the United States referred to as African-Americans. Previously there have emerged numerous terms to describe this race made up of people of African descent. The words, black and Afro-Americans have constantly been used in the recent past. However, this community has come to be widely recognized as the African-Americans. Many writers and radicals in the 60s have defied these polite terms and have constantly used the label Negro and Black. These have however been widely considered racial insults. African-Americans claim their ancestry to captive Africans who were taken up for slavery

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Introduction

The politics of racial representation has always manifested itself in most of the films or shows present in the media scene. According to social scientists, there exist different forms of racism. This includes racism defined in the context of modernism and the traditional racism of segregation. In the traditional perspective, the black Americans were always portrayed to be non-civilized, they only belonged to the fields and the offices were meant for the whites in the United States of America. In addition, it is evident that most of the films have portrayed the black Americans as violent in most episodes.

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1960’s and 1970’s (p. 302)

2-The meaning of renaissance
A revival (p. 302)
3-What black aesthetic entails
In the 1960s a group formed that called themselves the African Community of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCobra). The collaborated in creating a black aesthetic which would respect the traditional culture of Africa, African American culture, and still respect the individual abilities of each artist The elements of black aesthetics include free symmetry, shine, jam-packed and jelly-tight compositions, awesome imagery and Koolaid Color. (p. 322)
4 -Why African American and African cultural inventions were and are referred to as inferior by Europeans.
It was seen as culture coming

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Introduction

Collins challenges the Africans-American to reestablish and start all over again from scratch. She urges them that they should create a progressive black sex politics in this age of new racism. That is this politics should be based upon the diverse fields of the critical and social theories. Collins go ahead to present a work that is so intent and very accessible across all the disciplines that is beyond the academy. She uses rich sources of examples that include the black’s culture and mass media. Together with her notes, she gives her study a greater value that appeals

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There is a biased view in most prestigious universities that regard African American males as pawns instead of academic scholars due to racial based assumptions and stereotypic attitudes. Most individuals with the racism attitudes believe that African Americans are naturally academic dwarfs thus they lack the ability of achieving academically as with the case of their Whites counterparts. This is due to the assumption that Africans are essentially adapted for manual duties but not first class roles that need a sharp brain. According to Wilson, Lena and Félix (205), the mass media plays a crucial role in bringing

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How has the role that African Americans in films developed over time? Beginning with the 1939 period through the modern period, this essay will utilize past films to illustrate the African American actor and how the racism and roles have changed. In the end, this work will have considered past practice, modern policy and future potential for the African American in the film industry.
A film heralded as a portrayal of Southern life, that portrayed the African American in a very racist regard, has been argued to be Gone with the Wind of 1939 (Filmslatemagazine.com 2). This cultural film

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For a long time now, the question as to who is an American has and continues to puzzle many, Perhaps this can be accredited to the rise in the number of immigrants residing in America. Historically, only people of white decent were the only ones who were considered as Americans. Nonetheless, things changed immensely and people of other descents can also be referred to as Americans. Inclusion or being considered an American national does not occur in isolation, but requires one to have been born in American or born to American parents. African Americans occur as a significant proportion

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Introduction

Empowerment can be defined as the process of increasing or raising the capacity of an individual to make choices that will help them realize their goals or outcomes. Empowerment can take the role of a whole organization where the different individuals’ capacity is increased to make better choices that will transform to better lives and desired actions. Increasing the efficiency of an individual to perform a task better means empowering the named individual to realize his/her set out goals. Fairness in organizations is one of the means of empowering the individuals as there is collective improvement in service delivery.

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How did ideas of Black stereotypes and racism become embedded in American culture? What is the impact on contemporary American society?

Introduction

With time, there has been a consequential shifted from to cultural racism biological racism. Previously, most American people held up beliefs of the fact that Blacks were perceived to be biologically inferior and made-by-God inferior. Currently, there are aspects of cultural racism which maintain that most Black parents do not give their children the appropriate values which are often offered for the reason in which the Blacks do not do as well compared to other groups. The paper

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Introduction

Centuries after independence and adoption of civil rights in the United States, racial prejudice has yet to disappear completely. In spite of the numerous efforts put towards elimination of racial mindsets where majority of the white population treats Black Americans and other people of color with prejudice, cases of racial prejudice are still extant in the society. Subtle as it may be, racial prejudice leads to far reaching psychosocial, socioeconomic and even physical consequences. Modern racism is experience in various spheres of life, including legal and employment decisions, group problem-solving and normal day to day interactions in which ethnic

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Introduction

A Raisin in the sun is a play written and directed by an African American woman and produced on stage. The play was produced for the first on stage in 1959 to depict the struggles of African American in the struggle to claim the American dream of the 1950s. The cast is made up of a young family living in Washington Park of Chicago’s neighborhood. The main characters in the play are Walter Younger, Ruth Younger, Travis Younger, Lena Younger, Beneatha Younger, Joseph Asagai and George Murchison among many others. The plot is a mixture of African American

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Abstract

Preterm birth is the main cause of infant mortality in the world and in the United States, research shows that African American women are at a higher risk giving preterm birth than women from other races and ethnicities. The purpose of this research is to investigate one of the contributing factors to the observed high preterm birth rates among African American women and this is nutrition. The research aims to find out whether lack of nutrition education contributes to the observed high levels of preterm birth rates among this class of citizens. The research will be conducted on a

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Affiliated Institution:

Ethnic Studies
Ethnic Studies was created so that people of colour this include African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Latino-Americans, could share their history, and achievements in their own way. In this paper I will discuss the origin of slavery and its abolition in America.
Most African-Americans are descendants of slaves that were captured mostly in West Africa and sold to Americans who owned cotton and sugar cane plantations. The Europeans did not introduce slavery in Africa, it was in existence for thousands of years they just exploited it. The captured slaves were completely cut off from family, friends and the life

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Bikinis, full lips, thin waists, gyrations – the black woman in a rap video is usually one of many, surrounding the male rapper in question with a stable of women he implicitly has sexual command over. This is the image that is often found in most rap videos, at least as far as women are concerned. Due to the exclusive and alienating nature of a substantial portion of these images, representation has turned into misrepresentation, as many people use these portrayals to characterize the entirety of African-American femaleness in an incorrect and unflattering way. Joan Morgan, in her essay “from

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African-American Crops in America: An Overview

The wide range of food crops was directly brought from Africa throughout the transatlantic slave trade. These staple foods were eaten by enslaved African-American. The foods were blended with meat and fish, or with the palm oil.  The meals used by the African-Americans comprised of black-eyed peas, okra, callaloo, seasoned with pepper and salt.
Other food crops from the African continent included peanuts, sorghum, melon, watermelon, yams, and sesame. These harvests were incorporated into the mainstream American foodways and were a well-known major ingredient found in the original cookbooks written by local Southern Americans. All through the period, though,

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1877 Compromise and Disenfranchising the African American Workers

In South, Blacks got freedom but they never gained equality. Despite radical attempts of Republicans during Reconstruction, southern blacks struggled with unemployment, illiteracy and poverty. With waning reconstruction efforts condition of free men further worsened. With closing of Freedmen’s Bureau, restriction on voting like literacy tests and poll taxes further proliferated and racist violence further spread. In 1880, Discrimination in southern states intensified after passing of Jim Crow Laws. This law started to segregate public accommodations like steamboats, trains, schools and streetcars, and Blacks were forbidden or restricted to access

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Question 1: Hartman's family from my point of view will be classified as a middle class African-American family. The fact that the lineage of James is from the black community supports the classification as an African-American. There are several other major points that help classify this family as a middle class black family. The culture of the family, the community, the spirituality and the fact that James always fights for the black people in his community all support the fact that he is an African-American. The religious input of the Hartman's family is another supporting point towards being of

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For decades, historians have debated the role of racism in the development of African slavery in colonial Virginia. Some argue racism was the sole cause for the advent of slavery while others maintain that while racism existed in Virginia, economic motives played a more decisive factor. Using “Race, Gender, and Servitude in Virginia Law (1661-1691)” from Speaking of America, 27-32 by Laura Belmonte as evidence, this essay will prove that African American slavery was the sole cause of racism.
Before the introduction of African American slavery, both white and black servants occupied an almost equal position in their master’

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Introduction

Before 1890s most places in the Southern America had only a rudimentary public school system. However, after the Civil War, the southern states established a dual system of education that was based on race. All these separate schools were just the same (Smithsonian, n. d.).
However, the commitment by the African American parents and teachers never faltered towards education. They formed a tradition of self-help education and they were among those first southerners who campaign for the establishment of a universal public education. They actively supported the Freedmen’s Bureau, missionary societies, and white charities. In addition, the black

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The environmental justice movement in the United States was led by the civil rights churches which poured much of its resources and efforts into the environmental movement. This was as a result of the realization by the Church that environmental protection and justice were just but expressions of some of their social engagement. This movement was known as the religious environmental movement since the church was a central figure in the whole movement. Indeed, in recent times, theologians have developed the term” eco-justice” to mean or reflect a universal aspiration for the right relationship between man and earth. This

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Introduction

Relations between the U.S. federal government and African American and Latino communities have always between an important concern both for governmental politics, and African American and Latino leadership. The important role in federal politics belongs to considering African American and Latino community issues. Relevant policies are also being implemented at the state level in close cooperation with advocacy organizations. Differences in political agendas of African American and Latino leadership call forth considerable difficulties for federal government, which looks forward to running unified policies in terms of its relations with minorities. Furthermore, topicality of addressing the differences under study stems

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Group 8 Week 10 Outline (Walker 1997)

Complaints against the Police: A Focus Group Study of Citizen Perceptions, Goals, and Expectations
- Purpose
- What do the citizens want to accomplish with their complaints against the police?
- Does the law enforcement citizen complaint process accurately address the citizens concerns?
- Citizen complaints against Police misconduct
- Law Enforcement misconduct is a prevalent issue in America.
- Civil Rights groups such as the NAACP and ACLU complain that minorities are victims of repeated extreme physical and verbal abuse by the police
- African Americans are less likely than White’s to have their complaints addressed.
-

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Challenges of homelessness and drug addiction are common in the contemporary society. Jeff Schonberg and Philippe Bourgois researched on heroin injectors and crack smokers in san Francisco. These scholars noted that the drug addicts in the streets of San Francisco generated income through panhandling, day labor, burglary and recycling. The model of collecting information included the use of black and white photographs, field notes, theoretical analysis and vivid dialogue. It is noted that drug addicts isolate themselves from the mainstream society because they lived in their own self-made cocoons. The “inhabitus” are sharply segregated, and their activities mainly trigger

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The Harlem Renaissance was a vital time for both American and International culture. With a profound impact on the entire world the works of Hughes, Cullen and Hurston are particularly poignant of the period. This essay will examine the period known as the Harlem Renaissance and the impact that all three of these artists had on the fabric of American culture.
The Harlem Renaissance was a widespread movement that sought to include the whole of the African-American cultural heritage (Ogbar 250). Centered in Harlem, New York this phenomenon spanned continents and oceans to bring enlightenment to the cause of

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“The ultimate power is our mental power, our consciousness, our awareness.” (Na’im 2008) The preceding quote is from the book Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery written by Dr. Na’im Akbar a professor and psychologist. He is referring to the three pathways he believes African Americans can use to strengthen their power in America. The reason African Americans need to reach their ‘ultimate power’ is to fight the psychological wounds that slavery has left on black-skinned Americans whose ancestors were kidnapped from Africa and forced into slavery on American Southern plantations. The main challenge of reaching a

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Introduction

For many years, scholars have strived to develop analytical modalities, which identify and engineer analytical thoughts, aimed to compare racial formations in relation to race scholarship. Unlike racial formation construct that identifies and groups communities based on prior modalities, race scholarship approach focuses on the universality and historical similarities of different communities in the world. In essence, racial scholarship approach holds the view that there exist commonalities among communities of color across different cultures; that is premised on racial and ethnic solidarity coupled with homogeneity and historical similarity of the people. Although prior modalities provide an insight of the

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Racism has been embedded in the American culture for the longest time possible. People of color and those deemed not to show the white people facial features, have been marginalized in the society. Looking back at the history of America where the government enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act. This Act meant that the Chinese had to be put in reserves so as to keep them away from becoming US citizens (Fisher and Shane 2). This act of segregation illustrates how the white race have oppressed other races for over 200 years. This paper will look at how institutional racism

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ANGELA DAVIS

Women and Gender Studies – Angela Davis
As Professor Emerita at the University of California (UC) Santa Cruz, Dr. Angela Davis' appointment to the UC Presidential Chair in African American and Feminist Studies places her as one of the foremost experts in this field. Davis' theory advocating the abolition of American prisons arises from her decades, stance as a member of the American Communist Party aligned with women, racial, and prisoners' rights. As a feminist thinker, according to Mendieta, Davis' views provide "some of the most transformative and enduring texts of the last quarter of a century." At the same

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