Essays on Blackness

Introduction

Racism refers to the act of distinguishing the superiority or otherwise of members belonging to a particular race and discriminating them based on their appearance and perceived characteristics. Depending on the language and the characters that writers choose to use while writing stories, a text may propagate racism by including characters that reflect certain races as inferior while also portraying other characters perceived as representing other races as superior. Accordingly, the manner in which scholars portray racism in their stories may differ from one’s personal prejudices to the period when the story was written. Ultimately, the extent of ...

Question One

In Invisible Man, it is only when the narrator realizes and embraces his invisibility that he turns alive in his own eyes. Then he sees "the darkness of lightness" (6), sense "the Blackness of Blackness" (9), feel the exhilaration of the blues and experiences the visibility of invisibility. Through recognizing the blackness in blackness, the invisible man evokes and invokes the aesthetic of the blues. By remembering the death of Lighting Hopkins, Mackey appropriately signifies on the foundation of the blues. Ellison's narrative also articulates linguistic musicality, as his narrator signs of the invisibility. In the 60 years span ...

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For many years, people have associated Shakespearean plays with racial prejudices, mabe in an effort to determine whether Shakespeare was a racist or not. Shakespeare’s use of characters of color has raised controversies an curiosity on what role does race contributes to his plays. It should be noted that racism or the belief that one’s race is superior to another was already observed in 16th century Europe. It was during this time when Europeans become increasingly engaged with people of different racial origins through greater trade with Asia and Africa and the discovery of the ...

Over centuries, white supremacy always put domination on those who were fair-skinned than those who were black. There was white privilege that put the white ones ahead in freedom, opportunities and rights to the point that the black ones were left behind to be treated more as slaves, mainly because they lacked the higher value of having white skin color. This was the dehumanization of African peoples even in the United States, in which they were reduced to the status of a chattel just for the sake of enslavement, as well as, economic exploitation. There was white supremacy for ...

Irene Lou in Passing by Nella Larsen (1929) Irene is the protagonist in the novel, Passing, by Nella Larsen that was written in 1929. The novel has three sections and Irene features all through, with her childhood friend, Clare. Clare is married to Jack, who does not know that she is black because is too light-skinned, just like Irene (Larsen and Kaplan).The light-skinned black ladies pass for whites, and Irene is critical of Clare's efforts to be white. At some point, she breaks off all communication with her, including tearing Clare's letters without reading them when she learned ...

One of the leading trends in the economic theory of crime and punishment has become an economic analysis of organized crime. Prohibition era has led to an increase in crime and the formation of a huge number of organized criminal groups of black and significant enrichment of crime. "The condemnation of blackness" examines what constitutes a crime as a socio-economic institution, what are the economic characteristics of its functioning, how it affects society and what are the laws of its evolution. The segregation of the black population has forced many of them to go to the North. From 1913 ...

The observations and the conclusions Fanon made are typically valid to the Antilles. This essay, then pinpoints specific areas that prove this particular thesis of this renowned writer. These areas are in reflection of what is in his book. The Negro and the language, about the woman of color as well as the man of white color, also the book talk about the alleged reliance complexities of the colonized and the actuality of the being a Black, the acknowledgment of the Negroes and the psychopathology of the Blacks. In this regards, Fanon streamlined these points and drew excellent observations ...

Frederick Hoffman as well as Nathaniel Shaler, two of the early defenders of exploratory bigotry, were more critical of setting up race associations in the United States than the more considered, yet less mainstream, artists at the time such as Mary White Ovington or even W. E. B. DuBois. In spite of the fact that a few liberals endeavored to dismiss natural determinism instead of focusing on carrying out healing undertakings, even Franz Boas considered blacks to be mediocre, whereas Gunnar Myrdal diminished the significance of segregation amongst the police as well as law benches in the improvement of ...

Introduction

The African American culture is complex and multifaceted. It was derived from numerous cultures in Africa and, later, from the Caribbean Islands. The African-American blackness is a product of at least five interconnected dimensions (Hooks 109). The first dimension is racial. A person’s race is a genetic characteristic that relates to their continent of origin. The African-American label was derived from the fact that the blacks originally came from Africa. The second dimension is ethnic. It’s based on a presupposition of a common culture and a similar biological descent. In this regard, African Americans were expected to ...

In the poem “Gwendolyn Brooks” (1969), Madhubuti describes the acclaim that Brooks received in this predominately “whites only” publishing edifice. The speaker in “Gwendolyn Brooks” inveighs against Brook’s reception by white literati. Mudhubuti states sardonically, “a whi-te critical said: /’she’s a credit to the Negro race.’” All through the 1960s, Brooks gains a large black readership. In this context, her; largely connects Brooks’ evolution from a “Negro poet” to the black aesthetic that emerged in the 1960s. The second stanza, in which Madhubuti presents the explosive nature of this black aesthetic, begins with the words, “into ...

I am Asian-American. The moment I set my foot last week on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 10:30 AM, into Starbucks at Maple Tree Place, VT ("Maple Tree Place") I was simply conspicuous. The place was awash with white, old, faces, all enjoying a rare moment of peaceful calm which seemed (I so noticed as I came closer to Starbucks before I got in) to dawn upon all in late morning hours when working people are in office or busy rushing by, sparsely. I was youngest of all as well. The combination of blackness and youngness made me a perfect contrast ...

Space in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Voyage to the Moon and Space is the Place

Space-based science fiction has mined a great deal of symbolic and subtextual meaning out of the vastness of space. At once, space has been something to fear and aspire to, and respect in all instances. Three of the most fascinating cinematic portrayals of space have their own unique spins on the black void of the cosmos – Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey paints space as a mysterious frontier that both threatens the very existence of humanity and heralds its ascension to a new level of consciousness. Georges Melies’ 1902 silent film Voyage to the Moon advances Jules Verne’ ...

Within the frameworks of the art course conducted for us the main focus is put on the course book named “Living with art” by Mark Getlein. The book provides a thorough, fairly detailed but at the same time briefed representation of the key pillars, principles and points of art. Therefore, reading of the book generates an overall picture of artistic theory in the mind of the reader, so that even a person vaguely acquainted with the world of art and its theory is supposed to master those bases and apply them to their understanding and feeling of beauty.

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The most influential factor, which has formed the Cuban culture, was Cuba’s racial diversity. All the course texts are about Cuban races and the question of gender and race equality in Cuba. Some texts, such as “Sugar’s Secret”, “Our Rightful Share” and “Marriage, Class and Color in Nineteenth Century Cuba” describe some specific spheres of Cuban culture and life. Nevertheless, they all highlight the importance of the multi-rational factor in the development of modern Cuban society. Texts “Nationalizing Cuba” and “Cuban Color in Tourism” give more information about Cuban culture even though they are all devoted to ...

Introduction

The short story Country’s Lovers by Nadine Gordimer and the poem What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl by Patricia Smith are masterpieces in terms of their content and the themes that both pieces present to the readers. The overarching theme within both stories is the plight of the black woman in her social life. Country’s Lovers for example explains the vulnerability of the black woman in her romantic life. On the other hand, Smith’s poem explains the social hardships experienced by the black woman right from her tender age. This shows that there are ...

I love swimming and would spend all my summer afternoons in the ocean or a swimming pool nearby. It is not because I found myself doing that because I have this inner drive and passion for it. I always look forward to my next swimming sessions, and I get this urge to jump into any pool of water I see near me. Just like Didion writes to find out what she is thinking about, looking at, and the meanings of what she sees, I also swim because I want to see whether I am a better swimmer than I was yesterday. ...

Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi” is a story jeweled with lofty ideologies about religion, faith and morality. Martel institutes the character of Pi, providing a rich context of character progression through his tumultuous experiences at the ocean developing him to be morally intact and mature. Pi’s extraordinary story highlights his inner struggles to stay sane and morally intact, making him victorious and become a fully developed man afterwards. The experiences of Pi in the sea with a Bengal man-eating tiger is no joke. In fact, his extreme experiences test his sanity and faith as he battles for survival. Pi experiences the ...

I set out to document the Haitian American culture which is representative of one of the many cultures within my family. My father is of Haitian descent. of my Dad. He is a Haitian American, born and raised in Bronx, New York in 1970. Both of hHis parents were born in Haiti and migrated into to America in the 1960s. Hewas born July 11, 1970. The culture of a person is extremely vitalCulturally identity is important especially, especially when one experiences migrationmigrates from their homeland to another country. and into America. It is more interesting to learn about the culture of ...

A few years after Doris Lessing’s wrote the Grass is Singing, Richard Wright releases yet one of the most compelling novel the depicts the story of an African American fugitive slave—The Man in the Underground (1945). In this novel, the lead character, Fred Daniels attempts to escape from a corrupt history and a corrupt society. From a privileged house servant, Fred Daniels character develops into an underground criminal. In the course of Daniel’s journey, Wright reveals a layer of racism above ground. This novel is also quite similar to Ralph Elison’s Invisible Man. However, Wright argues more about slavery ...

Edgar Alan Poe is an American author, poet, essayist, literary critic and editor. He is considered to be one of the representatives of the American Romanticism, the inventor of the detective fiction genre. His works contributed to the emergence of the genre of science fiction. Edgar Poe is best known for his spine-tingling and mysterious horror stories and poems. The Pit and the Pendulum is one of Poe’s famous short stories that was published in 1842. The narrator of the story is a survivor of the torture and torment in the condemned cell at Toledo – the Spanish Inquisition ...

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Examining Bell Hook’s Contribution to Debates About Gender and Race

Introduction The dawn of the 20th century paved the way for the second wave of feminist where Bell Hooks or otherwise Gloria Jean Watkins emerged as among the most renowned thinkers that contributed to the debates about gender and race. Among the most notable contributions to gender and race debates are the theories that provided the standpoint for feminists. The myriad of claims encompassing in the debates on gender and race states that knowledge is something that is socially situated in ways that marginal members of the society particularly women can be made ...

Esi Edugyan’s novel Half Blood Blues, with its tale of mixed-race characters, jazz, and Nazi Germany, focuses chiefly on the presence of ‘undesirables’ – people who the status quo rejects in some form or another. In the case of 1939 Berlin, people of non-white descent (such as the half-white Hiero Falk) were targeted for elimination and arrest. This left others who could mask their ‘undesirability’ (such as the lighter-skinned Sid Griffiths) to have an easier time escaping the horrors of World War II and Nazism. Many things are mixed in Half Blood Blues, as its title suggests – races are ...

- Cole and Birdie speak Elemeno, a language named after their favorite letters in the alphabet, "with no verb tenses, no pronouns, just words floating outside time and space, without owner or direction" (p. 6). What purpose does this language serve? How does Elemeno reflect the sisters' positions in their family and in the world? Why does Elemeno continue to be so important to Birdie throughout the novel? The language that the sisters share determines their connection with each other. Considering that they share a special bond as sisters, both Cole and Birdie could understand each other that seem to ...

How does the Toni Morrison, in “The Bluest Eyes,” develop the character of Pecola so as to expose and attack “racial self-loathing” in the black community?

In the novel, “The Bluest Eye,” Toni Morrison exposes and attacks racial self-loathing in the black community through her main character, Pecola. Pecola is depicted as a black girl. However, she is white at her heart. Pecola has self-loathing that gets worsen as the novel goes on. When the clerk of a store completely ignores her, for the first time, she gets the knowledge of her blackness. She tries to wash it away as ...

When a person thinks about the treatment of women in Shakespeare’s Othello in historical terms, that thinking would lead us to the understanding of the role of women in the time and context that the play was written, in Elizabethan England, where women were subservient to men, who ran the society. Even during the time of the play’s first production, women were barred from being actors and men played those characters. There is a marginalization of both women, and of minorities within the play and Othello is rife with instances of it both being portrayed. It is important ...

America is a diverse country with different colored people scatter all over different states. It has a long history of colonialism and cultural evolution. When thinking of terms like “colored” or “race”, our first mind may often come with African Americans. Perhaps the civil war or the civil right movement has marked a huge monument in the American history, it has ended the injustice and cruel treatment of people living in the same country who supposed to be united. The slavery and the segregation were abolished; the hanging trees and violence were all over. However, racism still exists through stereotype causing by ...

Book Review - Representing Black Britain: Black and Asian Images on Television

Book Review - Representing Black Britain: Black and Asian Images on Television The experience gained by Sarita Malik in the course of her career makes her the ideal candidate to write a book dealing with this social issue. Being a scholar involved with both the professional and the academic sphere, Malik’s term at BBC provides the reader with essential insight into the decision-making process behind the scenes of one of the most significant media outlets in the world. Malik’s style of writing varies considerably from the large group of scholars who write objectively from a distance, fulfilling the ...

In the wake of the height of colonialism and imperialism on the world stage, in which it was socially acceptable for more powerful social and economic powers to control less powerful nations, post-colonialism as an academic discipline has risen. Here, the issues surrounding colonialism and their effects on modern society are investigated in depth, emphasizing the human consequences of these cultural legacies. Through the help of theorists such as Chinua Achebe, Barbara Christian, and Henry Louis Gates, post-colonial criticism seeks to investigate exactly why certain subcultures (usually pertaining to race and gender) have certain connotations attached to them, and ...

Critical Mixed Race Theory

When the question of mixed race is brought up, it comes with complications to the existent black/white double system. The Critical Mixed Race Theory would give race a new way of being theorized but people of mixed races have lived under the same existent social and political dimensions. The way that mixed races have been viewed socially and how racism has primarily been a black/white issue, has made the mixed races be a direct receiver of the racist perception. When an individual of mixed race has had to identify him or herself by verifying how equal the whiteness and blackness is, they ...

For those with the eyes to look far past the Presidency, now in the hands of an African-American man, there is still an impending crisis within the U.S.; that is, an existing movement that continues to use Blaxploitation films as a means to accurately portray representative characterizations of African Americans. Although we are now well into the 21st century, this has been an on-going problem that was first put to society’s attention by Ossie Davis. "Cotton Comes to Harlem" is one such movie that achieved legendary status, when it was released in 1970. By some, it is even considered a ‘ ...

1) Marlon Riggs uses gumbo as a recurring metaphor or theme in his film to describe blackness. He had borrowed this phrase from his grandmother and uses it as a motif representation of the African Americans. This is applicable in both Cornel West and Stuart Hall in that both of them offer a specific analysis in the suggestion of the Black with violence and fear. These theories of both the Black people and the dominant white culture make it hard for the African race to access and hold on to their own civilization. The issue of patriarchy estranges the African Americans ...

Objectification according to the word web dictionary definition refers to a concrete representation of an abstract or an idea or principle. Immigrants are people who move to foreign countries and live there permanently and people of color are the non white skin, like blacks and Indians. Objectification has diverse meanings. Some schools of thought, Luke Muehlhauser for instance, maintain that objectification refers to the act of treating others as a means to an end, without being keen on their goals feelings and preferences. With objectification, not only is vivid the fact that the overall change of culture will not solely ...

Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the most influential and well-known artists in modern American history. Her unique vision and her ability to expressly capture the environments and objects she paints are well-renowned, as well as her capacity to bring evocative feminist messages through in her works. Ever since her discovery in New York in 1916, she has existed as one of the most integral female artists in the world, providing a uniquely feminine voice to art long before women were able to successfully break in a major way into the art community. Her unique and vivid style is exemplified in the ...

William Shakespeare’s Othello is a story of the tragic consequences of pride and belief put into the wrong people. It appears that even though the whole deviant scheme was Iago’s doing, eventually, it is the actions of this possessory and skeptical husband that seal the faith of both participants in their disastrous marital experiment. Despite the fact that all of the catastrophic events are the result of his lack of faith in his wife, his strengths and flaws are not easily weighed, as he elicits in readers both a feeling of anger at his erroneous choices, as well as ...

Book Review: Black Power on Campus: The University of Illinois, 1965-75

In Joy Ann Williamson's Black Power on Campus: The University of Illinois, 1965-75, the author charts an interesting time in higher education, as the Civil Rights Movement and its aftermath began to be felt on college campuses, integrating black and white students. The Black student movement at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was a perfect example of that phenomenon, as black students doubled in enrollment during this decade. Mostly white universities experienced the most dramatic increase in enrollment, creating a new black presence in the student body reflective of the need of American schools to accept a more racially diverse world. ...

Shakespeare’s Protests against Institutional Racism in Elizabethan England

Othello is not the only play in the Shakespearean canon that features racism, and it certainly is not the only play that challenges social mores. Whether it’s the feisty Beatrice, in Much Ado About Nothing, turning social convention on its head, in the sense that women were supposed to be prim and proper in Elizabethan England, when she wows Benedick with her powerful desire to save Hero, or whether it’s the Jew Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, endowed with many of the physical characteristics associated with the worst stereotypes associated with members of his religion but ...

In France, studies of the black Madonna started way back in 1937. This initial study was first done by Marie Durand and later by Emile Saillens in 1945. Important studies on the black image were later done by Leonard Moss in 1952 at the American Association for Advancement of Science. This later study had a strong history of miracles. Moss had various samples from across the world which were placed in three categories; the first category was of black or dark brown Madonnas with regard to the pigmentation of the indigenous people. The second category included forms of art that had ...