Compare and Contrast Essay “You just can't beat the person who never gives up” (Ruth). “Liars Don’t Qualify” written by Junius Edwards and “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” written by Maya Angelou are two stories about characters persevering through negative racist attitudes displayed towards them. In both stories the characters get pushed down by the white characters around them, and have to choose how they react to the society around them. Through an exploration of racist attitudes, this essay will demonstrate that perseverance plays a pivotal role in staying true to core beliefs even in the face of systemic racism. “Liars Don’t Qualify” by Edwards follows the story of Will Harris, an african-american army veteran who arrives at the registering …show more content…
Margaret was a slave that had lots of compassion for her owner, Mrs. Cullinan. Margaret worked very hard for Mrs. Cullinan until she felt disrespected by her. Mrs. Cullinan’s friend decided to change Margaret’s name to Mary, which Margaret felt stripped her of her identity. “I was angry all the way to the kitchen” (Angelou 2). Margaret was told to preserve through her discomfort and the slaves around her tried to diminish her feelings by telling her it was not a big deal. In the end of her story, Margaret could not hold back her emotions and decided to break glasses in order to get …show more content…
Harris chose to answer every single question to the best of his ability even though he knew they were being unfair and cruel. He was honest even when he knew it was not the path that would get him to his goal in the simplest way. “‘Yes, sir,’ Will said, knowing that was the wrong answer” (Edwards 8). Similarly, Margaret was told multiple times that she should let go of her negative feelings towards her boss for changing her name. Margaret decided to stay true to herself and try to find a way out of the condition she was currently in. “I had to leave the job, but the problem was going to be how to do it” (Angelou 2). Both Harris and Margaret decided that it was more important to stay true to themselves than impress those around them. If they both did not preserve in the face of the racism they experienced, they would not have stories to tell. What makes them great is that they stood up for
When somebody does something bad or illegal, there are consequences; Whether it results in karma, punishments, or even a jail sentence, these consequences are solely based upon our actions, or, at least we would hope. In the book Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, we learn that our actions do have repercussions, but we also learn that those of which we receive can be unjust and biased. The memoir follows the true story of Pattillo Beals, one of the nine original black students to integrate into Little Rock Central High School, in 1957 Arkansas. Throughout her journey, she and her fellow colored peers receive relentless hate and unjust treatment from both students and school staff. Minnijean is Melba's closest friend in the group.
Humans are diverse, and although many share similarities, they all have differences. These differences may be difficult for some people to accept, which leads to prejudice towards those who are different. In the memoir, Warriors Don’t Cry, written by Melba Pattillo Beals, Beals reveals the many obstacles she faced attending Central High, a now integrated school, as an African American in 1957. Everywhere she went, hateful words were thrown at her, but she persevered and did not let ignorant students get to her. Some might say those who suffer from discrimination become weaker and develop anger within them.
In the book “Black Like Me” by Howard Griffin, a journalist goes through the times of the 1950s where blacks were not treated equally. In this book Griffin turns himself black with chemicals prescribed by a doctor and lives the life of a negro. He then leaves his family, and starts his journal accounts of his negro life. In this book Griffin changes his perspective of how negroes really were, despite what he learned from others. During his journey he faced many hardships, sufferings, and inequalities.
This argument debunked the discriminatory myth of African Americans as a merciless and power-crazy race. It is amazing how the writers as black citizens, who are branded by their enemies(whites) as lowly unruly savages, successfully made their enemies appear as the lawless and savage
Emotion has a way of worming through shields and walls, penetrating even the most guarded heart. No matter how stubborn and unrelenting one may be, emotion is even more stubborn and unrelenting. “There are those… like a mighty stream,” (MLK, pg. 263). The way MLK phrases what he wanted to say thunders loudly, rings clearly and boldly. Delving into detail of how the Negro is specifically suffering a loss of dignity and self importance by the segregation that treats them like petty animals, being herded, speaks much more loudly than simply stating that Negroes are degraded and treated poorly.
This was the rise of her knowledge of discrimination amongst blacks and the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement for Anne. Through all of life’s hardships, she always found a purpose and kept her head held
Injustice is a prevailing theme in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Tubman, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, Spider Woman’s Web by Susan Hazen-Hammond and Great Speeches by Native Americans by Bob Blaisdell; the diligence of several characters in these stories and narratives has made it possible for them to preserve and overcome injustices. The United States has not always been a land of the free; white settlers destroyed the meaning of freedom when they stole lands from the indigenous people. Freedom was also destroyed when black people in America were not treated as full human beings. Despite of the many obstacles the oppressed faced, their thirst for freedom and determination led them to
“She would impart to me gems of Jim Crow wisdom” (Wright 2). In “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” Richard Wright, speaks of his own experiences growing up in the half century after slavery ended, and how the Jim Crow laws had an effect on them. Wright’s experiences support the idea that a black person could not live a life relatively free of conflict even if they adhered to the ethics of Jim Crow. The first experience that Wright describes came when he was only a young boy living in Arkansas. He and his friends had been throwing cinder blocks and they found themselves in a ‘war’ against a group of white boys.
Has one ever wondered if racism will ever end because it seems no matter how many years go by, it will live on forever? Luckily there are people in this world who are willing to fight for what is right just like Atticus Finch. In the To Kill a Mockingbird passage, in which Atticus ends the court case with a powerful statement where he is defending Tom Robinson, a black man in the southern state of Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s, Author Harper Lee uses irony and imagery to help develop the theme that the color of people’s skin does not define them as a person and does not automatically make them an awful and guilty person. To commence, Lee uses irony to establish the theme that one can not automatically be guilty because of the color of their
The abundant value of her provocative, concerning memoir is in exploring the psychological impact that racism could make on an individual, spreading a stain of self-doubt and self-hatred that, shared with lack of opportunities, abets black people in collectively destroying themselves all together. Drugs and violence, the disintegration of families and a range of other social difficulties are traced back to this common afflicted root. In Men We Reaped, Ward grapples with the self-condemnation: “We tried to ignore it, but sometimes we caught ourselves repeating what history said, mumbling along, brainwashed: I am nothing. We drank too much, smoked too much, were abusive to ourselves, to each other. We were bewildered.”
Racism was a huge problem that started slavery, causing the civil war. Not, only- but also, The enslaved people were constantly disrespected in the south and would get beaten if they didn’t live up to the southern standards. When Frederick Douglas wrote “all men are created equal,” equally important, He wanted to challenge the reader’s beliefs of what “All men are created equal” means. Subsequently, He tries to challenge this by discussing his experiences as an enslaved person. With the purpose of,
While attending college in Mississippi, Anne Moody had the opportunity to do something about the racial injustices she had experienced throughout her life. She saw the biases and disparities in wealth, services, and rights that separated Black people from white people. She also saw how Black people were treated compared to white people. Anne was also disgusted with Black people. She felt that they did not do enough to stand up to the injustices against them from the whites.
“Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason”(Abraham Joshua Heschel). This quote relates to the story because in the story “How it feels to be colored me” by Zora Neale Hurston she uses pathos and ethos to relay the theme that being black is not an obstacle. In “how it feels to be colored” By Zora Neale Hurston she use pathos to suggest that being black is not an obstacle. When discussing her thoughts on racism, Zora Neale Hurston persuades the reader through emotion.
All of her children were sold except for one because she was considered a defect since she couldn’t talk. The reason all her children were sold because of Margaret who just wanted, “‘new furniture, new china dishes… things she didn’t even need”’ (Butler 95). Margaret finally saw how the slaves on the property felt when their kids are taken away from them. Margaret had twins, but they, ‘“died one after the other... she went kind of crazy’”
The revolutionary Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, once described discrimination as “a hellbound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.” His point being that African Americans face racial discrimination on a daily basis. Brent Staples, being an African American living in America, expresses his view on the subject in his essay “Just Walk on By”, where he conveys the message of how fear is influenced by society's stereotypical and discriminating views of certain groups of people; his point is made clear through his sympathetic persona, descriptive diction, depressing tone, and many analogies. Staples sympathetic persona helps the reader feel and understand the racial problems that he experiences daily.