Ch.1 and 2 Even the Rat was White
Common components of a reflection paper include:
1. The writer's reaction to the topic (introduction)
2. Feelings associated with that reaction (body)
3. Analysis of why the writer reacted this way (conclusion)
In the chapters, “The Noble Savage” and Science and Brass Instruments and Dark Skins, both chapters have opened up my eyes. Being sociology major, my classes often talk about race and ethnicity often. Being able to listen and read about what has happened in history is quite interesting. It is important to understand what happened and is happening today. To be able to be a part in the sociology department is a privilege. My thoughts on these chapters are to show people what really has happened. I hope one day people
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It is interesting to know how people’s views and opinions were in the past. If we were to think like that, people would call us crazy. As we all know, having a different color than someone not like you is a big deal. I cannot believe some believed Africans had a special skin layer that turned black birth; women were who had painted their bodies with black paint exerted a prenatal influence on the color of their offspring. That sentence in the book blew me away. I guess if people do not understand, they make assumptions which majority of people still does today. Not only do I feel sympathy for black race, but also the white race. I am from the white race, and it makes me so upset. Just because I am white does not mean I am who the rest of the white people were in the past. I have been told white superioty came into effect is when the Irish were treated poorly. I do not think people understand what happened before race became an issue. Other than that, I cannot believe there were all the different types of devices for the black race and the white race. It irritates me that based on your hair texture, or your lips you are one race. Often times, people have many familiar figures. The comparative
In the essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”, author Zora Neale Hurston writes to an American audience about having maturity and self-conscious identity while being an African American during the early 1900’s through the 1920’s Harlem Renaissance. Hurston expresses and informs her audience about how she does not see herself as a color, and instead sees herself as all she is made up of on the inside. Her primary claim is that she is not “tragically colored” and she should not have a single care about how the world reminds her of how she should act about her race. Her essay chronicles her personal experiences in being an unapologetically colored woman and creates the argument that she should not ever feel self-pity for being black. She utilizes her personal anecdotes and weaves them with metaphors, analogies, and rhetorical questions in order to create an immersive experience for the reader. Furthermore, Hurston engages the reader with her slightly sarcastic, strong, and blissfully positive tone effectively creates a way with words that communicate her claims in an entertaining way.
Throughout the novel it is apparent that everyday instances of racism occur, causing people of color to feel outcasted. There are two very obvious occasions where this happened. In the first instance two African American woman are in a workspace of primarily all white co-workers. When a woman they worked with got these two names mixed up, it was stated that she had a “fifty-fifty chance of getting it right” insinuating that these two women are the only black ones working here. Later, the woman who had the mix-up with the names wrote an apology note; however, in the note she stated it was “our mistake” and seemingly put part of the blame on the to women. This is a primary example of how African Americans can be thrown against a white background making them seem different than everyone else.
The reason I chose this book was because the title jumped up at me and my curiosity was aroused. I wanted to find out more about it. I was also drawn to the fact that the book was based on a true story. True stories interest me a lot and I instantly knew that I wanted to read this book. I also noticed that the book was a best seller and sold thousands of copies. As I read this book I’m glad that I choose it because it broadened my perspective on racism and the lengths that an individual is willing to go to in order to personally experience or understand a situation. This book has clearly
Reading the content in this book made me get a picture of what it was like to be a colored person in this time. My eyes were opened to the meaning of the word “nigga”. Nigga is such a derogatory term, yet now-a-days it is used by people so much. Kids in this generation use it as a term of endearment when they see their friends, or they say it when they are shocked by something. Frankly, I don’t believe they know how serious it really is. The fact that white people could look at a person and see less than a human being when they did nothing wrong distresses me. They (white people) treated them as if they were property and below them. Even though we don’t have racism to this extent
At points though, he goes into too much depth. When at Howard University he did not need to go in as much depth as he did about meeting women. Although this did show that there was a wide range of diversity on campus, it was not necessary to get across his point of the endangerment or struggles of African Americans. Also, since the book was published in 2015, while an African American President was in office, he could have discussed more of the similarities and differences between his childhood and the present day racial
A lack of self-awareness tended the narrator’s life to seem frustrating and compelling to the reader. This lack often led him to offer generalizations about ““colored” people” without seeing them as human beings. He would often forget his own “colored” roots when doing so. He vacillated between intelligence and naivete, weak and strong will, identification with other African-Americans and a complete disavowal of them. He had a very difficult time making a decision for his life without hesitating and wondering if it would be the right one.
The author of the novel, James McBride, shows how being biracial affected him throughout his life. When James was younger his racial identity caused many situations that made him favor the black side and feel ashamed of his mother. An example of James’ racial encounter is when he says “I could see it in the faces of the white people who stared at me and Mommy and my siblings when we rode the subway, sometimes laughing at us, pointing, muttering things like, ‘look at her with those little niggers’” (31). This is important because it shows how it made him realize that people were being cruel to them because his mom was a different skin color than them. James then states “I thought it would be easier if we were just one color, black or white. I didn’t want to be white… I
What if we could walk in each other’s shoes? What if we could truly understand what our brothers and sisters are going through? These questions and more are what John Howard Griffin strived to answer when he surgically changed his complexion to resemble that of a black man in his book, Black Like Me. He set out to write a biting commentary about the state of race in the United States, but what he experienced changed his life forever. Griffin learned two very valuable lessons that dominated his experience; good can exist in the midst of suffocating evil and to bridge the gap between races there must be mutual understanding. To analyze such a powerful book, I will start with a summary and then explain my thoughts on the text.
At the start of the book a naïve, young and innocent African American girl lived life almost oblivious to the socially constructed issue of race. She did not see the difference of skin color and believed it was perfectly normal to socialize with whites. As far as she was concerned raced did not exist. This view was quickly altered and changed as the little girl named Essie-Mae Moody grew up fast in a society dominated by racial boundaries involving whites, blacks and a hierarchy of people who had parts of both. Essie’s first encounter with race which initiated her first change, from being oblivious to being confused, occurred early in life. When she was young, she was friends with and often played with white children. This all changed
Zora Hurston wrote the essay ‘How It feels to be colored” in the 1920s. It is important notice that during that period a strong and open discrimination against black people existed. Racial segregation and unfair treatment added more constraints which made it more difficult for others to see beyond the skin color. The author writes and divides the essay in four different sections. Each part narrates and explains her childhood experience, black heritage, discrimination, social status and how she sees the world around her. As a starting point, Hurston utilized a strong phrase to clearly self-differentiate from others when she says: “I’m the only negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother side was not an Indian Chief” (Hurston, 144). In the essay, she continuously emphasizes and express how proud she is of her heritage and constantly reminds us that we should be proud of who we are no matter the race, color or where we come from. What really matters is the contributions we as human beings can provide to the society where we live.
My final takeaway from the book is the idea that race is simply an artificial construct devised to divide the people of the world. The color of a person’s skin does not define their capabilities or who they are as a person. In fact, no true differences exist between white people and people of color. Race simply gives the dominant group in society a sense of superiority and power over the group they seek to
Racism is a big part of this book. It shows the absurdity of what people thought back then, which is an important lesson. It is important for us to learn what people’s views used to be, and how important it is not to go back to that mindset.
Many are unaware of the effects that race has played in their lives over the years. Some may not understand its implications, but are very oblivious to it. Race can influence such things like attitude and behavior. Nowadays being white or black means something more than just a Crayola color. No longer are they just colors, they are races with their own rules and regulations. People of color have been inferior to the white race for centuries. In their own way Zora Neale Hurston shows this concept in her story “How it feels to be Colored Me” as does Richard Wright in his autobiographical sketch “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow”.
In conclusion, The book was a good read although, I could not really identify with the main character and can honestly say that times have changed. I think there will always be racism in the world but with people like Daisy Bates, Ruth Simmons, Toni Morrison, Thurgood Marshall, and Barrack Obama. The late Richard Wright would be
This is trying to state that race should be completely ignored and that we should jugde people by the their charater rather than the color of their skin which is good but people are proud of their race and ethnic background that shouldnt be ignored. No matter how hard people with “color blindness” try to ignore the realities of race, it still exsists and so does racism. Race consiouness can play a role in this because the goal is for people to reconize and be aware for race in our everyday lives. We have to acknowledge what is around us to be able to move forward in changing the world to accept race rather than pretending it doesn’t