'the Lesson' by Toni Cade Bambara

The setting of the poor inner city helps us realize how unevenly the pie is split up between members of society. As close as the inner city is to Manhattan, they are worlds apart in terms of social class and wealth. The lesson that the children take out of the field trip with Ms. Moore directly related to the fact that these children have been raised less fortunately that some, and to get out of oppression and poverty, they will have to work. The children realize the value of money and how unfair it is that there is so much wealth in Manhattan and a stone 's throw away in the inner city, there is extreme poverty. The children learn social gaps are very wide, and by leaving their ghetto area they some to she that in comparison to Manhattan, they are all receiving the small slice of the American pie. Miss Moore and the Manhattan trip help the children realize that poverty is not found everywhere, and that education can give them the power to elevate their status.

The history of The Black Civil Rights Movement in the United States is a fascinating account of a group of human beings, forcibly taken from their homeland, brought to a strange new continent, and forced to endure countless inhuman atrocities. Forced into a life of involuntary servitude to white slave owners, African Americans were to face an uphill battle for many years to come. Who would face that battle? To say the fight for black civil rights "was a grassroots movement of ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things" would be an understatement. Countless people made it their life's work to see the progression of civil rights in America. People like W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, A Phillip Randolph, Eleanor Roosevelt, and many

Malcolm X once said, “If you stick a knife in my back 9 inches and pull it out 6 inches, that’s not progress. If you pull it out all the way, that’s not progress. The progress comes from healing the wound that the blow made. They haven’t begun to pull the knife out… They won’t even admit the knife is there.” While this quotation couldn’t fit his personality more it relates to Naomi Shihab Nye and Brent Staples more than you would think. Due to Malcolm X’s effect on racial oppression in his time each figure (Malcolm X, Brent Staples, and Naomi Shihab Nye) dealt with a racial oppression in their lives, as Malcolm X dealt with it in “Learning to Read” where educated himself to the best of his ability. As Naomi Shihab Nye deals with it in “To Any Would-Be Terrorist” by trying to get rid of Muslim stereotypes, and how Brent Staples deal with it in “Black Men in Public Spaces” by the fear and being mistaken for a criminal because of his race. Each author shows in their articles that racial oppression played a role in their lives, and that knife hasn’t been pulled out of their back. In the end, each author of the texts faces a racial oppression that develops their defining resistance and voice that changes their communities and the world for the better.

The black characters in the novel are all victims of this “separate but equal” mentality; the younger characters yearn for real equality and the older characters have settled in to their lives by accepting their “fate.” The existing structures of society in Bayonne, Louisiana prevent black characters such as Grant Wiggins and Vivian from ever breaking out of their social class; both are forced to remain in their lives as teachers of young black children who will also grow up to live limited lives. Wiggins says of his classroom, “I’m the teacher... and I

In “The Lesson,” the author shows how one can alter their circumstances. The story is being told by a young girl name Sylvia; through her observation of living in Harlem, readers are able to get a glance of what kind of environment she and the other children lived in. Sylvia was known to be outspoken and unruly but by Miss Moore taking her and her peers under her wing she made a change for the better. Miss Moore took the children on a trip to an expensive store in Manhattan called F.A.O Swartz where the children saw a variety of toys with expensive price tags. Miss Moore wanted the children to see how wealthy people lived and that the other opportunities out there. This short story shows how the environment contributes to ones determination of achieving the American Dream. Although, Miss Moore was well adjusted to this environment, the

In stark contrast with her earlier disregard for economic and social injustice, Sylvia is now incensed by it. Her anger is further incited when Sugar speaks on the implications of these newly perceived inequalities: "‘I think,’ say Sugar pushing me off her feet like she never done before, cause I whip her ass in a minute, ‘that this is not much of a democracy if you ask me. Equal chance to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dough, don’t it?’ […] I am disgusted with Sugar’s treachery" (605). In concretely addressing the existence of socioeconomic inequality and its effects on their own lives, Sugar cements its realness in Sylvia’s mind—she can no longer

At the end of the trip, Miss Moore leaves the children in front of the mail box, back where the trip started, thus creating a frame for the lesson of social equality. This frame is completed with Sugar and Sylvia's new understanding of the necessity of social equality for everyone. “And something weird is going on; I can feel it in

Segregation had had many effects on the black nation, to the point that it started building up ones character, “See the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness towards white people”, King shows readers that segregation is even affecting little children, that it is starting to build up a young girls character and is contributing to the child developing hatred “bitterness” towards the white Americans. King makes readers imagine a black cloud settling in a young girls brain mentally, when instead she should have an image of a colorful blue sky with a rainbow, isn’t that suppose to be part of a 6 year-old’s imagination? King gives readers an image of destruction civil disobedience had created in the black community, especially in the young innocent little children.

This store really shows the kids that the value of a dollar is to what they use to think it was. By Miss Moore taking the kids to the toy store she shows them how money is going to take them through life. So that shows how smart she is because she knows the real value of a dollar. “But she ain't so smart cause I still got her four dollars from the taxi and she sure ain't gettin it Messin up my day with this shit. Sugar nudges me in my pocket and winks.” This quote how educated Miss Moore is because since she went to school, got her college degree, and now has a job as a teacher she has money to let Sugar and her cousin have. Miss Moore was maybe just testing the kids to see if she was going to l\get her left over change.

Then, Miss Moore takes the kids on a certain “fieldtrip” to the toy store. Miss Moore prepares to teach the difference of how people spend money. Sylvia feels insulted and thinks that Miss Moore thinks they are stupid when she asked what money was. Miss Moore asked if they knew how much to tip a cab driver. Sylvia wanted to keep the money and save it to eat barbeque. Stealing seems to be common within the group. When they go into the toy store, Sugar seriously asked, “Can we steal?” (358) Ms Moore quickly refused and walked them around the toy store. The kids ss

In the 1950’s and 1960’s a momentous movement broke out in the United States in pursuit of making a change in our nation for the better. This movement, titled the Civil Rights Movement, spread like a wildfire throughout the nation and made it possible for African Americans to have rights equal to those of whites. While at the end, this movement was successful in desegregating everything and achieving equality in the laws that were passed, it was not successful in integrating all people and changing the actions of others so that African Americans were treated equal to the white’s. Civil Rights Activists Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, Rosa Parks, and many other inspirational black leaders played key roles in lighting the fire that was

Anne was immediately confused by their presence because they seemed to be just like her except for skin color. On one occasion all the children were playing together in the lobby of a movie theater. Anne was with some local white children playing, but when it was time to enter the movie lobby the white children went in one direction and Anne went in after her friends. Her disapproving mother quickly stopped Anne and they left the theater. Before this instance Anne had never considered the coincidence that all the white children watched the movie from the bottom terrace and all the African America children from the top terrace. While thinking about the difference Anne realized that the bottom terrace and side entrance was much more luxurious than the raggedy top terrace, where she and her mother usually sat (38-2). After this the difference in skin color became much more apparent to her in everyday life. Anne was motivated to find the answers as to why she was treated differently because of the color of her skin.

She inspired the kids to learn there is much more about the world than outside of where they lived. On the day, miss more rounded up neighborhood kids and is going to take them to A fancy toys store at fifty-seventh street. Miss Moore knows that this will be a new experience for the children who don’t have this in their neighborhood, and will be excited by the unexpected items that they had never seen before. In “The Lesson,” Miss Moore attempts to teach the children about savage inequalities that exist in their socioeconomic status. However, Miss Moore gives her five dollar bill to pay the taxi to a toy store, where they wonder at the wealthy people live. Miss Moore told them to go in but Sylvia immediately uncomfortable there. Sylvia was unhappy that miss Moore brought them here. The children see a microscope, paperweight, and sailboats cost $1,195. Everything in the store was high price and the kids shocked by looking at the cost, and to teach them a lesson and inspire them to fight for success and try to do better for themselves. When the arrived back to Harlem, miss Moore asks the children what they thought the store. Eventually, sugar reply and said that the cost of the toy sailboat could feed all of them. Again she asks the children what this inequality says about society. Sugar

In this quotation Sugar realizes what Miss Moore set out to teach the lower classed and deprived children, her goal was to open their eyes and make them aware of how much more there is out there then making pocket change. 'What kinda work they do and how they live and how come we ain't in on it? Where we are is who we are, Miss Moore always pointin out. But it don't necessarily have to be that way, she always adds then waits for somebody to say that poor people have to wake up and demand their share of the pie and place,'; (Bambara 452). With her eyes wide open and with her mind curious and educated, Sugar and her friends realize that in order for them to get some where in life they have to work at it, but not as in individual but as a whole, a class. The only way for them to make a difference to change societies view of their class and become part of the rest of societies.

Now, not only blacks are demanding civil rights, but other groups have formed together and started similar movements. Women, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, disabled, and mostly recently, homosexuals have been waging big civil rights campaigns. Recently, the NFL and its players started kneeling during the National Anthem which has caused a big uproar among people. This kneeling started as a way to bring national attention to the fact that there is still racial problems in our world that need to be resolved. The Black Lives Matter movement has been a big supporter of this kneeling movement. Black Lives Matter was organized as a way to bring world attention to ongoing police brutality, racial profiling, and needless killing of African Americans that still exists in today’s society. Movements such as this would never have been allowed back in the