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Analysis Of Black Boys Play By Toi Derricotte

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Existing as a minority in a majority is a recurring problem for many and has been for centuries. Being a minority race with outside races bearing judgments, there will always be a struggle to accept your identity as others attempt to break it down. The poems "Black Boys Play the Classics" by Toi Derricotte and "Blood" by Naomi Shihab Nye both speak of two minority individuals living through a struggle because of their racial background. Because of outside conflicts, both poems emphasize a struggle with race and ethnicity.

In the poem "Black Boys Play the Classics" by Toi Derricotte, racism against black people is prevalent and obvious. The poem describes the contrast between how different races treat each other. As in the poem, the people who only pass by and do not take the time to listen to this boy's talent. They merely ignore the black boy playing his instrument. While the other black people stayed and listened to this boy play and a small white boy who hadn’t yet learned racism. In the same way, as this poem exposes blatant discrimination towards black boys because of their ethnicity, the other poem shows the struggles with ethnicity as well. …show more content…

The poem describes the struggle with what this girl's race has to do with her understanding of what she is, because of her cultural background and society today. In the poem, the narrator describes the trials and tribulations she endured when she grew up, believing that’s what made her an Arab identity. Throughout the poem, the narrator's confusion about her identity as Palestinian and American after events alters her way of thinking. This insinuates that there is some sort of discrimination against her for questioning her

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In the next stanza, the reader discovers that the narrator is a fourteen-year-old girl, whose best friend is a “white girl named Denise” (8). In the remainder of the poem, the narrator describes her friendship with Denise and how it eventually became spoiled. At first, the narrator and Denise spend time together and tease each other. Later on, Denise erupts with rage against her, and the narrator doesn’t understand what induced Denise’s anger. The setting of the novel is during World War II, and, at this time, people turned against the Japanese Americans, including the American government, who was concerned with Japanese spies.

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“A fly in the milk” is a metaphor that has been used to explain what it’s like being a Black person surrounded by White people, or simply describes a person who is different from the rest. Robert Lake’s, “An Indian Father’s Plea”, he writes a letter addressing his son’s kindergarten that his son “is not culturally ‘disadvantages’ but he is culturally different.’” (20) Claude Steele’s book “Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do” gives examples of how different people are labeled and how these labels affect them socially and mentally. Lake’s letter illustrates the stigma, identity contingencies, and stereotype threat that are similar to those presented in Claude Steele’s book.

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Everyone has a journey of childhood some with more self-discovery and some with more self-doubt. The poem “Queries of Unrest” by Clint Smith is about a black author dealing with self-doubt and seeing joy in darkness. Furthermore the poem “Making a Fist” by Naomi Shihab Nye is about a whining child asking his mother about death. “Queries of Unrest” by Clint Smith and “Making a Fist” by Naomi Shihab Nye the poem that was more effective was “Queries of Unrest,” due to it having a more meaningful message of the relationship between self-doubt and trying to discover himself, and a more impactful tone of darkness. In light of this “Queries of Unrest” becomes the more impactful and effective poem.

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The essay by James Baldwin recounts his stay in a small Swiss town where no black man had ever visited. The people in the town were captivated by his skin color because they have never seen a black person before. Baldwin visited this town few times and the town’s people even though they knew his name they were still fascinated by the color of his skin. The people didn’t see him as a real person and the children in town run after him shouting names and even though their cries were innocent the words effected Baldwin. In the essay he shows the different ways we effect and reflect each other’s identity.

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It talks about how darker people are scared of living in the world because of their color and they wonder how long they will be living for. It talks about how they worry everyday because of their skin color. It also talks about how people never spare them because of their identity. In conclusion, I believe that all of my paragraphs combined show that a lot of people can relate to my paragraphs. During the Harlem renaissance a lot of people couldn’t show who they really were as people because of their identity.

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“She wanted her son to go there as well, but because of affirmative action or minority something...her son wasn’t accepted” (Rankine 13). This quote is interesting to me because it reminds of the case Grutter v. Bollinger, where a white female applicant to the University of Michigan Law School sued the school for violating her Fourteenth Amendment because they denied her admission. She lost in the end, but the ideology that minorities are more easily accepted into schools than whites is still thought and said by some white Americans today. The importance this quote serves to the poem is that the quote is another example of a microaggression that the author wants the reader to understand happens. “She says she grabbed the stranger’s arm and

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But they also both deal with choices and endurance of consequences from that choice. One of several particular elements in each of the stories that best emphasize the theme is the usage of figurative language in each text. Some of the different types of figurative language each author used is simile, personification, and metaphor’s. Another way that the author expressed the theme is in the story is the limitations of the American Dream for African Americans. Whereas in the poem, the author used sort of a cause and effect scenario.

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The different circumstances of being viewed differently because of race once again shows their struggle to achieve something without being frowned upon in

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Dehumanization in Black Boy The dehumanization of the black community in Mississippi was a belittling and oppressive force that they had to experience. The whites reduced them to something less than human, exploiting them for their own benefit. In Richard Wright's memoir Black Boy, he details the prejudice and discrimination that he and his peers experienced.

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All three authors characterize the prejudice they are met with as minorities during their times. This demonstration of brutalities and injustices experienced defines being an “other” as experiencing the affliction caused by the inherent injustices within society. Each author describes being an “other” as feeling isolated in society due to their racial identity. Either physically or psychologically, each author described the notion of loneliness due to the segregation in their environment and how they are perceived. Coates emphasizes this isolation by contrasting the “raft of second chances” for Whites in opposition to the “twenty-three-hour days” that he and those who identify as black must endure (Coates 91).

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5,6) the issues that have been mentioned above are expressed. Since, especially black women, are considered to be living in the shadow this passage exposes the feelings and representation of black women in society. Their existence in the world which is not considered and respected. Considering especially the fact that the lyrical I is a black maiden, she seeks for recognition and acceptance among the other figures of the poem. Referring to contemporary issues, the lyrical I would be classified as a lower ranked person since she is black and being occupied as a maid, which clearly makes her powerless and voiceless in society.

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The poem was written in a time where black people and women were dehumanized where those in power abused the power to gain more and those without power were continuously affected by it. Reading the poem and had an impact on me with the dictation of lexis, however all of these feelings were heightened when I listened to the oral performance. The poem starts of in the present tense “Even tonight and I need to take a walk” (Jordan 1) which gives a setting to the scene, in the opening few lines Jordan uses the repetition of “I” and “my” which made the poem for me more personal, the use of repetition in the opening part of the poem produced a deeper connection to the poem, repetition of the words placed emphasis and clarity of the words which came after “my body posture my gender identity my age…” (Jordan

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First, they are written around the same time period and both about blacks being discriminated. Both the poems gave African Americans a little bit of hope that one day they will be allowed to be around whites and looked at as the same. These poems may be different, but they both have the same meaning. If anyone is going through a rough time in their life, they can overcome it. Blacks were treated terribly and went through some of the roughest times, but they never stopped fighting and never lost hope.

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Well this is telling how African Americans are not brought up like the white folk. It is also telling that the white people feel insecure about other races, but when we work towards helping others and they see that kindness. They would offer to also be helped by others and would make new friends that they couldn’t

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Even the extent of analysis of the racial discrimination is different because in the poem, author doesn 't talk about the issue as explicitly as the author of the magazine article who decries apartheid.

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