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Examples Of Racism In Kindred

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Recommended: Racism and its affect on a society

Racism in Kindred
Racism is an issue that should be tended to in the present society, regardless of a few endeavors to forestall it. Literature has historically provided a forum for addressing significant social issues, such as those in Kindred by Octavia Butler.
Kindred accurately depicts the enslavement of the African American people in America's history and inspires readers to take action against racism by narrating the story of the protagonist's trip back in time to the South before the Civil War. Butler's Black protagonist Dana is transported from 1976 into the antebellum South in Kindred using the time travel technique, after which she is forced to face the horrific reality of slavery. Butler highlights how racism is pervasive in American …show more content…

Prejudice and racial inequality are two significant issues that underprivileged populations still confront today (Erete et al. 2). Literature writing can be a viable means for offering minority bunches a voice and empowering them to share their accounts. Literature can accomplish this by challenging prevailing narratives that uphold biases and inequalities and fostering compassion and comprehension. As expressed by Angie Thomas' book “The Hate U Give” is about a little girl of color named Starr who sees her friend Khalil being lethally shot by a cop (Levin 151). The book discusses problems like racism, brutality by law enforcement, and the Black Lives Matter movement. The novel offers visibility to an ethnic group that is underrepresented by narrating the tale from an African American teenager's perspective that the dominant media frequently ignores and silences. Therefore, by giving the minority groups a platform to share their experiences. , literature may support the empowerment of oppressed populations and the advancement of an equitable society. It can also be used to spread knowledge and awareness, enlighten readers about the struggles of others and encourage feelings of empathy and …show more content…

Following recent events of racial profiling and even George Floyd's murder due to police brutality, and the resulting Black Lives Matter demonstrations, many educators and educational institutions have begun integrating anti-racism literature into their curricula to foster empathy and understanding among students from all backgrounds. Students can receive help in grappling with difficult questions of privilege, authority, and identities as well as in thinking critically about their role in advancing social justice by learning literature books like Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Case for Reparations that have been incorporated in their curricula to shed light on such issues and bolster inclusivity and diversification among students (Simpson and Cremin 66). Consequently, beyond merely increasing awareness, literature can motivate change and action. Following George Floyd's murder, numerous literary associations and publishers committed to aiding Black authors and advancing diversity in publishing. This dedication to highlighting underrepresented voices and fostering diversity can affect lasting improvements within and outside of the field of

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615 Words | 3 Pages

Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred is a science fiction time travel novel, but Kindred is not like other science fiction novels. The book is told in first person by the main character Dana, a modern day black woman as she travels between her time 1976, and the antebellum South. When Dana transports to the antebellum South she is forced to endure slavery and the violence and abuse that comes along with it. As we read further into the book we see Dana’s life and relationships change because of the time travel. Dana is first introduced to us a Dana's last visit to the past brings us full circle; when she must murder Rufus to fend off his attempt to rape her, he grasps her arm as she is sent forward in time, anchoring her arm in the past.

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1072 Words | 5 Pages

The novel Kindred, written by the author Octavia E. Butler, was about a black woman named Dana Franklin traveling through time to save her ancestors to ensure her birth. Dana travels back to the 1800s, to the era known as the “Antebellum South.” The novel opens with a horrific scene of Dana having her arm crushed in the wall of her house and being taken to the hospital. The police question her about what happened, as they accuse her husband Kevin. Eventually Kevin is cleared as a suspect and is allowed to see his wife Dana.

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257 Words | 2 Pages

Using time travel, Octavia Butler creates a new view of racism in her novel, Kindred, by having Dana experience the life of a slave from an outsider's perspective. Though Dana’s present is far from a race utopia, it has drastically improved the problems of the past. In the past, Dana is surprised to find herself growing used to the injustices which surround her. Overall, traveling gives Dana first-hand experience at how slavery warped slaves’ perception of freedom.

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1583 Words | 7 Pages

“It was dangerous to educate slaves, they warned. Education made blacks dissatisfied with slavery,”--or so Rufus’s neighbors claim as they observe his liability of allowing slaves to have even the slightest form of education. In the novel, Kindred, composed by Octavia E. Butler, Dana strives to maintain agency, or power over situations and personal encounters, as she navigates the Antebellum South after being miraculously teleported through time. While exploring this oppressive society, Dana turns to using knowledge from 1976, the time era she came from, in order to gain agency over others who automatically have more power than her, such as Rufus, the son of a plantation owner she is tasked with helping.

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In the book, there are significant racial tensions and racial divisions in society. Young Black women like Lauren, the primary character, must find their way in a society where they face prejudice and marginalization. In the story, racism is shown as a persistent menace in a society where one's character or aptitudes are more often evaluated than the color of one's skin. Unfortunately, this is a problem that persists in modern culture. The work emphasizes the consequences of institutionalized racism, which persists today.

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1204 Words | 5 Pages

The novel Kindred by Octavia Butler examines issues of racism and slavery throughout America by depicting an African American woman named Dana who, through forced time travel, finds herself in the antebellum south. This story focuses on the violence, exploitation, and abuse of black people in the past. However, through Dana and Kevin's relationship, the novel speculates on the systemic impact racism has systemically on contemporary society. This is highlighted through the struggles present within their interracial marriage and how their dynamics parallel the racism present throughout the book. Kindred explores the ways in which systemic racism has affected and continues to impact society.

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670 Words | 3 Pages

Dana goes back in time during the slave days where racism was very common, and this piece of evidence shows how rude people of color were treated. Butler draws on that experience to convey the universal theme that racism happened frequently in the past, but it’s still occurring today. Through this novel, Butler speaks to the reader with the message that racism is something that continues, and will keep on continuing for a long time. The words“ job and white” show a negative connotation, and implies that people of color did not have very pleasant lives before. Dana experienced time traveling to the past, which lead to an external conflict of dealing with racism and slavery.

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1598 Words | 7 Pages

Situations are defined by choices. Small actions in one moment of time alter the future of what happens forever. In Kindred by Octavia Butler Dana, the main character, is a black women born in 1976, who time travels back to the early 1800’s in order to save her relative, Rufus, a white boy who is the son of the owner of the plantation. Along the way she also meets her other relative, Alice, a slave born free, but enslaved since she helped her husband run away. Alice is owned by Rufus, who is convinced that he is in love with her.

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1269 Words | 6 Pages

Abouzeid, Berry ENG 2DR Johnston 5 April, Tolerate it or Die Tolerance; it means to have the capacity to endure continued subjection to something without adversity. Throughout history, Black people have been forced to endure systemic racism and discrimination, often without any recourse or means of self-defense. When they finally stand up for themselves and demand equality, they are met with unjust repercussions and violence, as seen in the novel Dear Martin by Nic Stone. The author examines the unjust repercussions faced by Black individuals who challenge the status quo and speak out against racism and police brutality. Through the character of Justyce McAllister, Stone sheds light on the dangers faced by Black youth who advocate for social

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886 Words | 4 Pages

This analysis of agency would be useful for a person pushing for more freedom of expression or freedom of speech. All in all, Bast’s successfully supports his perspective of agency through his evaluation of Kindred, and the comparison of the human instinct of expression to Dana’s want to create change with her time traveling powers constructs a powerful parallel between the novel and Bast’s article. The novel Kindred, however, serves to create an important message about society on its own, as well. Octavia Butler’s Kindred is a science-fiction novel that depicts the life experiences of a young black woman named Dana, who is given the task of traveling back in time to the era of slavery to save her ancestors, but is unjustly oppressed and has most, if not all, of her rights stripped away from her simply due to her race and gender. As a result, the most prominent overarching theme of the novel is the inequality of power and social status given to people of varying gender and race, and the struggle that those people must go through to gain as much freedom and equality as possible.

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1003 Words | 5 Pages

Octavia Butler’s novel, Kindred, connects the past to the present through Dana and Kevin time traveling back to an era of slavery. The theme of time is essential throughout the novel, especially to Dana and Kevin’s survival and who they are as people. Both Dana and Kevin begin to comprehend that what has happened in the past is gone but never forgotten. Although slavery is no longer legal today, we are living in its ramifications. Butler emphasizes the theme that the past and the present cannot easily be distinguished and are consistently related.

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456 Words | 2 Pages

The Tone of Butler’s writing in this section of text, shows that there is a deeper meaning, and understanding to what Dana is talking about, and how so many factors of her life have been affected because of one singular event. Slavery, and Acts of terrorism towards people of color did not end even after the end

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876 Words | 4 Pages

It is shown that Dana is having to face struggles of slavery in order for her rebirth in the 20th century. Carol Kort mentions, “Its heroine, Dana, is a contemporary black woman pulled back in time by her great-great-grandfather, a Southern white plantation owner.” This relates to society in the past because slavery was a major issue that impacted the way that the world is today as one. While all of these stories have a relation to either the past or present, the protagonist’s in these stories have one thing in common;

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480 Words | 2 Pages

As the descriptive details of the narrator's life displays color blindness within America we also have to fight against racial discrimination that we face today that also relates to my novel was trying to explain as our black people or other races need to come together and rise as

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3280 Words | 14 Pages

Afro-American women writers present how racism permeates the innermost recesses of the mind and heart of the blacks and affects even the most intimate human relationships. While depicting the corrosive impact of racism from social as well as psychological perspectives, they highlight the human cost black people have to pay in terms of their personal relationships, particularly the one between mother and daughter. Women novelists’ treatment of motherhood brings out black mothers’ pressures and challenges for survival and also reveals their different strategies and mechanisms to deal with these challenges. Along with this, the challenges black mothers have to face in dealing with their adolescent daughters, who suffer due to racism and are heavily influenced by the dominant value system, are also underlined by these writers. They portray how a black mother teaches her daughter to negotiate the hostile, wider world, and prepares her to face the problems and challenges boldly and confidently.

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