Maya Angelou Thesis

Maya Angelou writes about many exigencies to the American racists who view the negro population to be less worthy of education, limited by the color of their skin, and to have less human worth than the white, well-off folks. The purpose is to highlights the faults in the American society by racial discrimination of the Black-White Binary. Graduation was meant to be exciting and a monumental moment for a student, yet the “dead words fell like bricks.” Even the graduation speaker did not convey life or excitement in his demeanor or speech itself. This is the first exigency Maya Angelou points out. For the well off, graduation was the next step to bigger and better future opportunities, which were very exclusive to wealthy, white children. Since the negro students’ educational career had most likely come to an end, an “ancient tragedy was being replayed.” The crowd of students were void of the expected contemptment as the surrounding society deemed their miniscule “accomplishment was nothing.” Racist Americans deemed the educational value of the negro students was much less than the white, privileged children who were able to continue on schooling and occupational opportunities that excluded the negro students.

Maya Angelou points out that not all individuals were gifted with that equal luxury: “we were maids and farmers, handyman and washerwomen.” There were not amongst the common aspirations for future careers. With the negro youth only having a limited education as well as societal opportunities, the jobs open to them did not include, “anything higher that we aspired to be.” Since educational; tracks had a racial bias, biases in careers and populations followed along. The notion to follow your dream and do what you love was exclusive. The reality of wealth was just a dream of