Published by Tapestry Press and copyrighted by Xavier University of Louisiana in 2007, Perspectives In African American History And Culture: An Introductory Reader edited by Dr. Ronald Doris, contains a multitude of articles by several authors. All works center on African American history, culture, art, and philosophy. This particular critique will address “Navigating Distant Shores: A Historical Overview” by Dr. Ronald Doris. This article offers a well organized, structured overview of the life of the Africans, from the early 17th century to modern day 21st century who were kidnaped from their motherland and transported across the Atlantic to involuntary build a country.
We are living in a world where the erasure and dehumanization of people of color is slowly becoming a normative. Voices silenced, struggles trivialized, deaths becoming statistics, brutality only brought up for shock factor, achievements hidden and it is all slowly becoming accepted. Through various rhetorical strategies Claudia Rankine illustrates the experience of being part of the marginalized identity in the United States and depicts how subtly and multifaceted the methods of oppression take place in the daily life are and the negative repercussions it holds on the individual. The ambiguity of her writing with the lack of punctuation and clarification of what is thought and what is aloud allows the readers to input their own interpretation of these various scenarios.
He acknowledges that many Africans see no need or any motivation at all to assist the United States to win the war abroad when their own rights are not being fought for, and even being fought against with mobs and
Raj Patel, a professor at the UC Berkeley Center for African Studies, brings forth both personal experience and recollection of
This excerpt is extremely important because it makes us better understand the status of African people, subdued by the European nations, and how the concept of slavery was perceived and addressed by
The glass castle has many themes throughout the book but I think one theme that is very prominent is: the perseverance to never give up. I say this because Jeannette goes through various things throughout her life. She faces hardships at a young age and yet still has the vigor to go on. Being caught on fire at three years old, being beat up at a new school by girls twice her size, having to eat margarine because that was literally the only thing to eat in the house, watching your parents put knives to each other's throats, or being locked in a basement for stopping her grandma from violating her brother, Jeannette never once looked at her life as sad or tragic.
Aminata Diallo grew old through a life of slavery and freedom, but she carried all her burdens with her throughout that journey. She worked to stay alive and got very little rest. She gave a story of her life to her daughter, and the stories told to the parliamentary committee and the tribe in Africa would live on. She lost her true love, Chekura, even though they boarded the same ship, she left with British and American officials. Aminata wanted to be with him, she wanted him to be free, but he wasn’t.
Among the numerous books that celebrate the importance of being black and their heritage, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me remains paramount. As a poetic and exquisite piece of writing dedicated to his son, this story recounts Coates’s experience of living inside a black body in America. Countless moments within his life have built up to become an endless number of morals and lessons about the meaning of life. Utilizing ideas from other poets and from the influential people surrounding him, Coates is able to bring to life the true meaning of inhabiting a black body. His experience with writing blog posts for The Atlantic only propelled his career to reach this new height as a writer whose message is understood.
Where you need some type of protection and realize oh I guess my fists and words are the only protection I need. Apparently that’s what Columbia believes. I also don’t understand when they say “prohibited the carrying of unlicensed handguns or other deadly or dangerous weapons capable of being concealed”. I would understand you getting in trouble for carrying a handgun not registered. A good majority would have their handgun registered , if you let them get it registered.
According to Raka Shome, in his article “Outing Whiteness” she shares with us, “The investigative strain
The book Kaffir Boy is the stunning and at times chilling recreation of a black child’s life in Apartheid, South Africa. The time period was one that was filled with heartbreaking racism and violence against those who were not white. The novel takes the reader through the early childhood and teenage years of Johannes Mathabane. Johannes, from his early toddler years to his teenage life, lived under the constant threat of raids and unwarranted violence from the South African police over “papers.” Johannes recounts many chilling encounters with the police, and many times he describes with almost explicit specificity how they made him and his family stand in feces and encounter other horrible punishments for not having the necessary paperwork.
Many stereotypes of African culture have emerged due to western literature and media and first hand accounts of explorers. Things Fall Apart offers a view into the truth and reality of African cultures, which are often misconceptualized by these stereotypes. Acebe shows how African society functions well without assistance from foreign travelers. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe counters the imperialist stereotypes of Africa by keeping certain words in the Igbo language, as opposed to translating them into English, to fight back against the spreading western culture and to embrace their own way of life. He also counters the imperialist stereotypes of Africa by using Igbo proverbs to show how their culture values many of the same things that western
In Basil Davidson’s video, “Different but Equal”, Davidson examines ancient Africa, and how Africans were perceived in ancient and modern times. Davidson discusses pre-colonized Africa and its history, and how racism prevailed in the past and in modern day. By discussing early civilizations, as well as modern day perspectives, Davidson allows the viewer to have expansive information on how individuals view Africans and their culture. In Davidson’s video, he discusses how people in the past have viewed Africa and African culture, and how that relates to our perception of Africa in modern times.
The world cannot appreciate the African identity unless they don 't embrace it themselves. It is also a message for non-Africans to remember their privileged histories and acknowledge its part in their social position in the present world as the issues of identity can not be addressed unless they look at the African community from the lens of their
Moreover, Western civilization became the ideal civilization, and became way superior to African “civilization.” As a consequence, African tradition became perceived as primitive, outmoded, and sadly not welcomed by the rest of the world. Unfortunately, a lot of Africans experienced a trend of a dying out culture. (2) It can be implied that even the Africans’ self-perception dropped because the only lifestyle they knew was suddenly taken away from them and they were taught that it was substandard. Therefore, the indigenous inhabitants of the colonies, the Africans, had to adapt to a new, “superlative” culture and view it as more sophisticated than theirs.
