ipl-logo

Summary Of A Letter To My City By Troy Wiggins

1112 Words5 Pages

The article, “A Letter to My City” written by Troy Wiggins for the Memphis Flyer in July of 2017 expands on the issue of the increasing number of deaths of black people in the city of Memphis. Wiggins is a life-long Memphian who is not only concerned with the issue, but also lives in fear of the issue himself. Because Wiggins lives within the city, he is exposed to the white supremacy and police brutality that is taking place in Memphis every day and uses his writing to share his opinions on the matter. Over seventy five percent of the deaths within Memphis (which already has a higher than average death rate) every year are black men. Wiggins writing in “A Letter to My City” effectively uses repetition, compares the issue at hand to millennial trends, and expresses his ideas by using everyday sights for Memphians.
Throughout the article, Wiggins uses repetition to express his concern for Memphis. Memphis is often associated with homicides; the rate increases every year, yet very little is being done about it (The Commercial Appeal). Wiggins shows this concern by repeating “There are dead and dying black people everywhere” (Wiggins). The repetition of this statement really focuses on the main idea that he is trying to …show more content…

Millennials of Memphis are the future of the city and need to care about the things that occur, yet they do not. Wiggins compares his life to avocados and Charleena Lyles’ life to avocado toast. The idea that he has to question “How many avocados is my black life worth?” when in a situation with the police is disappointing (Wiggins) ¾ the city of grit and grind is disappointing. Millennials focus on making their avocado toast and guacamole when there are people that fear for their lives. This comparison between food and an actual human being shows that Memphians value their millennial trends over a human life simply because they feel superior to those

Show More
Related

Viewing A Kkk Uniform At The Civil Rights Institute Summary

525 Words | 3 Pages

Response to Viewing a KKK Uniform At The Civil Rights Institute Ashley M. Jones is an excellent poet, her book Magic City Gospel is full of imagery and feeling. Most of the poems throughout give the audience a good impression of the pride she feels about Alabama and some of its culture. However, she also feels another type of way to some of the bad culture and history riddled and woven into Alabama’s core. One can feel her emotion as she speaks about a certain object inside of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. In Ms. Jones’s poem, “Viewing a KKK Uniform At The Civil Rights Institute”, she voices the haunting ghost of a feeling the uniform gives her.

Read More

Freddy Carlos Gray Case

1460 Words | 6 Pages

Unfortunately that is today’s society and how it plays a role on people’s lives. Gray’s death exposed the long-simmering mistrust between the city’s cops and the African-American communities they’re sworn to protect. The resulting protests and the national attention they attracted laid bare the systemic inequalities between poor, majority-black neighborhoods like Sandown-Winchester, where Gray lived his entire brief life, and the city’s growing, majority-white neighborhoods surrounding the Inner Harbor. PD now partners with federal agencies to focus on hundreds of suspects it believes are responsible for most of the city’s crime. He’s increased arrests overall, which plummeted last summer as violence spiraled out of control.

Read More

Summary Of Just Walk On By Brent Staples

756 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout his essay, Staples is able to make the audience understand what he has to deal with as a black man. Staples does this by using words and phrases such as, “...her flight made me feel like an accomplice in tyranny” and “... I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area…” (542). By writing and describing how he (Staples) feels, the audience is able to get an inside look into how black men are treated and better understand why society’s teachings, play a vital role in how we see each other. Staples’ powerful writing also allows the reader to take a step back and see how as a society, people make judgements on others based on appearance alone.

Read More

Despair In Anne Moody's Coming Of Age In Mississippi

587 Words | 3 Pages

Moody’s Final Despair In the autobiography, Coming of Age in Mississippi, by Anne Moody (1968) she ends the story with Essie saying “I WONDER. I really WONDER” (289). In doing this, it is left up to the reader to decide whether or not Essie is hopeful or doubtful about what is to come in the future. After reading the book and finding several instances where Essie witnesses the bad in both white and black people and expresses her hate for both races, it is concluded that the prevailing sentiment is despair towards what the future has to hold for African Americans in the state of Mississippi.

Read More

Summary Of Just Walk On By A Black Man Ponders His Power To Alter Public Space

840 Words | 4 Pages

In his essay, “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space”, Brent Staples uses the rhetorical strategies of anecdote and diction in order to convey his message that due to racial discrimination black people (mainly men) have to change the way they naturally conduct themselves in public for they run the risk of something terrible happening to them. Staples uses anecdotes to bring in the personal side of the message to the audience. Staples creates a persona of innocence and almost alienation in his writing. Anecdotes such as his both instances in which he accidently scared women on walks and the time in which he and another reporter were mistaken for murder suspects or robbers are used to show real life proof of his message.

Read More

James Weldon Johnson Rhetorical Devices

1271 Words | 6 Pages

America lacked opportunities for Black Americans and Africans to live peacefully among themselves. The height of political tension erupted in the American Civil war, and thousands died to “save the union”. The Civil War ended in 1865, but black American issues would last for decades to come. In 1905, James Weldon Johnson wrote Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing, an illustrious poem meant for Africans and black Americans across the nation. While it was originally written as a poem, Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing was performed by Johnson’s brother, and it has since aptly been adopted as the Black National Anthem.

Read More

Controversial Issues In Black Lives Matter And Ralph Ellison

176 Words | 1 Pages

It has often been said that “that this is a greatest period for people of all races to live in.” Yet with change in society over time , there has a been a divide over the truth about that statement. In dialogue about race issues within the United States, one controversial issue has been about systemic racism towards people of colour, in particular, black americans. On one hand, Ralph Ellison, a recent predecessor to our present time argues that no matter what the future holds, people will judge others based on their association, their image, which will. In relation, a modern black activist group, Black Lives Matter, argues that even though change has come to America race relations, black people are still endangered by the system.

Read More

Black Studies Lecture Summary

1139 Words | 5 Pages

Professor George Lipsitz’s lecture was about the collective intelligence and gathered from centuries of struggle for black people in America and how it is key for Black survival and dignity. Black Studies can be applied to this topic through our exploration of these centuries of struggle, from the Atlantic slave trade to the Reconstruction period to the events in Flint, Michigan and Ferguson, Missouri which Professor Lipsitz highlights. Throughout these centuries we see various tactics and crises that contribute to the continued subjugation of black people, whether this was enslavement, lynching, or legislation. Black Studies also applies to Professor Lipsitz’s lecture through what we learned about notable people who resisted the endless cycle

Read More

Police Brutality: A Rhetorical Analysis

428 Words | 2 Pages

Addressing police brutality must be done with empathy for and awareness of the plight of the African-American community. Historically speaking, there has not been a period wherein the African-American community was not inhibited by institutionalized barriers. American enslavement provided the foundation for later oppressive provisions that are especially prevalent within inner-city, predominantly Black communities, which, incidentally, many of the prominent instances of police brutality have taken place. Political regimes like the “war on drugs,” “school to prison pipeline,” and mass incarceration criminalize and dehumanize the African-American community, and thus affect the collective mindset of the population. I believe that an imperative first step that has not been taken is acknowledging the effects these may have on the Black community.

Read More

Black Men And Public Space Rhetorical Analysis

621 Words | 3 Pages

“Black Men and Public Spaces” Diagnostic Essay Brent Staples in “Black Men and Public Spaces,” illustrates the inescapable prejudices and stereotyping that African-American men face in America. He does this by relating to his audience through his personal experiences with stereotyping, and sharing his malcontent on how these events have made him alter his way of living. From “victimizing” woman, watching people lock themselves away, and having to whistle classical music to calm the nerves of people around him; Staples builds a picture to help people better sympathize and understand his frustration. Although Staples describes himself as a college graduate, a journalist, and a softy in the face of violence, he details that the overall public deems him a dangerous criminal.

Read More

Quattor Aetates: The Golden Age

910 Words | 4 Pages

“Long, hot summers” of rioting arose and many supporters of the African American movement were assassinated. However, these movements that mused stay ingrained in America’s history and pave way for an issue that continues to be the center of

Read More

Racism In Mark Lamont Hill's 'Nobody'

856 Words | 4 Pages

Overtime all things change and develop into new forms, this is even true for racism. Mark Lamont Hill’s “Nobody” takes us through the history of black Americans in the U.S in relation to state. Moreover, he reveals the storyline within the nation that has consistently marked majority of minorities as expendable, products and as nobodies. Being that the book is only around 200 pages, we only get at the surface of what Mr. Hill is analysing. Nonetheless, he expertly maneuvers through the U.S’s muddy history to display the role of the State in keeping this “nobody” identity on black Americans.

Read More

The Case Against Reparations

1007 Words | 5 Pages

If Between the World and Me was viewed as a book saturated with hopelessness, Coates’s most famous essay regarding reparation “The Case against Reparations”, regarding incarceration “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration”, and regarding the president “Barack Obama, Ferguson, and the Evidence of Things Unsaid” would most likely deem him a cynic. Coates begins The Case for Reparations by stating, “Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy.

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of Just Walk On By

1164 Words | 5 Pages

His sympathetic persona along with his analogies actively connect the reader to his story, while the strong diction and depressing tone make a strong emotional impact. Unlike most essays, the anti discrimination message can be applied to multiple minority groups and other social issues. As a whole, Brent Staples essay succeeds on all levels as it makes an impactful argument describing how society's view on African Americans as being dangerous violent criminals is truly

Read More

Police Brutality Synthesis Essay

1491 Words | 6 Pages

Synthesis Research Paper Everyday growing up as a young black male we have a target on our back. Society was set out for black males not to succeed in life. I would always hear my dad talk about how police in his younger days would roam around the town looking for people to arrest or get into an altercation with. As a young boy growing up I couldn’t believe some of the things he said was happening. However as I got older I would frequently hear about someone getting killed by the police force.

Read More

More about Summary Of A Letter To My City By Troy Wiggins

Related Topics

Open Document