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Summary Of The Black Woman In Contemporary America By Shirley Chisholm

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In 1974 Shirley Chisholm was picked to be the keynote speaker at a national conference for black women at the University of Missouri. In her speech "The Black Woman in Contemporary America" Chisholm expresses to her audience that black women are not interested in being addressed as "Ms." or in gaining more control over things than males, but rather African American women's top priority is the well-being of their families and communities. Being that this speech was giving during the era of the Civil Rights movement, Chisholm criticized white feminist.While she went into depth of how important it is for black and white women to unite around issues such as equal treatment, women's rights, and better job opportunities. The main focus of this speech …show more content…

She also talks on how women have acquired leadership capabilities that if shown, would demonstrate the workings behind womanhood. At the same time, she scolded African American men that suggested black women step aside to allow them to take leadership and handle every economic aspect of their lives. Instead of getting riled up because of these comments, Chisholm calmly emphasized on the matter that only by working together could things get better. By seeing each other as" equals" black men and women create the policies and up to par standards needed by their …show more content…

Being that Chisholm is a strong black woman herself, she expresses that women have a voice that needs to be heard. She says that if women can take care of households " hold up and be strong behind their man," why women can't lead themselves. Chisholm refers to the 1970's as a time when society filled with the thoughts of sexism and racism, two factors that automatically denoted a woman. Instead of looking down on women, Chisholm was holding up the characteristics that woman poses, which can play to the strengths and advantages for the black community. However, being that black women being looked upon as the "lowest form" of the existence to the rest of society, they are forced to be in the back

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Her path to power was not easy. She talked about overcoming obstacles along the way. She claims that the hardest part is “having people accept you for who you are and when you’re a woman, not only a woman but a woman of color, sometimes you are not received the way you want to be received” (Y. Mcbarnett, personal communication, February 14, 2018). She feels like she has to defend herself as a woman of color to her white counterparts and prove to everyone that she can be an effective leader regardless of stereotypes and

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By researching and discussing the relationships between sexism, racism and economics during their many meetings and retreats, they succeeded in bringing awareness on a social level. An excerpt from the Collective’s avowal states, "As black feminists and lesbians we know that we have a very definite revolutionary task to perform and we are ready for the lifetime of work and struggles before us." This speaks volumes about the intentions and beliefs of these women, as well as their determination to make this a worldwide social movement. It is noteworthy to include that the Collective gives credit to the efforts put forth by their black women ancestors, such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth.

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In the text Shirley Chisholm is taking a stand for women’s rights rather than African American rights. Paragraph 4 it states, “ The unspoken assumption is that women are different.” What Chisholm means by this is that they are treated differently due to their gender. Chisholm believes that it is not always true that women are different. Paragraph 6 states, “But the truth is in the political world I have been far oftener discriminated against because I am a woman than because I am black.”

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Shirley Chisholm became the first African American woman elected in the U.S. Congress and run for president as a Democratic candidate. Despite losing the presidential nomination Shirley Chisolm continued to be inspiration for young African American women across the United States. Chisholm was a great orator that used her voice to improve racial inequality and women rights for all Americans. Her speech given on the floor of the House of Representatives in 1968 will forever immortalize Shirley Chisholm’s dedication to improving human rights. The use of fallacies throughout her speech were used to captivate her audience and bring attention to the injustice that was going on in America.

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Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm, an American politician, was an avid supporter of equal rights of all races and sexes. Shirley Chisholm is best known for becoming the first African American women in Congress. She then went on to run in the 1972 presidential election as a Democratic candidate, making Chisholm the first major party African American woman to run (Ford 110). Soon after, she became an inspiration to many women of color around the nation. Throughout her political career, Chisholm gave many speeches on equal rights and social justice.

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601 Words | 3 Pages

Shirley Chisholms uses inclusive language to portray that “We work together, black and white… in the confidence that every man and every woman in America has at long last the opportunity to become all that he was created of being such as his ability.” Through the use of the word “we” Chisholms develops pathos, and accomplishes to give a stronger sense of unity and inclusion, in addition developing ethos through the use of a major religion at the time, being Christianity, by stating that “...we are all God's children…” which she uses as a form to unify her audience as it was likely that her audience had religion in

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The essence of the speech relies on Chisholm’s fundamental ability and her own personal

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As black women always conform under patriarchal principles, women are generally silenced and deprived of rights because men are entitled to control everything. Women are silenced in a way that they lose their confidence and hesitate to speak up due to the norms present in the society they live in. Hence, even if women have the confidence to try to speak, men wouldn’t bother to listen since men ought to believe that they are superior to women. In addition to that, women often live in a life cycle of repetitions due to patriarchal principles since women are established to fulfill the roles the society had given them. It is evidenced by Celie as she struggles to survive and to define oneself apart from the controlling, manipulative, and abusive men in her life.

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II The book describes African Americans in the time period of slavery through civil war and civil rights revolution, to 1980s, after the segregation of the black race. The book mainly focus on the speech done by social activists of different time period. In addition of the reasons and different beliefs of those social activist had. Such as Frederick Douglass, who believe we can’t wait for somebody else to fight freedom for us.

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Chisholm This means that she feel `uncomfortable that many people don’t accept females and black to do a certain job. In addition, this also proves that she is forthright when it comes to her speeches. Another example comes from Listen a speech from Howard University by Shirley ‘’While nothing is easy for the black man in America, neither is anything impossible. Like old man river, we are moving along and we will continue to move resolutely until our goal of unequivocal equality is attained. We must not be docile, we must not be resigned, nor must we be inwardly bitter.

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When black females are growing they are raised to have characteristics that force them to be more independent. When black females who were raised to be independent were asked to describe themselves they said words such as “pushy, strong, loud, aggressive, assertive, demanding, determined ()”. Her strength comes from her implementing quotes in her argument, however, they also lack a full story. Personally, I was flabbergasted in discovering that black females are taught to be the breadwinner as opposed to other

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Besides illustrating how discrimination is being depicted towards black women in a time of slavery, Sojourner Truth also comments on how there should be no line between genders no matter the race, by addressing this matter it began to reach to a larger audience. Sojourner Truth begins by comparing the white American man to a black women slave, “[l]ook at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I am women?”

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Women’s Oppression in the literary perspective as compared to Corregidora “You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.” Women’s oppression began long before there was any form of recognition or attention given to it. Women oppression is defined as “a type of injustice oppression is the inequitable use of authority, law, or physical force to prevent others from being free or equal.” The word oppression is a significant label for what women had to endure ultimately because it is more than accurate which most are not able to accept.

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Shirley Chisholm’s Presidential Bid From the beginning, the world was a place of inequality. However, it is possible to change. Through hard work from significant individuals, the world has fought wars and created laws that have led towards equality.

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On May, 2013 during a video interview with “By Democracy Now” Angela Davis states, “I find it really interesting that the FBI decided to focus quite specifically on black women because somehow they feared it seems to me that the movement would continue and grow and develop particularly with the leadership and involvement of black women… That when the grandchildren of those who were active in the late 60s and 70’s are becoming involved in similar movements today, there is this effort to again terrorize young people by representing such important figures Assata Shakur as a terrorist.” The current plethora of interviews, crowded audiences on their public speaking tours and the ability to raise funds, public awareness and support in their fight for international social justice, shows that their gender had little impact on their ability to send powerful messages throughout world. From early colonialism to today, police brutality, racial discrimination and unfair social economic status are experienced equally by both Black men and women gender plays a small role in Black activism. BPP women are Abolitionist, Civil Right activists, Black Panther Party members and Black Lives Matters supporters.

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