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The Role Of Racism In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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Racism is apparent throughout Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” in which we follow the life of an African-American family in Chicago in the 1950’s, who are trying to move out of the slums through the insurance money that they got from Mr. Young’s death. But this would be become a challenge for them as they are in the midst of a racial segregation in which they were not allowed to have the same rights as their white counterparts. Such as having the ability to obtain the same jobs, education, and being able to purchase the same houses as their white counterparts. This does put African American’s at a disadvantage, as in many cases they are unable to leave the lower class and are continued to look down upon by those that in a higher class them or a white skin color. Furthermore, white people in the 1950’s discriminated against race according to racial discrimination and Class-based bias. Which came from the perspective that “all black migrants were lower skilled, low-income workers who did not fit into …show more content…

As Lena Younger, Walter mother also feels that blacks are being discriminated against, as they are almost being forced to live in the slums, do the price of houses for blacks out of the slums is so high that many families or people are unable to afford it within their life time. This is seen within the play when Lena says “them houses they put up for colored areas way out all seem to cost twice as much as other houses. I did the best I could” (2.i). Mama is showing how difficult it is for African Americans to move into a house as they are unable to move up no matter how hard they try, due racist laws set up by the whites make it difficult for them to leave the slums. As the laws are being set up to make it as difficult as possible for African American to leave the slums and enter the

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If your skin wasn't the same color, you didn't want to talk with each other, yet even look at one another. The family in this book are the Younger´s. There are many of them living in the same small old house in the ghetto in Chicago. Mama and Walter are the main people in the household. Besides them, there is Beneatha, Ruth, and Travis living in the house also.

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Many Americans wonder why once-boomtowns like Chicago and Detroit have deteriorated into little more than ghetto villages surrounded by skyscrapers. The answer may be found in patterns from mid-20th-century urban segregation. Starting around the turn of the 1950’s, segregation laws intensified between whites and blacks, as portrayed in Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, named after the final line in one of Langston Hughes’ most famous poems. This created an idea of “white flight,” as white, middle-class citizens left urban areas out of fear that the presence of minorities would devalue their neighborhood land. In Hansberry’s story, the black, lower-class Younger family compares to the pattern of white flight observed in the mid-20th century by illustrating the xenophobia of whites, the occasional sleaziness of realtors, and the boldness of the minority groups during this period.

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In the novel A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry brings in multiple characters for brief periods. Each character impacts the story in his or her own specific way. In Hansberry’s realistic fiction novel, she allows the reader to experience what it is like to live in a time period where African Americans and Whites are not considered equals. She gives in depth scenarios, showing what it is truly like to be an African American in Chicago during the 1950’s. The characters in the story experience a multitude of issues involving society, culture, and family.

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Fighting power in Antigone and A Raisin In The Sun “Power concedes nothing without demand. ”- Frederick Douglass. Meaning the people in power will never pay attention to anything that isn’t pushed upon and demanded by the people. Throughout history people have fought for their beliefs and even have given up their lives for their beliefs.

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One of these flaws is equal rights. African Americans are having difficulties obtaining their own spot. “[Hansberry brings] local, individual struggles of African Americans—against segregation, ghettoization, and capitalist exploitation—to the national stage. (Gordon, 121 and 122)” The play first points out segregation.

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Cooper McMillan Ms. Coen Advanced English 9 May 19, 2023 Title In the ’50s and ‘60s and long before, African Americans did not have the same rights or opportunities as their white counterparts. When this was happening multiple factors led to this such as segregation, redlining, and the availability of certain jobs. During the primary time of the segregation, specifically, from 1954 to 1968, the African Americans Were fighting for the right to be looked upon as equal. This led to pay disparity and caused a lot of different views on money as someone could see in the play A Raisin in the Sun.

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The racism and sexism being shown in the Raisin in The Sun demonstrates that the matrix of domination is in play. In the book, Beneatha is an African-American woman who is battling not only racism, but also sexism. She battles racism by attending medical school during the civil right movement era and she battles sexism at home with her brother Walter, and being told to marry George Murchison. In the text Walter says “We one group of men are tied to a race of women with small minds” (Hansberry, 35). In this quote he not only degrades the woman, but he degrades the African American woman.

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Gender Expectations in Different Cultures “Women are supposed to cook and do house chores… Women should be responsible for raising children… Men should tell women what they should do… Men are superior than women.” Gender expectations are evident in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and the society in Korea. Due to their different culture and lifestyle, The Youngers, the African American family, in A Raisin in the Sun have gender expectations that are different from the those in Korea.

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Critical Race Theory is the examination and interpretation of society’s behavior in dealing with race, class, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, etc. In A Raisin in the Sun, Walter had to deal with situations like white privilege, microaggressions, institutionalized racism, social construction, and intersectionality. By having to deal with these conditions, Walter fought to become “a successful man”. He wanted to be like his idea of a successful white man of the times with a nice house in the suburbs, a car for him and his wife, and be able to let his son go to any college he wants to. Walter just wants to try to be equal to white people, but racism keeps pushing him down.

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Racism is a problem that people of every race around the world still faces today. In the film adaptation of The Help and the text version of Lorraine Hansberry's “A Raisin in The Sun”, racial discrimination is a major theme explored. Racial discrimination is a major theme that both sources portray. There are laws that make discrimination illegal in The United States but it people still suffer from it, however, The Help and “A Raisin if The Sun” portray more ways in which this problem can be eliminated through resistance, getting support from the oppressors, and showing the intimidators their behaviors and attitudes.

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Through the use of the historical lens, looking specifically at the economic struggles, the struggle of unequal opportunity, and the housing covenant that African-American’s faced in the 1950’s, Hansberry’s message of A Raisin in the Sun is revealed: the perseverance of an ethnic minority in a time of racial discrimination. A Raisin in the Sun is set in a time of great racial discrimination, the 1950’s in the united States. This featured racism towards those of color or non-caucasians, and the struggles commonly faced by the African-American family is shown through the eyes of the Younger family through the writing and experiences of Lorraine Hansberry. Of the three major struggles the Younger family faced, the most prominent in Act one is that of financial disability. This is best shown through the working lives of the family.

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816 Words | 4 Pages

The famous play shows the audience the life it was like to live as a black female, and shows the struggles that the Young family faced being the first African American family to move into a white neighborhood. This play is considered a

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In the autobiography “Black Boy” by Richard Wright, Richard learns that racism is prevalent not only in his Southern community, and he now becomes “unsure of the entire world” when he realizes he “had been unwittingly an agent for pro-Ku Klux Klan literature” by delivering a Klan newspaper. He is now aware of the fact that even though “Negroes were fleeing by the thousands” to Chicago and the rest of the North, life there was no better and African Americans were not treated as equals to whites. This incident is meaningful both in the context of his own life story and in the context of broader African American culture as well. At the most basic level, it reveals Richard’s naïveté in his belief that racism could never flourish in the North. When

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They raise a white child and then twenty years later the child becomes the employer. It's that irony that we love them and they love us, yet...' I swallowed, my voice trembling. ' We don't even allow them to use the toilet in the house,'" (Stockett, 125).

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Black women are treated less than because of their ascribed traits, their gender and race, and are often dehumanized and belittled throughout the movie. They are treated like slaves and are seen as easily disposable. There are several moments throughout the film that show the racial, gender, and class inequalities. These moments also show exploitation and opportunity hoarding. The Help also explains historical context of the inequality that occurred during that time period.

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