In the text “ Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefinig Difference,’’ Audre Lorde purpose is to convey the idea that women need to become united no matter what race, sexual difference, or socioleconomic status in order to change the role of women in the society expectation and structure through the use of diction to make the reader understand the difficult challenges women have to faced in their life.This is important because women has always been belittle in the society. For instance, in the 1900s women were label as the housewife which meant that they take care of the house mess when their husband or for young girls whose parents are not in the house. This related to the text “ Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefinig Difference,’’ Lorde state, “ [W]hite women . . . teach the children to behave, hate the right men, marry the right men . . .until a men needs your job or the neighborhood rapist happens along ( page 3).” This quote elaborate on the idea that there’s still segregation of power between women and men still happening today which reveal that women are still held unimportant in society. Leading man to be the superior and most valuable person in the community. In addition, the author is persuading and informing at a certain point in the essay. Also, this format is logic and pathos since some part of the essay has data references and emotion due to the extreme pain that women face in their life. The audience is to western european history condition which are the colonist people that made the system of oppression and the secondary source is the mens ( general) , lesiban women, white women and women of color. The narrative target mostly to the white men who were superior that created the laws, integrated christianity and ideas in the America constitution. These people were the ones that cause many unfair treatment and had the power so those who didn’t had this were different. Lorde point out this idea that people of color are a majority target, “ Women of color are the lowest paid wage earners in america.We are the primary targets of abortion and sterilization abuse, here and aboard. . . sewed shut between their legs to keep them docile and for men’s pleasure( page 3).” The evidence points out that women of color face more repercussions from men due to the less power these women of color have in the community and are more easier to dominant. Overall, this text want the readers to know what is occurring to women now a days and what could be done to make a turning point to this problem which is having women come together and work together.
Audre Lorde, 1980, ‘’ Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference.” Amerst College. Use 10/23/19
In the article, “ The Other Side Of Broken Window, “ is about how cops track down issues in the environment which increase crime rates. Adds up to the proposition that poor environment are a major threat which lead to mistreatment by the cops and unfair justices. Lead to environment improvement and more attention taken to underrated areas.
The author elaborated on the idea that corruption happen mostly on poverty environment since there’s no valuable importance toward the society. Poor looking environment tend to be mostly the target of police since the area is not really seen as a noticeable attention to a lot of people. For instance, the author states, “ Criminals perceive broken windows and other forms of disorder as signs of weak social control; in turn, they assume that crimes committed there are unlikely to be checked. ” In this quote the author reveal that strict and even abusive policies destitute property has to face which cause people to feel insecure.
I’m going to use this as a way to demonstrate how could community that aren’t seen insignificant be deal. By dealing, I mean explaining the concept of where the rising situation come from and how this some situation leads to a bigger problematic crisis to people. Also, to highlight ethnicity and socioeconomic status simulate in society value.
Everyone has a different manners of conveying their perspective based on what they see or experience in life. The griot is a role from West Africa storyteller based on oral tradition that describes an individual who was enslaved to keep their stories and tradition alive by the use of literature, the griot is a way for the black individual to explain their emotions, history and be heard. The use of specific diction and imagery highlights the point of each author’s view of the world by illustrating their way of thinking something which enable the reader to get an understanding of their background and thoughts.
During the middle passage many African people were exported to different places to be use for labor which was known as slavery. During those periods of time black people were brainwashed by those who control them. For instance, Lucy Terry was enslaved or captured and eventually became a free woman in 1756 which made her pursued her poems to the public. In “ Bars fight “ Lucy Terry described a massacre in 1746 at a settlement in Deerfield where Native Americans attack the colonists to seen with her own eyes, Terry purpose is to exhibit her thoughts of what’s occurring at this moment. This is important because she acts as a griot when she starts with the use of formal and scathing tone to give an analysis or sense of mind and emotions of black people. To begin with, “ Some very valiant men to slay . . . Eteazer Hawks was killed outright/ Before he had time to fight/ Before he did the Indians see/ Was shot and immediately “ ( 9-12 ). “ Here Terry explains that the colonist men were ambushed by the native Americans, which gave them less time to defend themselves so nearly all of them died. These lines stand out for me because she labels the white pale men as brave, painting them in a positive picture which is unexpected. Literature would describe a lighter skin color people in a negative way, since blacks were mistreated by those who were empowered of them, but for Terry, I believe she must have been treated respectfully due to the environment she was raised from the way she describes white individuals in her poem. Also, Terry emphasized the Native Americans as “ [A]wful creatures ” (24). The poem depicts the Native American as evil humans but Terry failed to understand that the Native American are basically trying to defend their land just like her people before they were captured. This is significant because Terry describing a conflict that arose from the native American and white individuals till the end but point out the Native American as the villain this suggest that Black American has adopted the lifestyle of white American worldview.
African American had been through pain and trained memory which means that people of color were taught to be clarify and erased their culture. Another poem that is similar to Lucy Terry ‘’ Bars Fight “ is “ Bible Defense of Slavery “ by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Harper is an African American writer whose poem stands up for black people, making it clear to the audience that slavery is wrong and religion is being misused. However, it demonstrates that Harper has also add on to the idea that griot is a way for the black individual to explain their emotions, history, and be heard through the use of specific diction and imagery. Harper poem is about the religion of christianity and how white christains value their religion in the society and to others. Harper emphasis on “ Let holy sorrow blanch each cheek/ Pale every brow with fears/ And rocks and stones/ If ye could speak/ Ye well might melt to tears ( 5-8). ” Harper uses ‘’ holy ‘’and ‘’ pale ‘’ as something that the white christian expect from people of color demonstrate that through religion, she has been taught how to speak their language, and believe in the double consciousness in the black community, especially. when they at a church. Double consciousness is meant that black people adopted the American mainstream or social norms in order to fix in. Harper continues “ For the direst wrong by man imposed/ Sice Sodom’s fearful cry/ The word of life has been unclo’sd/ To give your god the lie ( 18-20 ). “ This emphasis Harper’s argument that religion was being used negatively. Harper questions how did white christians influence their thoughts of god words to the world and can be considered christianity when priests, pope, and teacher of the church are making scriptures. This brainwashed people which cause a caste system in society. Harper demands that this causes made people to forget their own culture due to the enforcement of the new religion they had to learn. Notes that religion was being used as a base for blinding the truth to the society that Christianity is important.
Overall, these two poems empower the white folks due to the outstanding skill and format of their communication in the poem which also highlights their imagery of viewing white people and explaining what stood out to them. African American were forced to be re-educated in order to be accepted by society because of colonist rules. Both of these poems also embody the role of griot because Terry and Harper are storytellers, lay out what they had been through in their life. I agree to a certain extent but not Terry’s use of terminology of making the colonist people be written in a good way since there were the ones who invaded Native American land. Today, we still have people who are considered powerful. For instance, those who own a certain part of a land from a foreign country are being treated well when the owner goes back for a vacation. This exhibit that the country people are ruled over the ones who originally took over them before.
Work Cited
Terry, Lucy . “ Bars fight.” 1855, pp. 1. Access on September 8-23.
Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins. “ Bible Defense of Slavery “ 1988. Access on September 8-23
In the article “ The Black Canon: Reconstructing Black American Literary Criticism “ is about the struggles black american had to face within the racial inequality in the society. In this article, I found out that black american still have a long term issue within the white audience in the literature. The main focus of “ The Black Canon:Reconstructing Black American Literary Criticism, “is to emphasise that black american literature historical racial issues makes it difficult to be accepted in the white platform. For example, Joyce state “ Black man merges into American mainstream society, he or she looks at himself from an individual perspective that enable him or her to accept elitist American values… Phenomena.” This evidence highlights that even though some people of color are accepted their people are still belittle which made the people of color stand up to express themselves.
This critical essay resonated with me because the essay discuss the ideas, and explain the situation that these people had to face in order to express themselves. . A memorable quote for me is “ The black writer is the point of consciousness of his language” because this quote means that a person has a voice when they write something.The rhetorical situation is about the way we convey with other individuals using five different elements in a text ( Purpose, Audience, Genre, Stance, and Media/Design ). To begin, the purpose is the important message, audience basically is the group of people that you are trying to convey to, genre explain the way of exporting a message, stance is your feeling and media/ design is the way a message is format and transport. Ethos, pathos, and logos connects with the five elements because each provided the in between stage of each elements in order for the text to be understood and well done.
Slavery was a time period where supremacy occurred between the white people and african people. Based on the reading of The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead expose the idea of freedom being restricted since there were slave catchers, laws passed down which limits choices for black people, and physical violation. This novel highlights that African Americans were psychologically impacted because these individuals had the feeling of insecurity within an environment, trauma from beat down, taking accountable of showing respected, brainwashing their griot and culture tradition, and a lack of education. The psychological trauma is a critical issue because this could impact a person’s health and ability to work independently. Colson whitehead explores through Cora and Caesar’s runaway experience and their lives as slaves. These two characters are important because readers can visualize what happened to people of color during that time period. If african american community don’t take action from their ancestors suffering then the next generation would held certain psychological disorder that their parents had which is why there’s a gap between people of color and white individual in society standard.
What would freedom be like? Freedom allows individuals to have the power to make their own decisions in their lives. Freedom in terms of enslaved people is not having to bow down as a way of saying “ hi ‘’ in order to show respect when a white person is walking through, able to vote, travel anywhere without worrying about the consequences for leaving their homeland, and have the ability to economically sustain themselves. These slaves were not granted the right to be treated equally to white people because colonists wanted someone to do labor for minimal costs. Political events and laws passed down affected african people’s decision. Also, psychological impact means the outcomes caused by the area where african people grow up or by a living organism on a person’s life which can cause mental disorder. Enslave human beings feared the physical violation of their master, and the lack of doing activities on their own.
How did slavery impacted black children lives? How did gender play a role during slavery? Those who had power over someone else tend to belittle others that aren’t at their standards. Slavery was a time period where african people was control and put to labor since colonist found these individual useful for their econmic growth. In the book Driven Toward Madness : The Fugitive Slave Margaret Garner and Tragedy on the Ohio Taylor, Nikki Mari, described the experiences of females runaway slaves and why the majority of runaway are men instead of females. For Instance, “ It is not that these women did not want to escape, but because they were the primary caregivers for their children . . . fear of losing their children through sale, and those took the children with them. “ ( 8) In this quote the author demonstrate that gender responsibility had a huge impact toward children which made women to have a struggle of choosing to either runaway or stay at the plantation for their kids safety. This connects back to Cora’s experience as a slave person since her mother ran away from the brutality suffered on the Randall plantation which illustrate that horrific circumstances and how this trauma could generated children life to be miserable and harsh in order to obtain freedom. ( 297-300 )Whereas Caesar had no worries from running away. Also, in the article, Waren state, “ South female slaves were highly prized due to their low cost and their breeding abilities . . . man must be strong, resilient and unemotional and that they are superior to women because of this combined with their intelligence.” Gender roles were important to white american because these individuals were a contribution toward an increase in production and a rise of economic growth. This situation connect to the experience Cora’s mother, since her mother had five children and only one survive from repercussion of the master. Kakutani state, “ Which was true-back then Randall rarely sold the little ones. You knew where and how your children would die.The child that lived past the age ten was Cora’s mother, Mabel. (8) ”
Being commanded by someone else in your entire life and now having to be self taught or have full autonomy throughout challenges. How did enslaved survivors deal with the trauma experiences of once being a slave? Why was education a big deal to slave people and how did this created a turning point in the society norms? Katy Robjant explicit highlights the mentally disorder that slavery had affected today’s black people in their lives.In an article, Robjant convey, “ Some of the people that I have worked with have been enslaved for years. They have had no control over their basic need . . . having difficulties trusting others, and yet have significant problems keeping themselves safe, often becoming involved in other exploitative relationships ( 2). ‘’ This demonstrates that free enslave individuals that possess their own decision are struggling on maintaining themselves since these slave people had always been dependent on someone else. Going back to the concept of lack of independent these survivors related to Cora and Caesar runaway experience because these individuals had to share a dormitory with 79 people which was unpleasant and work a job under a white family company. This connects back to my idea of insecurity because african american cannot depend on themselves so these individuals depends on someone who is reliable and manage their life choices once they had granted the freedom or runaway from their masters since their entire lives was upheld by a master. Moreover, in an article Why was education important to former slaves, the author communicated, “Ability to learn as well as an understanding of the opportunities opened up by education . . . Knowing the benefits of education, emancipated blacks worked vigorously to establish schools and colleges. ” To be someone important in the society you have to be at a certain level in order to convey that their existence are more than what they thought.
Overall, the lack of education, limited power, consequences, and respect given to the white individual play a role toward people of color because these factors are the causes of why the search of freedom is difficult to obtain and the effect that leave to people of color. In today world, we could still see a trend of health issue being affected by the trauma of slavery from religion and the status economic standard between people of color and white americans. Going back to the idea of insecurity created by the conditions of slavery that freedom may never be obtained in a racist society because there’s always going to be someone above that would control others human choices and resources. In the modern day, there have been tragic and news about cops killing black people for little things. This could relate to the Window theory were people focus majority in poor conditions area that trigger the cops suspicious of the community being criminals since they live there.
Works Cited
Ware, Laura, “ Traditional Gender Roles and slavery. ‘’
In this essay I would answer question 7 because themes are very important in this book “ The Underground Railroad. “ The theme that I’m going to talk about is oppression because oppression played a huge role since enslave people don’t have power. Oppression is the unjust treatment or control held by those who have more authorities or full control. So this related to the plantation owner and the enslaved individuals. The five questions that I have are, Those who have totalorism, why do they feel like enslave people should be belittled to the extent where someone’s life is taken?, How do owners feel toward the enslave people ?, What ideas goes on the mind of enslave people when they see an owner doing disgusting action?, the other two I’m still thinking about it.
I’m still on the lookout for my sources that I’m going to use because there’s tons of source outlaid in the ccny library which cause me to take time since I have to read and specifically look for details that related to oppression and connects to the book. Still working on the context, claims are somewhat strong to elaborated on the idea of oppression, and on the lookout for the other three resources.
When it comes to picking a favorite song, I don’t have one because I listen to various types of artists from different genres. However, there’s this song that I cannot forget to listen which is
“ Amar Y Queder “ by Jose Jose. Jose Jose is a Mexican artists ( one of the legends ) who’s known for his talented voice and died two days ago ( Sept. 28 at age 71 ). In his song, “ Amar Y Queder “ he portrays a melancholic love tone to captivated the audience and make some audience tear down. The lyrics that stood out the most is “ Casi todos sabemos querer . . . pero pocos sabemos amar. “ In other words “ Almost all of us know how to cared but very few know how to love with a never ending relationship. This stood out for me because the words reminded me of my parents who love me and do anything to keep me safe, happy, and have all the resources I need. The word “ Amar “ related to those who you build relationships in school, job, and couple relationship ( not every couple relationship ). Beside the analysis of the song, this song has memories of my childhood and other special events that all of my family where gathered together.
The power of words can build or tear down. Create a big smile or produce a frown. So in your contacts each day be sure to encourage in all that you say. To me this means that an individual actions, thoughts, and voice could create a positive or negative impact on society or the area around them. For instance, Adolf Hilter was a pitiful leader who scapegoated jewish people for making germany society weak which produce many deaths of jewish people. At the same time hitler made a somewhat positive impact by uplifting the germans. This demonstrates that a person could make a different structure in the society depending on the needs of the community. Furthermore, Gandhi is another individual that stood up for violence in Indian for using starvation as a movement for salt march to the british in order to eliminate colonist. This made people to start following gandhi idea in order to rebel against the british At the end each individual made a shift in the society by using actions that stood out to the people and found it as a beneficial way of winning or just compromising the society by gaining liberation from the unfairness treaty. This is why an individual mindset is so powerful and dangerous once they gain the ability to influence those around them.
The Bronx had ups and down through their history from the 1900-1990 century. In my community ( Bronx third ave ) there’s unsecured ness and oppression between cops and people of color. By oppression I mean people who take advantage of another person’s life. Unsecured ness come from the lack of protection and who to trust in the community. Therefore, socioeconomic status and ethnicity tend to be a major role for an increase of incarceration in jail systems from unprotected, uncertified laws and unfair cases which affects those who are around.
My community has faced corruption due to the status of the area. The environment looks (poverty) portrays whether people would find the place safe or not safe which brings the concept of unsecured ness. This led to the idea of “ The Broken Window Theory, “ it’s about cracking down on petty crimes in the most dangerous areas that police feel suspicious about which makes positive or negative changes to the community. The theory is sometimes played in my community. For instance, Eric Klinenberg state, “ Motivation for “ zero tolerance “ policing, wherinn officers monitor petty crimes, such as graffiti, loitering, public intoxication, and even panhandling, and courts severely punish those convicted of committing them.( Klinenberg ) ‘’ This connect to my community ( bronx third ave ) because not many people care about the projects, especially since the area is seen so poorly, uncontrollable. the cops, violence, and crimes rise making the community be tough. In addition, the cops would be targeting minorities, which inflicts people in the communities to have less confidence in trust and unfair social justice since officers are arresting those who they believe are doing something unpleasant.
Furthermore, this connects to the ‘’ Letter from a Birmingham Jail “ from Martin Luther King Jr. because unfair justice tends to happen when people of different ethnicity are belittled by those who have more power in the society. The ‘’ Letter from a Birmingham Jail “ is about the issue of injustice occurring in the justice system. For example, Luther writes down “ We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. “ This quote disputes the idea that people of color ( different ethnicity ) are mainly targeted due to segregation occurring in the south during 1929. This is significant because problems from 1929 are still happening today due to the fact that there’s not much confrontation toward an unfair issue or advocating of a problem that was misjudged to those individuals of different ethnicity. This connects to the idea of socioeconomic status and ethnicity because people of color have limited power which cause them to not take direct action due to some recidivism and be a prey since there isn’t worth that much toward the society economically.
People of different ethnicity tend to be the main prey for incarcerated in the justice system from the unprotected and uncertified laws and repercussions from the jail system. In the article of ‘’Mass incarceration and the ‘new Jim Crow’: An interview with Michelle Alexander, “ the authors elaborated on the idea that law enforcement cause families from people of color to be split which make the young children to see life difficult and are impacted by not having a role model. For example, “ [P]sychological impact, the emotional impact, the level of grief and suffering, it’s beyond description. “ This reveals that children are the ones mostly impacted from having to deal with tragedy at an early age which cause them to thrive with anything to make their families be in good condition. This led to the cycle of being involved in the bad activity and being incarcerated. As this keeps happening the percentage of people of color increases in the jail system which results in the unavailability of doing something later in their life. This connects to the idea that incarceration, socioeconomic status and ethnicity because those who were felons aren’t valuable and live in poverty areas.
In my community, ordinary people had been victims of scapegoat from a case that wasn’t their responsibility. As a young kid, I have seen people in my neighborhood frisk and stop by just standing in an area for a few minutes. There was this one time that I was walking home with a group of friends and I saw a man (hispanic= dominican) who I was familiar with being held accountable by two aggressive cops for staying in a spot for 6 minutes just because the cops felt suspicious. This causes me to feel some type of way toward the cops and my friends were surprised by the action taken by the cops decision. After the man was released we ran and asked if he’s fine and he told me nah because now he doesn’t know who to trust and would have the trauma of this situation. This incident made me come up with some solutions which were to have people not stay at a spot for a long time, whenever a cop approaches, stay calm and integrate them with some questions about their actions taken, and don’t make the cops repeat themselves many times because this could lead them to be aggressive.
Overall, corruption, unjustice and discrimination makes socioeconomic status for people of color to be bad and supremacy often tend to destroy life of other people. Today there’s still cases where cops over did a decision which causes a person to live. That’s why we should focus more on the way cops and other individuals handle a situation.
Sources Cited
Klinenberg Eric, “ The Other Side Of Broken Windows. “, The New Yorker, August 28. 2018
Redeem from
Martin Luther King JR. ( August 1963 ), “ Letter from Birmingham Jail. “ Used in November 8, 2019, The Atlantic Monthly
Volume 212. No 2: pages 78-88
Stopford, Annie and Smith, Llewellyn ( Dec. 2014), “ Mass incarceration and the ‘new Jim Crow’: An interview with Michelle Alexander.”
My community needs a reconstruction and improvement in the environment because there’s a bunch of awful activities and domination that causes unsecured ness and oppression. By oppression I mean people who take advantage of another person lives. Unsecured ness come from the lack of protection and who to trust in the community. This all lead to a poverty environment. Therefore, ethnicity and socioeconomic highlight the humiliation, incarcerarion and the discrimination certain people have to face from white supremacy.
My community is similar to the idea of ‘’The Broken Window Theory”. I compared “ The Broken Window Theory “ to my community, because not many people care about the projects, especially since the area is seen so poorly, so small issues starts to become a big deal later on. Once my community became uncontrollable, the cops, violence, and crimes rise making the community be tough. Going back to the concept of “ The Broken Window Theory, “ it’s about cracking down on petty crimes in the most dangerous areas that police feel suspicious about which make positive or negative changes to the community. For instance, Eric Klinenberg state, “ Motivation for “zero tolerance” policing, wherein officers monitor petty crimes, such as graffiti, loitering, public intoxication, and even panhandling, and courts severely punish those convicted of committing them.” This means that more report from police will be targeting minorities, especially black men. This lead to communities to have less confidence to trust and unfair social justice since officers are arresting those who they believe are doing something unpleasant.
Furthermore, this connects to the ‘’ Letter from a Birmingham Jail “ from Martin Luther King Jr. because unfair justice tend to happen when people of different ethnicity are belittled by those who have more power in the society. Ethnicity mean The ‘’ Letter from a Birmingham Jail “ is about the issue of injustice occurring in the justice system. For example, Luther write down “ We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. “ This quote dispute the idea that people of color ( different ethnicity ) are mainly target due to segregation occurring in the south during 1929. This is significant because problem from the 1929 still happening today due to the fact that there’s not many confrontment toward the issue or advocating the problem of unfair treatment to those individuals of different ethnicity. This connects to the idea of socioeconomic status and ethnicity because people of color have limited power that cause them to not take a direct action.
People of different ethnicity tend to be the main prey for incarcerated in the justice system from the unprotected and uncertified laws and repercussions from the jail system. In the article of ‘’Mass incarceration and the ‘new Jim Crow’: An interview with Michelle Alexander, “ the authors elaborated on the idea that law enforcement cause families from people of color to be split which make the young children to see life difficult and are impacted by not having a role model. For example, “ [P]sychological impact, the emotional impact, the level of grief and suffering, it’s beyond description. “ This reveals that children are the ones mostly impacted from having to deal with tragic at an early age which cause them to thrive with anything to make their families be in good condition. This led to the cycle of being involved in the bad activity and incarcerated. As this keep happening the percentage of people of color increase in the jail system which result in the unavailability of doing something later ion in their life. This connects to the idea that incarceration, socioeconomic status and ethnicity because those who were felons aren’t valuable and life in poverty areas.
Overall, corruption, unjustice and discrimination makes socioeconomic status for people of color to be bad and supremacy often tend to destroy life of other people. Today there has been cases where the cops over did their decision which cause some of these targets lose their lives.
Sources Cited
Klinenberg Eric ( August 28, 2018), “ The Other Side Of Broken Windows. “ Used in November 8, 2019, The New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-other-side-of-broken-windows
Martin Luther King JR. ( August 1963 ), “ Letter from Birmingham Jail. “ Used in November 8, 2019, The Atlantic Monthly Volume 212. No 2: pages 78-88
Stopford, Annie and Smith, Llewellyn ( Dec. 2014), “ Mass incarceration and the ‘new Jim Crow’: An interview with Michelle Alexander.”
Volume 19 issue 4, p379-391, Redeem from https://www.vanderbilt.edu/ctp/The_New_Jim_Crow.pdf
Need help with the Commons?
Email us at commonshelpsite@gmail.com so we can respond to your questions and requests. Please email from your CUNY email address if possible. Or visit our help site for more information:
