Oppression Of African American Body Essay - 1933 Words

â€Å"The best way to enslave a people is to enslave their history, consequently leaving them with no identity to refer to.† – Booker T. Coleman On August 20th, 1619, nearly four centuries ago, the first Africans were brought to their foreign home, America, and the implementation of systematic oppression served to eradicate their identity had begun. The inhabitants of Africa, unconsciously traded in their cultural customs such as religion beliefs, knowledge, and language for the formalities of the Western world, leading to the oppression of African people. Language and diction being one of the core building blocks of society, has become a hidden weapon in the war of Racism, as a method to oppress those seen as an â€Å"other.† Through religion, mass media, and politics, diction has become a silent weapon used to attack the Black community. In order to adequately understand the negative implications of diction, the analysis of the origins of language is necessary. Throughout history, the African-American body has been renamed: black, nigger, Negro, and tar baby, to name a few. Although the words are constructed different in origination, they ultimately have two common denominators. The first denominator exists as depreciating terms of the African-American, and the second being that they were all words given by the white man to African-Americans. As Umar Johnson jokingly explains in the documentary, Hidden Colors, â€Å"A black man didn’t just wake up one day and decide ‘I’m goingShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Poem Strange Fruit And If We Must Die 918 Words   |  4 PagesRacial oppression: the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner because of race. A worldwide issue that very few understand. Although simply defined, the impacts of racial oppression on its victims are rarely comprehended. Fortunately, there are people who see through the fog, and present their understanding to the world . Lewis Allen, author of the poem â€Å"Strange Fruit†, and Claude McKay, author of â€Å"If We Must Die† present racial oppression through literary devices andRead MoreThe Classification Of Native Americans1457 Words   |  6 PagesThe classification of Native Americans by the United States government has long produced tension. Native Americans within the United States are classified using standards that differ from those used to classify other racial or ethnic minorities, specifically African Americans. While, historically, the classification of African-Americans as relied upon the â€Å"one-drop† rule, the classification of Native Americans over the past hundred years has relied upon varying, complicated, and ultimately arbitraryRead MoreThe Body By Hopkins And Douglas956 Words   |  4 Pages Essay 1: â€Å"The Body† Hopkins and Douglas described best what it is and was like to live in the U.S. with a Black body. Hopkins gives, in excruciating detail, numerous examples of of abuse African American men have and do face and describes the triangle of desire. Both Lorde and Cannon give compelling solutions to the liberation of African Americans or other persons of color as embodied persons, one being about eroticism, and the other combatting the two fundamental pillars of sexual identity ofRead More Post-Post Critiques of Racism970 Words   |  4 Pagescontemporary artists who are dealing with forms of oppression from being described as old fashion or out of date. Carrie Mae Weems is an African American photographer. She was born in 1953 in Portland, Oregon and she currently resides in Brooklyn NY. Her work deals with the issues such as identity, racism, gender, etc. Weems moved to San Francisco after high school where she got her BA and then she finished her MFA in San Diego, CA. Her first body of work was â€Å"Family Pictures and Stories†Read MoreFilm Analysis : The Film The Help 953 Words   |  4 PagesThe Cinema Help to Overturn Cultural Politics Issues in American Society. Abstract: This assay compares and contrasts mass culture film â€Å"The Help† debuted in 2011, directed by Tate Taylor, set in Jackson Mississippi in the 1960s. The Help represents various characters. However, characters to be analyzed in this film are: Celia Foot, Minny Jackson, and Hilly. In Contrast to The Help, is the feminist text â€Å"The Color Purple† directed by Steven Spielberg, released in 1985, set in 1900’s in the deepRead MorePoverty Of African Americans And Latino s Consume A High Fat And Nutritionally Low Diet979 Words   |  4 PagesAs a result of the pervasive power of racism, African Americans and Latino’s consume a high fat and nutritionally low diet, which contributes to their declining health by increasing their a susceptibility to disease. According the American Heart Association (2013), African Americans have a greater chance of contracting heart disease and a 15% higher mortality rate as opposed to their white counterparts, illustrating n ot only the high prevalence of disease in minorities, but the alarming health disparitiesRead MoreHow Is Lutie Johnson s Murder Of Boots Smith And Bigger Thomas Essay1502 Words   |  7 Pagesdirect representation of oppression and it’s impact on the American Dream for the African American? Ann Petry’s novel The Street (1946) is a commentary on the social injustices that confronted the protagonist Lutie Johnson. Lutie is a single African American mother who lives in segregated America during the 1940’s. Throughout the novel, we see that during this time period Lutie is confronted by racism, sexism, and classism on a daily basis while in her pursuit of the American Dream for herself andRead MoreOppression And Dehumanization Of African Americans Essay1429 Words   |  6 Pagesthey have to do in order to get their rights recognized, they will do it. In this case, African Americans had to fight to mold the country and freedom that they desired. When a group of people become oppressed they will learn to band together to mold their future and the future of their children. I would like to look into this from the point of view that even though we are referring to people of African American descent, other races would have done the same. I hope to touch on topics a nd keywords thatRead MoreAfrican American Women Have Suffered From Psychological And Physical Oppression1561 Words   |  7 PagesFor years, African American Women have suffered from psychological and physical oppression. During Enslavement, Black women were treated worse than men. They had no control over their bodies and were used as tools for the white slave owners’ enjoyment. Submission was expected, and therefore any form of resistance would have led to a series of whippings. Unfortunately, the abuse was not only received from the slave masters, but from the mistresses as well. Filled with envy, they would verbally andRead MoreHow Is Lutie Johnson s Murder Of Boots Smith And Bigger Thomas Essay1460 Words   |  6 PagesAndrà © Ajabor African American Literature 1940 – Present @02709326 As portrayed in both novels, how is Lutie Johnson’s murder of Boots Smith and Bigger Thomas’s murder of Mary Dalton a direct representation of oppression and it’s impact on the American Dream for the African American? Ann Petry’s novel The Street (1946) is a commentary on the social injustices that confronted the protagonist Lutie Johnson. Lutie is a single African American mother who lives in segregated America during the 1940’s