"The work must be political. It must have that as its thrust. That's a pejorative term in critical circles now: if a work of art has any political influence in it somehow it's tainted" (Toni Morrison). Discuss the nature of what you consider to be the "political thrust" in any two works studied on ... is an interesting perception of the melting pot theory of Americanism. The paint made there is Optic white - ""White! The purest white that can be found. Nobody makes a paint whiter. This batch right here is heading for a national monument!""(ibid. p.202). The purity of America is very ... do...

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• Grade Level: High School

... to being their sistas."6 I would argue that Hip-Hop artists do love black women and the purpose of this section is to illustrate how the lyrics of various songs have affirmed the beauty and strength of black women. To affirm is to confirm and assert positively.7 Affirmation usually is achieved by ... looks to be degrading and disrespectful. "You's a bad young thang-baby where yo" man? Making niggas head turn like god damn I"ma ask for your name-you've been blessed fa" sho Smelling better than a tight rolled optimo I"ma have to know how yo garden grow."14 When given these lyrics as a sit...

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• Grade Level: High School

... example asks, "If young Black America is going to be a cultural trendsetter on a global scale, why not use this to our advantage? Can you imagine what our influence could be if more groups like The Fugees or Tribe Called Quest created music and lyrics to inspire a new wave in Pan-African thinking? ... not simply a Black reality(2)." Afeni Shakur, Tupac's mother, put it best when she said, "It doesn't make sense to suggest that rap's violent lyrics are to blame for society's ills. If that were the case, she said, gospel music would have saved the world(2)." She understood that her son's ...

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• Grade Level: High School

... the more abstract intentions of recovering or reflecting a past, suggesting or establishing a present, and projecting or prophesying a future."" This statement seems to be the most accurate reflection of music's purpose in South African apartheid. Music had always been a primary component of black South Africa's extended fight against ... Between 1960-1990 more than 100 people were jailed by the South African government One of the first musicians jailed for so-called subversive lyrics was Oscar Mpeta, an aging trade unionist. Rufus Radebe and Joseph Charles were also imprisoned for singin...

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... Besides being a poet, actor, and rapper, he remembered as a teenager living in Baltimore, "We didn't have any lights. I used to sit outside be the streetlights and read the autobiography of Malcolm X. And then of course my mother had me read books by people like . Patrice Lumumba, Stokley Charmicheal, Bobby ... . Tupac said the album "was his practice to introduce a center character through whom he could develop a narrative". The album was bursting with militant lyrics, illustrating violence between the police and young black males. Most stories in which violence encounters, often leads ...

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• Grade Level: High School

... ideas, traditions, and skills of Western Europe. England, particularly, had a profound impact on American culture and society. English was the language to be learned by thousands of new immigrants such as the Germans, Mediterraneans, Eastern Europeans, Asians, and Africans (although for hundreds of years, Africans were ... Ice-T, NWA, The Geto Boys, Treach, Tupac, and more. Salt-n-Pepa changed all that for women with "Push it." (Henderson, 7) Nationalism must be wedded to at least two other elements: image and organization. Russell Simmons provided an organizational basis for black acts ...

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• Grade Level: High School

... When news of the arrest reached the black population, action was taken immediately. A massive bus boycott was organized, during which time no one of color could be found on a bus in the Montgomery area. Finally, in 1956, a law was passed proclaiming that any form of segregation was illegal and immoral.5 Unfortunately, ... of the same city, ordered the arrests of hundreds of non-violent student demonstrators.15 He also ordered high-pressured fire hoses and police dogs to be turned on the marchers, causing many injuries.16 Reporters covering such events often found themselves among the vi...

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• Grade Level: High School

... spirituals and folk songs. Of their music he claimed: These beautiful melodies are the product of the soil. They are American. They are the folksongs of America, and your composers must turn to them. In the Negro melodies of America, I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music.11 With his fusion of these two styles, Dvo ... harmony in their proportion You have composers who don't have a sense of what it means to create a harmonic idiom You're aware of what contemporary vocabulary consists of, but you must find how to use it in a way that will allow you to create ...

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• Grade Level: High School

... Power is expressed in the monopolization of space and the relegation of weaker groups in society to less desirable environments" (ix). An example of this idea would be areas similar to Compton, Harlem, and the Black Belt of Chicago which was the neighborhood of Bigger Thomas from Richard Wright's Native Son. Bigger is forced to live ... on earth. Then from the dark depths of my soul I cry to the avenging angel to consume the white man's world of wonders utterly: let it be swallowed up in the earth's vast womb, or upward roll as sacrificial smoke to liberate my people from its yoke!" This...

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... Their works touch the reader even those who cannot relate to the context of the work. You do not have to be a woman to understand and feel Sexton's pain, nor must you be a black man during the Harlem Renaissance to understand Hughes. Born, Anne Gray Harvey, this fascinating poet began her life ... disturbances. Feminist critics view Sexton's work from a different perspective, they "have considered the effect of the social pressures, as she was expected to be [that] happy housewife and perfect mother" (Hibbard). Sexton's poem, Her Kind is one filled with imagery that she uses to identify ...

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... best way to counter such superior injustice is by sticking together in this fight for equality. Steinem knew a strong sisterhood amongst women will be the only way this injustice would stop. The National Women's Political Caucus is the only national organization dedicated exclusively to increasing women's participation in ... from our women, Why we rape our women, do we hate our women" When I think of rape and compare it to those lyrics it saddens me because women are the one to give birth to men and for some of these men to abuse women just shows the ... political and economical equ...

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... untrustworthy, devious, and they are continuously complaining about racism when everything has been given to them? For an African-American this question may be insulting but at the same time it is unfortunate that in fact many African-Americans are perceived this way probably because African Immigrants are brought ... scroll down your timeline without seeing a picture with an ignorant joke about Ebola in it. I could only imagine how awful it would be to be an African immigrant coming to America with all the Ebola rumors that all Africans carry the disease. The divide between Africans a...

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... of around 1 trillion dollars a year. (freedomoutpost.com) With numbers like that the existence of racism keeps very important figures in this country in nice suits, cars, and houses. (freedomoutpost.com) Take Reverend Al Sharpton for example, perhaps the most prominent black voice for the people only second to ... and media manipulation is a money driving, flawed, tactic that leads racism in America today. The way that media portray stories can many times be manipulating. Big stories make money, and many of the very influential messengers of these stories, like Reverend Al Sharpton and Am...

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... from the narrative of the letters from Nettie to Celie. In Liberia, where Nettie and company are being missionaries, there are many strange customs which they must get used to. The tribal people, called the Olinka, are not used to black missionaries " all the previous ones were white. They have a ... with which she grew up, Celie decides to return with Shug. At first they think that they've reached the wrong house when they notice how nice and clean the exterior of the home is. Soon they realize that they are at the right house when Alphonso gets out of a car with ... through her pitiful ...

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... than she ever realized. Growing up in a predominantly black community, Janice had trouble relating to her fellow black classmates. Janice wanted to be white and did everything she could to remove herself from her black roots. Janice describes her community as poor blacks' trapped in the system ... the major development of a child will examine whether he/she would be a trusting or mistrusting person. Janice was raised by a single mother and despite having her dad around she always felt that he was being nice to her to please her mother. The lack of love from her ... confusion, shows how t...

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... gang members are minorities, mostly blacks. However, a quick check into the demographics that make up these two groups of people will prove this to be very untrue. Racial profiling is based on the premise that minorities commit most drug offenses. Because of this over riding thought, police search for ... see his ID. When the policeman examined the ID he could not believe that Rep. Ford was a member of Congress and that he was driving such a nice car. At which point Rep. Ford told him, "If I was treated this way, I can't imagine how folks who don't have the access to the ... Kinnon 64)....

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• Grade Level: High School

... predominately white neighborhood. This is the way that segregation affects John. I used to hear some of my black friends talk about "how hard it is to be a black man in America." It thought that it was stupid because white people don't really discriminate against black people anymore, and they have just as ... they live (Invisible). This brings an old phrase to mind, "It takes money to make money." Because the government nearly refuses to build housing in nice middle or upper class neighborhoods that is priced for the lower class, minorities are essentially stuck in the inner-cities and ...

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... frustrated over the fact that my grandma wasn't around, so there was no stability in the family anymore. Even though it seems like my grandmother was so nice and adorable, she had a bad side. She raised not only her kids, but my sister and I with so much respect and discipline. That's why ... proper English and no cursing, we also had to have our clothes ironed before we could leave the house, as well as our shirts tucked in. I must admit, I've changed a lot since I've gotten older, but I couldn't imagine seeing some of these kids now days growing up in my childhood. Children ... gained...

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... was that many blacks simply chose to live with the situation - a fact the Harlem writers tried to change; they wanted to make their fellows stand up for themselves, to be proud and self-confident. And it was Langston Hughes who said on the editorial page of FIRE !! : " Fire Burns `should really kept burning, - a department of clever ... understanding writing and direct style. The only fact I do not understand about FIRE !! is why it failed. It is known that Wallace Thurman, the editor, wanted to be independent from white publishers - and so they ran high on bills, much higher than the me...

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... and as that belief grew, so would their opportunities to achieve these aims. Attenborough's problem was that a true film focussed on blacks would be of little interest to the vastly potential audience of the Northern Hemisphere. Many people in the US and Europe know little about apartheid. To make ... their own learning, and the Zanempilo clinic, where the blacks worked hard for, and looked after each other. The film presented the blacks as being nice, friendly, caring, helpful, and supportive towards each other. The opening scene was of the peaceful Crossroads settlement, a poor tempora...

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... he saw the "five thousand dollars- as a means to relieve his consciousness for having "terminate[d] my outward relation with you [as] my wife must be considered."" (94) For Helga is this the chance to fulfil her "delightful dreams of change, of life somewhere else."" (94) She feels very confident ... that she had dreamed persistently-. She is given the chance to enjoy in what she has longed for ever since - to surround herself with all the nice things money could buy, a fact that makes her believe to have reached the end of her search. "This, then, was where she belonged."" ... a nauseo...

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... of the slaves thank him for his contribution. Although they were free from slavery, during the 1960s the people still had their struggles in not be accepted at schools, stores, restaurants, parties and bathrooms. The government gave limited funding for their schools and the city was segregated. Young black Children ... the sea was over, then came the arrival for the Africans to arrive on American soil of Virginia, slaves were largely treated as property to be freely bought and sold. It was a difficult time for the slaves; their families were being separated and being shipped to other st...

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... continue to come back. Although the Native Americans valued their land, their perspectives differed greatly from the European colonists. Essentially the land was to be shared, passed down, and appreciated. There was a connection to the earth that the Native Americans felt. They had no negative interactions with the ... . The Native Americans disguised themselves in the image to look like the Americans or the white people. By wearing the formal suit and nice pants, they wanted to try and look as close to the white men as they could since it was dark at night. It also ... were prevalent, th...

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... known as the "Jolly Six" established the first branch of the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee in May 1866. They all came from well-educated families and nice homes. They "jolly six" included Captain John C. Lester, Major James R. Crow, John B. Kennedy, Calvin Jones, Richard R. Reed, and Frank O. McCord. ... an outstanding general during the Civil War. The Klan members, for the next two years would wear masks, white cardboard hats, and would be draped in white sheets. They tortured and killed black Americans and sympathetic whites whose behavior violated old ideas of black subordination...

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... certainly. It does not deal with slavery as an institution, though- "Slavery with a capital S", as Morrison says. Rather, it deals with individuals who must deal with the horrors of being slaves, and their responses to their lives. It deals with the individuals who constitute the community of slavery. This communal aspect ... rejection. As the novel evolves, however, it becomes clear this is not the case. This passage, as with everything Morrison writes, will need to be carefully rethought as the novel unfolds. As the novel begins, it is clear that Sethe and her daughter are living in is...

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• Grade Level: High School