Preview

Book Review: Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
521 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Book Review: Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?
Reed 1
Kyle Reed
LIBS 202
Ms. Davis
4 September 2014
Toure Review
As I began to watch the Toure video I thought it was going to be a very boring speech about his life. Even though I thought the speech would be boring I figured that it would have and influential message that allows me to see the world in a new perspective. The essential message of his speech is about the new forms of racism that we may not even consider. These new forms of racism are mainly through micro-aggressive statements that belittle or damage our self-esteem. It’s important to beware of these new forms of racism so we don’t let them take away who we are.
In his speech Toure discuss how certain stereotypical assumptions could damage ourselves self-esteem and make us feel inadequate. He talks about how people expect certain races to behave in a certain way, and when we try to prove these assumptions wrong we get distracted and fail to see our goals. I agree the with Toure in which people don’t want to fulfill their stereotypical assumptions, however I feel that would want people to do better that do worse. When I was in high school I had a majority of white people in my class, and I strove to be the best in my classes in order to prove there stereotypical assumptions wrong. I also disagree with Toure on how certain stereotypical assumptions could damage self-esteem since some of them are based off of rich cultural tradition that make them who they are.
The other way Toure said racism may occur is by belittling your actions based on your race. For example when Toure was talking about that man who had all of those accolades, then someone said “you’re got where you are because you’re black”. I found that extremely disrespectful since he basically said “it doesn’t matter who you are and what you do your still just a nigger.” As African- Americans our stereotypical assumption isn’t to succeed and thrive, they expect us to be bums struggling to get by. So as Africans- Americans we must

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    The New Negro Summary

    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In the beginning Locke tells us about “the tide of Negro migration”. During this time in a movement known as the Great Migration, thousand of African Americans also known as Negros left their homes in the South and moved North toward the beach line of big cities in search of employment and a new beginning. They left the South because of racial violence such as the Ku Klux Klan and economic discrimination not able to obtain work. Their migration was an expression of their changing attitudes toward themselves as Locke said best From The New Negro, and has been described as "something like a spiritual emancipation." Many African Americans moved to Harlem, a neighborhood located in Manhattan. Back in the day Harlem became the world’s largest black community; also home to a diverse mix of cultures. Having extraordinary outbreak of inspired movement revealed their unique culture and encouraged them to discover their heritage; and becoming "the New Negro,” Also known as “New Negro Movement,” it was later named the Harlem Renaissance.…

    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book “Why we can’t Wait” the author elaborates on the significance of the year 1963.In retrospect 1963 was indeed a memorable year. 1963 was the year of the Negro Revolution. The book, “Why we can’t wait” highlights the efforts of Civil Rights activist during that time. In the book “Why we can’t Wait” the author mentions how “Negroes had for decades endured evil (Jackson, 4). So the question derives why the year 1963? For years Blacks had been suppressed and ostracized for being black. In the book, “Why we can’t wait” the author introduces an excerpt from a poet that states “Why must the blackness of nighttime…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    DuBois book The Souls of Black Folk gives the reader example of double- consciousness, it allow the reader to better understand the struggles of the black man. Personally for me I can relate to double consciousness, as a black woman I am reminded of my race every day. I sometimes feel like my identity has been divided.…

    • 57 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The author mentioned many critical points about racism in America that deserve to be addressed to the audience. I completely agree with the author when he stated that minorities in America have negative stereotypes about other minor ethnicities. A lot of people color one ethnic group with the same brush with one person's action. It is true that different groups…

    • 183 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Invisible Yet Strong “Black America’s Invisible Crisis” is an Essence article written by Lois Beckett that talks about a woman named Aireana and her family who were diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In 2013, after riding along with her family in their car, someone on the outside started shooting at them. Aireana and her husband got shot, but her two kids were unharmed in the back seat. As Aireana was bleeding from the neck and mouth, she didn’t want her kids to think that she was going to die. She crawled out the car as she hear her kids screaming from the back seat yelling out, “My mom’s dying!”…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Chapter 1 of the second paragraph of W.E.B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk, DuBois uses a descriptive style of writing to create a sense of deep spiritual connection with his reader. DuBois incorporated numerous vivid phrases, such as “rollicking boyhood” and “wee wooden schoolhouse” to deliver the reader into the very place and time of an unforgettable event that happened when he was a young child. This event sets the tone of his book as it gives the reader an explanation for the motives behind every decision he made in his lifetime. The words “vast veil” becomes a powerful way to grasp the very essence of DuBois’s feelings toward white people. In a unique application of “the blue sky”, DuBois constructs a vibrant picture of joyful…

    • 164 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The title of this book is hand in hand :ten black men who changed america. The authors are Andrea davis pinkney and brian pinkney. The ten main character are benjamin banneker,frederick douglass,booker t washington,W.E.B. dubois,a philip randolph,thurgood marshall,jackie robinson,malcolm X,martin luther king jr. and barack hussein obama II. this book should be used in school because it teaches you how you shouldn't give up because you will reach your goal. The book is mostly about black people starting as a poor person and not very famous to achieving something or doing something no one else had ever done before.…

    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    How would one feel if one were violently taken from home to a backwards place one would never understand? Aminata experienced these events first hand, which she conveys in her memoir. In this story The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, she tells the story of her life. From how she was taken from her village of Bayo in Africa, where she enjoyed freedom, lived with dignity, and shipped across the 'big river’, as a slave, to the thirteen colonies now known as the United States America. Aminata experiences grief and hardship, Anger and joy, and a fiery determination to get back home. In this compelling story, Aminata grows in various ways as she deals with slavery, discrimination, and the loss of her family.…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The depth of the impact that prejudice embarked on his life is the main focal point W.E.B. DuBois establishes in Chapter 1, paragraph 2 of his book The Souls of Black Folk. DuBois magnificently orchestrates an allure for the reader as he opens the paragraph with his earliest memory as a young lad. He reveals a story of how the attitude of one girl planted roots of discrimination deep down in his soul. As DuBois’s boyhood grew into adolescent youth, the feelings of social rejection were nourished with a longing for equal treatment among the white community. Every event blossomed into an opportunity of challenge as he persevered to surpass his white opponents. He relished in self-gratification with every successful achievement. As a mature…

    • 197 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout this article are examples that show Steele’s qualifications in the subject of stereotyping, not through degrees or classes, but through life experiences. In the introductory chapter of the text It is clear to the reader that Steele’s purpose is to show the audience that stereotype threat is present for everyone by presenting many diverse studies on the subject. In addition to the studies he also adds life experiences, some of which are his own and some the experiences of his students or colleagues. Doing this he uses pathos and logos by appealing to both logic and emotions with his…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since the beginning of history, men and women both had predetermined gender roles. They acted in certain ways that they thought were right. They also behaved in certain ways because of their race. Back then, you wouldn’t dare catch a Black man dating a White woman. Today, interracial dating doesn’t bother most people. In the old days, men were the breadwinners for their families, while the women sat back and stayed home with the children. Now, more women are out in the workforce and sometimes, the roles are switched, having the husband being the homebody. This paper examines the differences between the different ways young women view themselves and their race through music versus the way males are stereotypically viewed by others because of their race.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When a person is stereotyped they feel that they are not respected as they are judged because of a stereotype that is connected to their ethnicity or race. The second danger is it makes the idea of human equality seem impossible to understand for most people. If stereotypes and racism continues to exist, the myth that is race will continue to haunt people around the world and will never feel like humanity as one and equal. The third danger is that it puts emphasis on differences. If people continue to focus on stereotypes, they will always see the differences, mostly bad, in people but never the similarities and the good in other people and with that, there can never be a connectedness in different people. Adichie’s roommate had a single story of Adichie, and it was that she was a stereotypical African. Adichie’s roommate asked her how she knew English so well, but Adichie then told her that Nigeria’s official language is English, she also thought Adichie listened to tribal music and didn’t know how to work a stove. Adichie even says that her roommate felt pity for Adichie even though she was well…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Black Like Me Book Report

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages

    My personal reaction to the book titled, “Black Like Me” written by John Howard Griffin is as followed. At first I was amazed and shocked to know that this study was taken in the southern parts of the United States, not many years ago. This was conducted during a time when my parents would have experienced this abuse, had they live here in the United States. I personally feel that no matter how it is presented, racism is wrong. Whether it is perceived through direct discrimination, insulting looks or personal attacks on a person’s character all of these are wrong. As a native of Haiti, I have never been personally faced with any forms of racism in my own country. In Haiti, though we share many similar values and morals of American’s and though we have three class levels in society, we pretty much see all human beings as the same. On the other hand, when I arrived to the United States, the only form of this unfair treatment I received was from African American’s.…

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aronson, Wilson and Akert define modern racism as outwardly acting unprejudiced while maintaining prejudiced attitudes. They see it as a softened expression rather than reality. For example, no longer are the risks inherent in the public exhibition of racism promulgated by bigots. They are often veiled in rationalized responses that promote their underlying bias without calling attention to or exposing the real root of their motivations. School desegregation in Raleigh, NC right now has become a battle over a busing issue that many…

    • 3363 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For example, racial stereotyping for an Asian student says that they are smart and excel in school, so with this in mind the student will more confident and more determined to keep this stereotype in place. Though many people believe that there are many good stereotypes, but the negative stereotypes always outweigh the positive stereotypes. One stereotype would be against African-American students who are stereotyped as being adept in sports but slow in intellectual activities. Research has shown that negative stereotyping can temporarily decrease memory capacity (UA News Services). With this stereotype and a student’s awareness of it, the student would perform poorly knowing that he or she is expected to be lacking in intellectual ability. The student knows that this is what society expects out of him or her and that also explains why the Asian student would do better if they knew about the racial stereotype. Sometimes it is not the student who is at fault, but society for accusing the student to be something they are not. Racial stereotyping shows the student what others expect out of them, so many would try to uphold this stereotype instead of acting against it…

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays