What is the best approach to raise children?
Mothers are guardian angels regardless of their unique methods to guard their children. Society oftentimes portrays mothers as if they are all the same. That is a misconception. Mothers are dolls in all sizes and colors. Sometimes mothers are very caring and over protective to the point of spoiling their children. But my mother brought me up in a totally different maternal environment.
When my parents decided to take different paths in life my mother was too young and poorly prepared to be in charge of her-self and me. At the same time she was raising me, she was also learning how to survive in a world full of challenges. I was sent to school when I was only three years old. Like most little kids I was afraid of the dark but my mother made me go to the bathroom by myself. I would cry, but she would not come with me. She taught me that fear only existed in my mind and to get rid of it. She taught me how to roller blade on big roller blades, she taught me to ride a regular bike. She taught me to be strong at all times. When I was only six my mother taught me how to read, write and how to add, subtract, multiply and divide all in one night. From that day on I had to do my homework on my own. It was intense and I thought it was too early but I could not disobey her. While other kids would be playing around, I was reading or writing.
We came to the United States when I was thirteen. She did not want me to grow in the Dominican Republic because of the lack of progress in the country. My mother had high expectations for me. When I went to high school, one counselor told me it was going to be hard for me to perform well in a school that did not have a bilingual program and I could fail the grade. I was terrified but my mother made me go to that school. My mother never helped me with anything regardless of my schoolwork, but I must bring home excellent grades. I had to be the one responsible for my education and I had to be responsible to make my own decisions.
As I was reading the story “ The Sky is Gray “ by Ernest J. Gaines, I was astonished by the connection I discovered between James, the main character, and myself. While waiting to see the dentist, James’ tooth aches and he says, “Then I catch her kind of looking where I’m. I smile at her a little bit. But think she’ll smile back.” (Pg. 91) His mother feels sympathy for him, but does not express it to him. James is a boy of only eight years old growing up during the time period of Jim Crow. He was acting like a man to satisfy his mother. One time, as he is observing his mother, he says, “ I love my mama and I want put my arm round her. But I’m not supposed to do that. She say that’s weakness and crybaby stuff…”(Pg. 84). When I read this quote I had a spontaneous flashback to moments were I felt like hugging my mother but I did not because she is not the type of affectionate mother. He is afraid of the dark just as I was but his mother also made him confront his fear. He was hungry and cold and did not say anything. Always looking straight because his mother told him. It is hard for an eight-year-old boy to act this way. I thought of my childhood and sympathize deeply with him.
How can a story change you? “The Sky is Gray” is a story that shows the fears and intimidation of the black society due to racism and the era of Jim Crow. Just as my mother all of a sudden had to step out and raise me when she and my father separated, James’ mother had to step out and protect James after his father was sent to the army. James mother was training James to survive and to not be a victim of the Jim Crow era. Being aware that his mother’s approach to raise him was to prepare him for life and to survive and that she did it because she loves him made me see my mother’s approach to raise me from a different perspective. I understood that my mother loves me and that all she does is because of that maternal love and responsibility. My mother has been training me to be successful and be able to confront all types of circumstances. To survive in this society and in the United States as minority. It is hard to be a Latina and I realize that all my mother did and does is because she knows that to function well in this country and anywhere I go I have to be strong, independent and have a good education. The story opened my eyes and helped me to appreciate my mother more.
Even though James’ mother and my mother have similar approach to prepare us for life, they have their differences. The age and time period is very different and I have not experienced discrimination in the same way that James did. His mother was more concerned with mentally preparing him to keep him from getting in conflict with white people. As on the other hand, my mother has been preparing me to be successful in life and to function well in a society in which regardless of the fact that the Latinos are a minority, there are many opportunities to take advantage of. It has been a preparation to be independent, open minded and educated rather than to protect me from racial conflicts. The different purposes behind their methods of raising us also have a bigger impact. Different personalities were built and different paths were taken. The way James was being raised I predicted that would be independent and strong as well as a hard-working person. However, his mother has also taught him to be just a black person who knows his place and to not go against the white people. In terms of race, I have been taught that race is not a barrier for me. I have no limits; I only have to fight my way there with effort and a good education. The world and society for which we were trained is different.
As a kid during the Civil Rights Movement at an early stage one had a conclusive racial identity and awareness of what position in society that specific race had. Today, we still struggle with racism, but on a smaller scale. Now, as a kid, race is just a cultural identity. However, race, socioeconomics and background still does play a role on the approach the heart of a mother chooses to raise their child.
There is no school to teach mothers how to be a mother and there is no school to teach kids how to be kids it is a natural instinct that one follows and acquires through experiences. A loving and spoiling mother can makes life easier but their kids may or may not learn how to live life on their own. A strict and “cold” mother helps prepare their kids for life and to confront adversity, but love is also an essential component of ones happiness. What type of mother will I be? Time will tell, but I know I would not wan to follow my mother’s way of teaching. I wish to be a mother who can prepare my kids for everything and give them all my support and love at the same time.
Yudany Lopez
Emmett Till
Murdered at 14 years old in Money, Mississippi. The spectacle surrounding Till's murder was one of the precipitating events leading to the Civil Rights Movement.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
John Gutierrez-- final essay
Living with poverty in New York, it does not get you until you are fully matured, and that is when you understood the situation. One passage that is similar to my situation is in Ernest Gaines’ story, “ The Sky is Gray” because there are certain times where I can relate to James. I was the first-born child of my mother, and it was hard times for her. These hard times remained me of the scene where James was hungry but his mother had no money to give him. After reading this passage, I learned that we should learn from others’ experience because it can better adapt us to an environment that we are presently in or about to face.
My mother is a strong and beautiful woman who wants the best for me. When I was younger, her body kept on getting weaker, so this forced her to stay home and raise me with little money on the table. The situation got more complex because of my baby sister; more food, clothes, and attention. Since I was growing up and my sister was receiving so much, I wanted thing that I saw others have that I did not. All that pressure sank my mother because she had to deal with my needs, my sister, other family members, and herself.
Even though she faced all of this at one time, she had time for me. She gave me all she could and had food on the table with a roof over our heads. She did have help from other people, and it told me that she was very sociable with everyone because of the number of people who would call her or come if her were sick or hurt. All she told me was, “Get an education because I want you to live a better life then what you live now.”
As the years go by, I have matured, and so now I understand the situation that we faced, not only my mother, but my family. Soon I am going to college, and I know I have to do my part in it, yet I know that my mother will give her support for me. Still I cannot stop to think about how I acted when I was younger because it would not reflect the person I am today. Back then I would ask my mother for money so I could eat Mc Donald’s or some pizza when I saw that she cooked food for me. This is something I know would never help my mother because she would lose money both on the food she cooked and the money for me to go eat outside. Nonetheless she gave me the money, yet I did not feel guilty because I got what I wanted.
It was because of her kindness and generosity that when she gets ill, I am the one who sends her to the hospital, I am the one who stays that night, and I am the one who visits her each day to see her. That was when I had to grow up and watch myself and maintain myself with the money she gave me. With that little money she gave me, it opened my eyes because this was how we really lived. I had to learn the difference between need and want.
In “The Sky is Gray”, James is an African American boy who lived in the south. At the time, James had a toothache. Even though the mother had barely any money, she took him to the dentist. When he got to the dentist, it was full, and it was for colored people. As time went on, James never got his tooth checked, and he was cold and hungry. Knowing that there was little money that his mother had, he stayed quiet. Even though they passed through several food stores, mostly whites, he never said a thing.
To compare James and me, you need to see the difference. First you need to understand the difference in the times. James lived around the 1950’s and 1960’s, and my time period is the early 2000’s. Therefore the difference is that James faced segregation and poverty, while I just faced poverty. Segregation is the one difference, but it is the major gap between James and me. As a result of living in the Jim Crow South, James was more mature at a young age because of all the awful treatment he and his mother received. That is why to be mature at that time was a must if you were to survive. Personally I never went through what colored people went through, so I was never forced to act mature.
However our mothers had little to work with and had to maintain a family. Both mothers think about us because in James’ case, he had a toothache and his mother took him to the dentist, while my case was over food, yet she gave me the money. Still both our mothers gave us what we wanted or needed. Now I can see that we must not focus on ourselves because there are those who give up what they have for our needs or wants.
My mother is a strong and beautiful woman who wants the best for me. When I was younger, her body kept on getting weaker, so this forced her to stay home and raise me with little money on the table. The situation got more complex because of my baby sister; more food, clothes, and attention. Since I was growing up and my sister was receiving so much, I wanted thing that I saw others have that I did not. All that pressure sank my mother because she had to deal with my needs, my sister, other family members, and herself.
Even though she faced all of this at one time, she had time for me. She gave me all she could and had food on the table with a roof over our heads. She did have help from other people, and it told me that she was very sociable with everyone because of the number of people who would call her or come if her were sick or hurt. All she told me was, “Get an education because I want you to live a better life then what you live now.”
As the years go by, I have matured, and so now I understand the situation that we faced, not only my mother, but my family. Soon I am going to college, and I know I have to do my part in it, yet I know that my mother will give her support for me. Still I cannot stop to think about how I acted when I was younger because it would not reflect the person I am today. Back then I would ask my mother for money so I could eat Mc Donald’s or some pizza when I saw that she cooked food for me. This is something I know would never help my mother because she would lose money both on the food she cooked and the money for me to go eat outside. Nonetheless she gave me the money, yet I did not feel guilty because I got what I wanted.
It was because of her kindness and generosity that when she gets ill, I am the one who sends her to the hospital, I am the one who stays that night, and I am the one who visits her each day to see her. That was when I had to grow up and watch myself and maintain myself with the money she gave me. With that little money she gave me, it opened my eyes because this was how we really lived. I had to learn the difference between need and want.
In “The Sky is Gray”, James is an African American boy who lived in the south. At the time, James had a toothache. Even though the mother had barely any money, she took him to the dentist. When he got to the dentist, it was full, and it was for colored people. As time went on, James never got his tooth checked, and he was cold and hungry. Knowing that there was little money that his mother had, he stayed quiet. Even though they passed through several food stores, mostly whites, he never said a thing.
To compare James and me, you need to see the difference. First you need to understand the difference in the times. James lived around the 1950’s and 1960’s, and my time period is the early 2000’s. Therefore the difference is that James faced segregation and poverty, while I just faced poverty. Segregation is the one difference, but it is the major gap between James and me. As a result of living in the Jim Crow South, James was more mature at a young age because of all the awful treatment he and his mother received. That is why to be mature at that time was a must if you were to survive. Personally I never went through what colored people went through, so I was never forced to act mature.
However our mothers had little to work with and had to maintain a family. Both mothers think about us because in James’ case, he had a toothache and his mother took him to the dentist, while my case was over food, yet she gave me the money. Still both our mothers gave us what we wanted or needed. Now I can see that we must not focus on ourselves because there are those who give up what they have for our needs or wants.
Friday, August 3, 2007
My first encounter: a lasting struggle
Marquita Flowers
My First Encounter: A Lasting Struggle
Do insecurities begin with our own fears or the fears people embed in us?
When I was seven years old I experienced my first racist encounter. My best friend, Jelori, and I were on the swings in the park right near my house having a good time. We saw a white older man with his presumed daughter walking towards the park where we were very excited at the thought of a possible new playmate. We were both surprised when the father of the girl approached us and said, “Get up and move.” I was stunned and politely asked, “Why” He responded, “You know your place now move my daughter wants to swing.” I looked at the young girl who appeared to be sweet and innocent but had the views of people who hate people like me. I felt the heat within begin to rise and I said, “No, she can wait in line like I had to.” With that he turned and walked away.
This incident scarred me as a young child and made me fully aware of the dissent some whites have against people of my complexion. It made me question if my race or culture was bad and what my people had done to deserve to be treated the way they were. It made me want to be lighter so I wouldn’t have to ever face another situation like that, it made me wonder if every white person I knew was going to accept me for who I was or judge me because of something I had no control over. It made me feel less than human and created an inferiority complex that until this day I still have not fully overcome.
Being surrounded by people of color until my freshman year of high school enabled me to avoid confronting my insecurities. But once I entered a predominantly white high school there was no escaping, I was forced to deal with the negative perceptions I held of white people. I never hated white people because I understood that not every white person was a racist but I liked to keep my distance from them as a way of protecting myself just incase they were racist. My form of de facto segregation was not only to give me a level of comfort but also provided me with a level of protection I thought I needed.
It was not until my reading of the Civil rights book were I learned of a study where young children’s perception of themselves were tested through a doll study, and asked questions such as “Give me the nice doll” or “the doll that is bad “. The results of this test were disturbing because even with African American students they choose the white doll in the test not the one that represented there culture. I found this disturbing because even when I was young I wanted to play with the white doll’s they were always portrayed as the coolest or the ones with the most material possessions. But looking beyond the reasons to blaming the media what does the action of young black children preferring to play with white doll’s really symbolize. Why didn’t those children choose the white doll when they asked, “which doll is the nice doll”? Is a sense of inferiority to whites felt by children as young as 3 years old and if it is how are African American’s with insecurity issues supposed to overcome those issues if they have been embedded in us since childhood? Are we ever going to be able to impinge the days where we were looked at as inferior by the white man?
I’ll close this essay with no definitive answer because there is no definitive answer. There is not one simple conclusion to answering the question of why blacks feel inferior or less than. There is no one answer for why even after years of having justice we still feel enslaved. There is no answer or solution to not allowing others fear of being overpowered effect us. There is no solution, there is no answer so is it ever possible to overcome?
My First Encounter: A Lasting Struggle
Do insecurities begin with our own fears or the fears people embed in us?
When I was seven years old I experienced my first racist encounter. My best friend, Jelori, and I were on the swings in the park right near my house having a good time. We saw a white older man with his presumed daughter walking towards the park where we were very excited at the thought of a possible new playmate. We were both surprised when the father of the girl approached us and said, “Get up and move.” I was stunned and politely asked, “Why” He responded, “You know your place now move my daughter wants to swing.” I looked at the young girl who appeared to be sweet and innocent but had the views of people who hate people like me. I felt the heat within begin to rise and I said, “No, she can wait in line like I had to.” With that he turned and walked away.
This incident scarred me as a young child and made me fully aware of the dissent some whites have against people of my complexion. It made me question if my race or culture was bad and what my people had done to deserve to be treated the way they were. It made me want to be lighter so I wouldn’t have to ever face another situation like that, it made me wonder if every white person I knew was going to accept me for who I was or judge me because of something I had no control over. It made me feel less than human and created an inferiority complex that until this day I still have not fully overcome.
Being surrounded by people of color until my freshman year of high school enabled me to avoid confronting my insecurities. But once I entered a predominantly white high school there was no escaping, I was forced to deal with the negative perceptions I held of white people. I never hated white people because I understood that not every white person was a racist but I liked to keep my distance from them as a way of protecting myself just incase they were racist. My form of de facto segregation was not only to give me a level of comfort but also provided me with a level of protection I thought I needed.
It was not until my reading of the Civil rights book were I learned of a study where young children’s perception of themselves were tested through a doll study, and asked questions such as “Give me the nice doll” or “the doll that is bad “. The results of this test were disturbing because even with African American students they choose the white doll in the test not the one that represented there culture. I found this disturbing because even when I was young I wanted to play with the white doll’s they were always portrayed as the coolest or the ones with the most material possessions. But looking beyond the reasons to blaming the media what does the action of young black children preferring to play with white doll’s really symbolize. Why didn’t those children choose the white doll when they asked, “which doll is the nice doll”? Is a sense of inferiority to whites felt by children as young as 3 years old and if it is how are African American’s with insecurity issues supposed to overcome those issues if they have been embedded in us since childhood? Are we ever going to be able to impinge the days where we were looked at as inferior by the white man?
I’ll close this essay with no definitive answer because there is no definitive answer. There is not one simple conclusion to answering the question of why blacks feel inferior or less than. There is no one answer for why even after years of having justice we still feel enslaved. There is no answer or solution to not allowing others fear of being overpowered effect us. There is no solution, there is no answer so is it ever possible to overcome?
sami...
Samantha Frazier
In a time where Jim Crow was the law and whites had the power to get away with murder, racism was something that was both taught and experienced first hand by children both black and white. No matter what the race of a child is, in America especially, and in other countries, children become aware of their identity and ethnicity. Some feel that racial profiling comes from a nonstop recycling of old customs and practices that live on dormant in the back of the mind. It is the life lessons of every individual that they pass on to their children. People choose to ignore signs of racism and try to forget the hardships of past civil rights activists and live on. However children of all colors are able to identify and respond to racism at a young age and even question the experiences they’ve had.
There were about ninety five percent of black and Hispanic children attending my elementary school. I lived in Harlem my entire life, and when I had to leave my school a year early to attend middle school in the sixth grade, I was very upset. My first day of class was one I will never forget. I was afraid of the new school and being around the different kids. I remember that there were no more than about four black kids in the classroom with me. It bothered me to see for the first time that people looked at me differently because of the way that I talked and the things I wore to school. Some of the students thought it was cool, but others gave me funny looks and made me feel almost unaccepted. That was one of the first times I experienced any kind of racism and social disorder.
Because I was young and put in an element that I was very unfamiliar with, I decided to join a group of girls who were more like me and those who I could identify with more so. It was not until my third year at Manhattan East Middle School that I had finally learned how to participate and interact with students from unfamiliar cultures. By the time I was ready to go to high school I was used to being one of the only black girls around in many situations. When in high school I was put in a very similar environment, where the classes were mixed but there was still a very small number of black students in the same classes with me. By this time people had grown so used to being comfortable with stereotypes that they felt it necessary to ask questions that they thought were funny.
Urban youths tend to grasp the idea that a black student who speaks correct English talks white and an illiterate slang speaker “talks black.” I never paid any attention to this idea but when asked why I do not “talk black” I simply replied by saying, “I do not know much about color languages, I speak purple myself but orange is my native tongue.” Being educated in situations like this one helped me to face the reality of what people realistically think of black people. It also causes people to stop and think about what they have said just like the situation that occurred in The Sky is Gray where the young black man in the story chooses to question the people of the Jim Crow times by saying to a woman, “Don’t you believe the wind is pink?” Later when the woman said, “ And what color is the grass, honey?” the boy replied “Grass? Grass is black.” There is a great significance in the way a young man is able to stand out and draw attention to an idea that should be practiced by more black people. However many young people both now in the twenty first century and then in the Jim Crow age, were unable to stand up against the norm or understand the significance of the racism they encounter. Children are taught many things by their parents, but it is the actual experiences that they have that mold them into adults and set the standards for what they chose to pass on to their children. Although the important lessons learned by our parents at a young age stick with us when we grow older, children like Richard from “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow” have to have many encounters with racial profiling and discrimination in order to grasp the concept of social order and acceptance. His first thoughts as a child were, “It was alright to throw cinders. The greatest harm a cinder could do was leaving a bruise. But broken bottles were dangerous; they left you cut, bleeding, and helpless.” After about nine life lessons on living Jim Crow and a situation were a white man on an elevator helped Richard, he says, “I evaded having to acknowledge his service, and in spite of adverse circumstances, salvaged a slender shred of personal pride.”
The young Richard, like myself, was unable to identify the seriousness of what he had done. When his mother punished him it was his first lesson in understanding that he had to watch everything that he did very carefully to survive. I too was unable to recognize the difference between myself and the majority of the students in the middle school and what it was that made me fear being like them. When Richard grew older and had more scary encounters with the white men telling him he was “lucky” to have gotten away with minor things, he was forced to learn how to function in his society even if it meant pretending to be happy and turning the other cheek when there was trouble.
Even though it is up to adults to make sure that children know what they need to know to survive, ultimately it is up to the child to experience certain things and then apply the lessons learned form past mistakes. Eventually children can teach themselves how to function in societies where every thing is not necessarily fair or equal, whether they live in our day or in the 1950’s.
In a time where Jim Crow was the law and whites had the power to get away with murder, racism was something that was both taught and experienced first hand by children both black and white. No matter what the race of a child is, in America especially, and in other countries, children become aware of their identity and ethnicity. Some feel that racial profiling comes from a nonstop recycling of old customs and practices that live on dormant in the back of the mind. It is the life lessons of every individual that they pass on to their children. People choose to ignore signs of racism and try to forget the hardships of past civil rights activists and live on. However children of all colors are able to identify and respond to racism at a young age and even question the experiences they’ve had.
There were about ninety five percent of black and Hispanic children attending my elementary school. I lived in Harlem my entire life, and when I had to leave my school a year early to attend middle school in the sixth grade, I was very upset. My first day of class was one I will never forget. I was afraid of the new school and being around the different kids. I remember that there were no more than about four black kids in the classroom with me. It bothered me to see for the first time that people looked at me differently because of the way that I talked and the things I wore to school. Some of the students thought it was cool, but others gave me funny looks and made me feel almost unaccepted. That was one of the first times I experienced any kind of racism and social disorder.
Because I was young and put in an element that I was very unfamiliar with, I decided to join a group of girls who were more like me and those who I could identify with more so. It was not until my third year at Manhattan East Middle School that I had finally learned how to participate and interact with students from unfamiliar cultures. By the time I was ready to go to high school I was used to being one of the only black girls around in many situations. When in high school I was put in a very similar environment, where the classes were mixed but there was still a very small number of black students in the same classes with me. By this time people had grown so used to being comfortable with stereotypes that they felt it necessary to ask questions that they thought were funny.
Urban youths tend to grasp the idea that a black student who speaks correct English talks white and an illiterate slang speaker “talks black.” I never paid any attention to this idea but when asked why I do not “talk black” I simply replied by saying, “I do not know much about color languages, I speak purple myself but orange is my native tongue.” Being educated in situations like this one helped me to face the reality of what people realistically think of black people. It also causes people to stop and think about what they have said just like the situation that occurred in The Sky is Gray where the young black man in the story chooses to question the people of the Jim Crow times by saying to a woman, “Don’t you believe the wind is pink?” Later when the woman said, “ And what color is the grass, honey?” the boy replied “Grass? Grass is black.” There is a great significance in the way a young man is able to stand out and draw attention to an idea that should be practiced by more black people. However many young people both now in the twenty first century and then in the Jim Crow age, were unable to stand up against the norm or understand the significance of the racism they encounter. Children are taught many things by their parents, but it is the actual experiences that they have that mold them into adults and set the standards for what they chose to pass on to their children. Although the important lessons learned by our parents at a young age stick with us when we grow older, children like Richard from “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow” have to have many encounters with racial profiling and discrimination in order to grasp the concept of social order and acceptance. His first thoughts as a child were, “It was alright to throw cinders. The greatest harm a cinder could do was leaving a bruise. But broken bottles were dangerous; they left you cut, bleeding, and helpless.” After about nine life lessons on living Jim Crow and a situation were a white man on an elevator helped Richard, he says, “I evaded having to acknowledge his service, and in spite of adverse circumstances, salvaged a slender shred of personal pride.”
The young Richard, like myself, was unable to identify the seriousness of what he had done. When his mother punished him it was his first lesson in understanding that he had to watch everything that he did very carefully to survive. I too was unable to recognize the difference between myself and the majority of the students in the middle school and what it was that made me fear being like them. When Richard grew older and had more scary encounters with the white men telling him he was “lucky” to have gotten away with minor things, he was forced to learn how to function in his society even if it meant pretending to be happy and turning the other cheek when there was trouble.
Even though it is up to adults to make sure that children know what they need to know to survive, ultimately it is up to the child to experience certain things and then apply the lessons learned form past mistakes. Eventually children can teach themselves how to function in societies where every thing is not necessarily fair or equal, whether they live in our day or in the 1950’s.
my essay "break the chains"
As people grow up, they learn about their society and culture through observation and through personal experiences. One thing that everyone gains some knowledge of, regardless of the validity of the information, is race. People learn about the different stereotypes associated with different races that are either prevalent in their society or are one of the factors that somehow affect their society. The short story “The Sky is Gray” by Ernest J Gaines is set in a time in which stereotypes were a part of life; these stereotypes were often part of the reality of the characters in this story. Similarly, the stereotypes of my society were highlighted through the experiences that I lived during my stay at Carleton College. Without knowing, people make generalizations about a certain group of people and this assumption seems to affect their lives, even though they are unaware of the falsehood of their beliefs.
The thing that most people do when discussing another race is generalize. They assume a certain authority, so to speak, in order to criticize and classify people of other races. For example, one common stereotype about people of color is that they are never on time to an event; this idea is given the term Colored People Time (CPT). This stereotype is a criticism against people of color because it depicts them as irresponsible people. In “The Sky is Gray”, the characters have a stereotype of white people that seems to dominate their actions and everyday life. The characters in this story strongly believe that white people are superior and that white people live better off than any other race. This is a generalization because these characters classify all white people to have these certain qualities.
When I went to Carleton College, I made the same generalization that all white people had money. I assumed that their lives were much better than mine and that they were all much wealthier than I was, being that I was a Dominican girl from the Bronx borough. Growing up in a poverty stricken place, where everyone was either on welfare, section eight, or both, life seemed to be a struggle that only people of color had to face, since only people of color live in my community. I would observe how happy the white people on television were and that gave me the impression that this was the life that every white person lived: a life of happiness, satisfaction, and money. Never did it occur to me that there would be a white person that would suffer more poverty than people I had witnessed all of my life. My generalization of white people was somehow distorted and incorrect. I found that out when I met my rhetoric assistant. He was a white man who grew up in Alabama and had a different world to talk to me about.
The story “The Sky is Gray” can be compared to my experience in Carleton College because they are based on financial struggles that people face. In both stories, there was a mother that was struggling to make ends meet. The mom in “The Sky is Gray” tries to stretch her money so that there could be enough to pay for the dentist but also to buy some meat for the kids at home. She was more focused on necessity rather than luxury. A good example is illustrated when James and his mother are walking around the town. They were walking through a snowstorm but they had thin coats of low quality because there was no money to purchase better coats. It was more important, for the mother, to feed the children and pay the dentist instead of getting luxurious coats; at least they had coats, regardless of how thin they were. ‘”Some people ain’t [sic] got that—hard’s [sic] time is” (Gaines 88). This is similar to the way my rhetoric assistant lived because his mom had to make ends meet. She didn’t have money to buy luxurious items, or any items, but instead of having her kids starve, she went to get government help, also known as food stamps. Another similarity is that in both cases it is obvious that “it’s the poor who suffers the most” (Gaines 95). Neither family got what they wanted; they lived their life based on the circumstances that they faced daily. Instead of planning for the future of the children, for example, the mothers had to worry about their present. There was never a time when the mothers had savings for their children to go to school. The children only went to public school on certain days because the mothers needed to worry about their financial stability. The main character from “The Sky is Gray” missed some days of school because he had to take care of his siblings or help his mother around the house. My rhetoric assistant also had to do these things. Finally, in both stories, education was regarded as a way out of poverty. The college student in the story did not accept assumptions of being inferior; he decided that through educating himself, he would be liberated and live a satisfactory life. My rhetoric assistant also decided that the only way he was going to be satisfied was if he left his circumstances in the pursuit of an education. Even though he didn’t have the money to go to Carleton College, he did not accept the assumption that he would stay in his poor condition. He took advantage of the “need blind” policy of the school and he was given a lot of money to study. In both stories, the main characters were aware of generalizations made about them, but they did not allow themselves to be limited.
The differences between the stories help to show that generalizations about struggle are not necessarily true. One major difference between the stories is the racial backgrounds of the characters, who had to struggle. In “The Sky is Gray”, the people, who were struggling, were black and in my experience, the rhetoric assistant was white. The fact that the people struggling were from different races shows that associating a certain race with a certain income is incorrect. Not all black people are poor and not all white people are rich. This is a common misconception that people have since they live in a society that only shows one side of a story. There were many white students in the program who probably assumed that I would be poor since I am a person of color and because I live in a borough that is assumed to be poor. They later found out that it was not true. Living in a poor community does not necessarily make me poor and though my rhetoric assistant is white, it does not mean that he is rich. He worked hard for what he wanted. This is another difference between the stories. The college student just spoke about his ideas and he was only questioning his reality, while my rhetoric assistant was willing to change his reality. The college student would question his status and the belief of people around him but my rhetoric assistant took it one step further. It is as if my rhetoric assistant was living out the dream of the college student in the story by getting an education and changing his conditions. These two characters took different approaches to the misconceptions around them and that helped to either change or keep their lives the same way.
The generalizations that we make, regardless of how valid they are, end up affecting us in many ways. The thought that all black people are poor creates a feeling of inferiority for the black people. It makes them feel like they can never get anything in life because of the color of their skin. They felt like they had less opportunities, when in reality they did not; they were limiting themselves. For example, the preacher in “The Sky is Gray” engulfs the misconceptions of black people. He embraces them in such a way that he does not want to hear anything that would go against them. The college student tries to make the preacher question his status but instead, the preacher slaps him because he does not want to know. The preacher was limiting his knowledge by trying to “protect” the kid. He felt pity for the kid since the kid was thinking differently, when he should have had pity on himself since he was accepting the stereotypes imposed on him. Before arriving at Carleton College, I had the idea that I would be inferior to most of the people there because I had the misconception that they would all have more money than I did. I was limiting myself by not thinking that I would have anything to add to the class, when in reality I did. I grew up in a neighborhood quite different than they did and I had a different perspective on life, which would contribute to the class discussions. Instead of thinking that I would be inferior, I should have felt privileged because I got the opportunity to teach people about my community to distort their misconceptions of it. I was also getting an opportunity to learn more about writing which was a privilege on its own. We should not indulge in the stereotypes that are out there because they will only limit us from expanding our knowledge.
There are many ideas that people have when discussing something unknown to them. What people usually do in this circumstance is make generalizations instead of trying to change the stereotypes around them. In both “The Sky is Gray” by Ernest J. Gaines and my experience in Carleton College, generalizations and misconceptions were proven wrong. Not everything one thinks of another race is true. One should not always go by what society accepts as true because in doing so, an individual would be limiting himself or herself.
The thing that most people do when discussing another race is generalize. They assume a certain authority, so to speak, in order to criticize and classify people of other races. For example, one common stereotype about people of color is that they are never on time to an event; this idea is given the term Colored People Time (CPT). This stereotype is a criticism against people of color because it depicts them as irresponsible people. In “The Sky is Gray”, the characters have a stereotype of white people that seems to dominate their actions and everyday life. The characters in this story strongly believe that white people are superior and that white people live better off than any other race. This is a generalization because these characters classify all white people to have these certain qualities.
When I went to Carleton College, I made the same generalization that all white people had money. I assumed that their lives were much better than mine and that they were all much wealthier than I was, being that I was a Dominican girl from the Bronx borough. Growing up in a poverty stricken place, where everyone was either on welfare, section eight, or both, life seemed to be a struggle that only people of color had to face, since only people of color live in my community. I would observe how happy the white people on television were and that gave me the impression that this was the life that every white person lived: a life of happiness, satisfaction, and money. Never did it occur to me that there would be a white person that would suffer more poverty than people I had witnessed all of my life. My generalization of white people was somehow distorted and incorrect. I found that out when I met my rhetoric assistant. He was a white man who grew up in Alabama and had a different world to talk to me about.
The story “The Sky is Gray” can be compared to my experience in Carleton College because they are based on financial struggles that people face. In both stories, there was a mother that was struggling to make ends meet. The mom in “The Sky is Gray” tries to stretch her money so that there could be enough to pay for the dentist but also to buy some meat for the kids at home. She was more focused on necessity rather than luxury. A good example is illustrated when James and his mother are walking around the town. They were walking through a snowstorm but they had thin coats of low quality because there was no money to purchase better coats. It was more important, for the mother, to feed the children and pay the dentist instead of getting luxurious coats; at least they had coats, regardless of how thin they were. ‘”Some people ain’t [sic] got that—hard’s [sic] time is” (Gaines 88). This is similar to the way my rhetoric assistant lived because his mom had to make ends meet. She didn’t have money to buy luxurious items, or any items, but instead of having her kids starve, she went to get government help, also known as food stamps. Another similarity is that in both cases it is obvious that “it’s the poor who suffers the most” (Gaines 95). Neither family got what they wanted; they lived their life based on the circumstances that they faced daily. Instead of planning for the future of the children, for example, the mothers had to worry about their present. There was never a time when the mothers had savings for their children to go to school. The children only went to public school on certain days because the mothers needed to worry about their financial stability. The main character from “The Sky is Gray” missed some days of school because he had to take care of his siblings or help his mother around the house. My rhetoric assistant also had to do these things. Finally, in both stories, education was regarded as a way out of poverty. The college student in the story did not accept assumptions of being inferior; he decided that through educating himself, he would be liberated and live a satisfactory life. My rhetoric assistant also decided that the only way he was going to be satisfied was if he left his circumstances in the pursuit of an education. Even though he didn’t have the money to go to Carleton College, he did not accept the assumption that he would stay in his poor condition. He took advantage of the “need blind” policy of the school and he was given a lot of money to study. In both stories, the main characters were aware of generalizations made about them, but they did not allow themselves to be limited.
The differences between the stories help to show that generalizations about struggle are not necessarily true. One major difference between the stories is the racial backgrounds of the characters, who had to struggle. In “The Sky is Gray”, the people, who were struggling, were black and in my experience, the rhetoric assistant was white. The fact that the people struggling were from different races shows that associating a certain race with a certain income is incorrect. Not all black people are poor and not all white people are rich. This is a common misconception that people have since they live in a society that only shows one side of a story. There were many white students in the program who probably assumed that I would be poor since I am a person of color and because I live in a borough that is assumed to be poor. They later found out that it was not true. Living in a poor community does not necessarily make me poor and though my rhetoric assistant is white, it does not mean that he is rich. He worked hard for what he wanted. This is another difference between the stories. The college student just spoke about his ideas and he was only questioning his reality, while my rhetoric assistant was willing to change his reality. The college student would question his status and the belief of people around him but my rhetoric assistant took it one step further. It is as if my rhetoric assistant was living out the dream of the college student in the story by getting an education and changing his conditions. These two characters took different approaches to the misconceptions around them and that helped to either change or keep their lives the same way.
The generalizations that we make, regardless of how valid they are, end up affecting us in many ways. The thought that all black people are poor creates a feeling of inferiority for the black people. It makes them feel like they can never get anything in life because of the color of their skin. They felt like they had less opportunities, when in reality they did not; they were limiting themselves. For example, the preacher in “The Sky is Gray” engulfs the misconceptions of black people. He embraces them in such a way that he does not want to hear anything that would go against them. The college student tries to make the preacher question his status but instead, the preacher slaps him because he does not want to know. The preacher was limiting his knowledge by trying to “protect” the kid. He felt pity for the kid since the kid was thinking differently, when he should have had pity on himself since he was accepting the stereotypes imposed on him. Before arriving at Carleton College, I had the idea that I would be inferior to most of the people there because I had the misconception that they would all have more money than I did. I was limiting myself by not thinking that I would have anything to add to the class, when in reality I did. I grew up in a neighborhood quite different than they did and I had a different perspective on life, which would contribute to the class discussions. Instead of thinking that I would be inferior, I should have felt privileged because I got the opportunity to teach people about my community to distort their misconceptions of it. I was also getting an opportunity to learn more about writing which was a privilege on its own. We should not indulge in the stereotypes that are out there because they will only limit us from expanding our knowledge.
There are many ideas that people have when discussing something unknown to them. What people usually do in this circumstance is make generalizations instead of trying to change the stereotypes around them. In both “The Sky is Gray” by Ernest J. Gaines and my experience in Carleton College, generalizations and misconceptions were proven wrong. Not everything one thinks of another race is true. One should not always go by what society accepts as true because in doing so, an individual would be limiting himself or herself.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
EZ'S ESSAY
Ezazul Haque
Race Ed.
Race is something that we all have. It gives us our identity in the marathon. As we grow up, we tend to have different thoughts and opinions on these different races. Having these thoughts and ideas affects the way we tend to act toward other races. Experiences like this are revealed through Richard in “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” written by Richard Wright and through my own life experiences.
In “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” a very small and young African American boy named Richard is portrayed throughout the whole story as kind of a student who is taking a class on how to live under Jim Crow laws. Richard makes some mistakes and pays a price when he does. He learns a very painful lesson in the very beginning of the story. He is a young boy who lives in the black part of the town. One day he got into a fight with a group of white boys. Richard was throwing cinders at them. But all of a sudden, they threw a glass bottle at him. Richard was seriously hurt. He fell to the ground and cried for help but his friends ran away from him because of the fear of getting hit by a glass bottle. Luckily someone helped him up and took him to the nearest hospital where he got three stitches. When Richard came home he waited anxiously for his mother to come home to reassure him. To embrace him. When his mom came home he told her all about his experiences earlier in that day. His mom was outraged. “How come yuh didn’t hide?” she asked instead of asking are you okay. She gave him a horrible beating that he would remember for the rest of his life. His mom told him to not fight anyone let alone white people. He was never to talk back to white people, he was never to disrespect white people, and he was always supposed to be inferior to white people. Richard was very shocked about the fact that he was not equal to white people.
Similarly to Richard I had experienced situations that enabled me to learn about race. When I lived in Bangladesh I used to think everyone was equal. I never questioned the meaning of race because we all were Bengali. We all were from the same country. I used to believe that we all were equal in every single way possible. But when I came to America I was amazed to see all of these people from so many different races, and who had so many different views and perspectives on the world. I would still act the same way I did in Bangladesh. I was race blind. I treated everyone equally. But unlike Richard I did not learn about race the hard way. But what I did observe was that there were other people that discriminated people of different races. One day in the park my friends and me were playing at the park. We were on the swings when a white man came with his son and said to my friend “Get of the swing nigger, my son wants it.” My friend just ran out of the swing. I ran after him. When I caught up I saw that my friend was crying. I asked him what was the matter and he didn’t talk to me. I felt really sad. I later understood the meaning of the word “nigger” and felt really bad for my friend. I also wondered why in a time period like this racism was still an issue a person had to deal with. I believed that all the lives that were sacrificed, all the misery that was dealt with, all the discrimination that was lived with and all the hatred that brought so much pain to so many hearts were done to prevent racism from happening for the later generations. And I believe that we cannot just think it was all a waste because of a microscopic percentage of the population that still discriminates. I believe that in life humans come across obstacles and challenges. Humans cannot just give up on their way, they have to look back at all the people that did so much to help them get to where they stand. And they just have to have the positive mind to overcome anything that comes in their path.
Thanks to the Civil Rights Movement I have the right to live, eat, be next to, stand up with, walk with, look at, share with, talk with everyone. And it gave us a chance to be friends with everyone and anyone despite their race. And I think that is one of the best achievements of mankind in all of history. And it is an achievement that everyone can be proud of, everyone can relate to and everyone can’t live without.
Race Ed.
Race is something that we all have. It gives us our identity in the marathon. As we grow up, we tend to have different thoughts and opinions on these different races. Having these thoughts and ideas affects the way we tend to act toward other races. Experiences like this are revealed through Richard in “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” written by Richard Wright and through my own life experiences.
In “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” a very small and young African American boy named Richard is portrayed throughout the whole story as kind of a student who is taking a class on how to live under Jim Crow laws. Richard makes some mistakes and pays a price when he does. He learns a very painful lesson in the very beginning of the story. He is a young boy who lives in the black part of the town. One day he got into a fight with a group of white boys. Richard was throwing cinders at them. But all of a sudden, they threw a glass bottle at him. Richard was seriously hurt. He fell to the ground and cried for help but his friends ran away from him because of the fear of getting hit by a glass bottle. Luckily someone helped him up and took him to the nearest hospital where he got three stitches. When Richard came home he waited anxiously for his mother to come home to reassure him. To embrace him. When his mom came home he told her all about his experiences earlier in that day. His mom was outraged. “How come yuh didn’t hide?” she asked instead of asking are you okay. She gave him a horrible beating that he would remember for the rest of his life. His mom told him to not fight anyone let alone white people. He was never to talk back to white people, he was never to disrespect white people, and he was always supposed to be inferior to white people. Richard was very shocked about the fact that he was not equal to white people.
Similarly to Richard I had experienced situations that enabled me to learn about race. When I lived in Bangladesh I used to think everyone was equal. I never questioned the meaning of race because we all were Bengali. We all were from the same country. I used to believe that we all were equal in every single way possible. But when I came to America I was amazed to see all of these people from so many different races, and who had so many different views and perspectives on the world. I would still act the same way I did in Bangladesh. I was race blind. I treated everyone equally. But unlike Richard I did not learn about race the hard way. But what I did observe was that there were other people that discriminated people of different races. One day in the park my friends and me were playing at the park. We were on the swings when a white man came with his son and said to my friend “Get of the swing nigger, my son wants it.” My friend just ran out of the swing. I ran after him. When I caught up I saw that my friend was crying. I asked him what was the matter and he didn’t talk to me. I felt really sad. I later understood the meaning of the word “nigger” and felt really bad for my friend. I also wondered why in a time period like this racism was still an issue a person had to deal with. I believed that all the lives that were sacrificed, all the misery that was dealt with, all the discrimination that was lived with and all the hatred that brought so much pain to so many hearts were done to prevent racism from happening for the later generations. And I believe that we cannot just think it was all a waste because of a microscopic percentage of the population that still discriminates. I believe that in life humans come across obstacles and challenges. Humans cannot just give up on their way, they have to look back at all the people that did so much to help them get to where they stand. And they just have to have the positive mind to overcome anything that comes in their path.
Thanks to the Civil Rights Movement I have the right to live, eat, be next to, stand up with, walk with, look at, share with, talk with everyone. And it gave us a chance to be friends with everyone and anyone despite their race. And I think that is one of the best achievements of mankind in all of history. And it is an achievement that everyone can be proud of, everyone can relate to and everyone can’t live without.
Last time
Imagine a life where hate is the norm. Picture a world where murder and violence are acceptable. Visualize death and danger. This was the way of life for Blacks in the 1950's. African-Americans were constantly and continually brutalized by whites. They had to deal with racial epithets, harsh brutality, and the constant threat of angered whites. Growing up in that day and age was extremely difficult for Black youth. They were basically robbed of their childhood because they were too busy living in a life of terror and threats to be capable of carrying on a normal life.
Many children today, and in the 1950's have had a hard time identifying who they are at a young age. One work of literature that portrays this is a children's book called Amazing Grace. Grace is a little, headstrong African-American girl whose dream is to play the lead role in her class production of Peter Pan. After trying out for the part, however, she is discouraged by many of her classmates to take the part because she is a black female trying to play the part of a white male. Having been so young and never being faced with the issue of race or gender, the incident left Grace sad and confused. She didn't see anything wrong with her trying to play Peter Pan. To her he was just a character who could easily be portrayed or represented by anyone. Race or gender had never served as a barrier for Grace before.
Her issue can relate to Black youth in the 1950's because they are growing up in an era of legal white supremacy. Their parents and those before them are used to being shut down. They are accustomed to the oppression and constant segregation. After years of "yessir" and "no sir" rolling off their tounges, they have no idea how to adapt to a new way of life. The youth of that time was confused with the way of life. How is it that the government could sit back and allow such crimes to take place? Many youths who were from other parts faced that hardship too. Fourteen year old Emmet Till moved to Mississippi from Chicago, two almost completely seperate worlds. Up North in Chicago, Blacks were actually treated humanely. Down South, however, was a whole other story. Lynchings were still rampant, and the terror group, the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) had the nasty practice of bombing homes and leaving large burning crosses around. Blacks, men especially, were brutally punished for the simplest things such as forgetting to say "Yes sir" to a white man or for looking at a white woman. Emmett made the innnocent mistake of whistling to a white woman, influencing her husband and brother-in-law to brutally murder him. He was so beaten so severely, his face was practically unrecognizeable. The only way they identified his body was by the ring he wore that he inherited from his father. Although his was one of the few reported cases of violence, it was knowledge to many that there were many more victims of white supremacy.
Growing up today is much less of a challenge than it was during the civil rights movement for youth as a whole, not just black, but also white. Those who supported the civil rights movement were considered traitors and sinners. Facing constant ridicule, fighting, and opression, Southern youth was forced into an age of rapid mental maturity. Due to the study of history and culture, I believe i found my culture at a young age. I had so much less racial hardships and I wasn't very exposed to many cultures. There's less discrimination in a culture where everyone is black. Childern of today have a much easier life than those who preceeded us.
Many children today, and in the 1950's have had a hard time identifying who they are at a young age. One work of literature that portrays this is a children's book called Amazing Grace. Grace is a little, headstrong African-American girl whose dream is to play the lead role in her class production of Peter Pan. After trying out for the part, however, she is discouraged by many of her classmates to take the part because she is a black female trying to play the part of a white male. Having been so young and never being faced with the issue of race or gender, the incident left Grace sad and confused. She didn't see anything wrong with her trying to play Peter Pan. To her he was just a character who could easily be portrayed or represented by anyone. Race or gender had never served as a barrier for Grace before.
Her issue can relate to Black youth in the 1950's because they are growing up in an era of legal white supremacy. Their parents and those before them are used to being shut down. They are accustomed to the oppression and constant segregation. After years of "yessir" and "no sir" rolling off their tounges, they have no idea how to adapt to a new way of life. The youth of that time was confused with the way of life. How is it that the government could sit back and allow such crimes to take place? Many youths who were from other parts faced that hardship too. Fourteen year old Emmet Till moved to Mississippi from Chicago, two almost completely seperate worlds. Up North in Chicago, Blacks were actually treated humanely. Down South, however, was a whole other story. Lynchings were still rampant, and the terror group, the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) had the nasty practice of bombing homes and leaving large burning crosses around. Blacks, men especially, were brutally punished for the simplest things such as forgetting to say "Yes sir" to a white man or for looking at a white woman. Emmett made the innnocent mistake of whistling to a white woman, influencing her husband and brother-in-law to brutally murder him. He was so beaten so severely, his face was practically unrecognizeable. The only way they identified his body was by the ring he wore that he inherited from his father. Although his was one of the few reported cases of violence, it was knowledge to many that there were many more victims of white supremacy.
Growing up today is much less of a challenge than it was during the civil rights movement for youth as a whole, not just black, but also white. Those who supported the civil rights movement were considered traitors and sinners. Facing constant ridicule, fighting, and opression, Southern youth was forced into an age of rapid mental maturity. Due to the study of history and culture, I believe i found my culture at a young age. I had so much less racial hardships and I wasn't very exposed to many cultures. There's less discrimination in a culture where everyone is black. Childern of today have a much easier life than those who preceeded us.
Essay
Vanessa Davis
When I was accepted into the High School for Environmental Studies, I never expected to see so much diversity. In fact, I didn’t even know it existed. The schools which I attended previously were in my community and the people that I encountered were usually Hispanic. New York is a very diverse state as a whole, but there are certain places were you might only find a particular group of people. However, when I entered high school, I encountered people from many different backgrounds, and this is how I learned about different races. I was able to interact with people and see the cultural differences.
When I met people that came from different backgrounds, I became more aware of the world in which I live. I realized how many different countries and languages there are. I began to see things from a different perspective because I was no longer in my small community. I was out in the real world, surrounded by strangers.
My experience with a different race is similar to the Richard Wright”s in The Ethics of Living Jim Crow. The story progresses from him being a child to him becoming an adult. When Wright has to work in order to sustain himself, he works with and for Caucasians, which was new to him because he was used to being around blacks, his own race. Unlike Richard Wright, I didn't face racism but I did become more aware of my surroundings and others just as he did. The Wright was accustomed to living and interacting only with his own race. "We lived in the very heart of the local black belt. There were black churches and black preachers; there were black schools and black teachers, black grocieries and black clerks. In fact, everything was solidly black that for a long time I didn’t t think of white folks. But this could not last forever" (pg12). Wright was surprised by the way Caucasians acted and the way in which they treated him. At first he didn’t really understand that he was considered inferior and that he had to be submissive in order to be able to maintain his job and to avoid being physically hurt. The more he experienced, the more he learned about himself and about others. He learned how to respond in a certain way in order to maintain his job.
When I entered my school, I learned to approach people that came from different backgrounds. They didn’t t seem racist and didn’t display the attitude that the Caucasian from The Ethics of Living Jim Crow did. However, I still didn’t know them. Before I entered the High School for Environmental Studies, I had never really come in contact with Asian kids. When I was in classes with them it was interesting talking to them. As I got to know them better, some shared personal experiences with me and I learned more about their family lives and the things which those specific families believed in and I saw how they were different then my family. Like Richard Wright I was often astonished by the things that I learned. I know that most parents have rules which their children have to follow but I was surprised that a couple of them had parents that were very strict, and that the way in which they spoke to their parents was different then the way I spoke to my parents. It seemed as if there was more distance and more standards that had to be followed when speaking to elders in general and elders included their parents. I respect my parents, but I speak to them like I would regularly speak to people with whom I’m close. In addition, I learned more about Thailand because I have a close friend that use to live there. She often taught me small words in her language. I also learned a lot about different religions, specifically from someone that was Muslim. There are many teenagers in my school who are religious and are very involved with their church. It's interesting to learn things about other people with whom you normally would not interact unless you’re in a particular setting.
People from similar races usually stay together because it is more comfortable to speak to someone who understands you completely, that understands your background, and with whom you may feel comfortable saying certain things because you know that you will be understood. However, we have to be prepared for the reality in which we live in. In order to understand others and their beliefs we have to communicate with them. The Richard Wright’s interaction with another race wasn’t positive, but he had to deal with real everyday issues like everyone else. He slowly learned his way around things. He found very small ways to make his situation a little bit better. Even though he wasn’t allowed to take out library books because of the color of his skin, he still found ways to educate himself and to maintain his dignity. My experience was similar to Richard Wright in that I had to step out in the real world and learn how to communicate with others. It was easier for me then it was for Richard Wright because the people that I spoke to responded in a friendly manner. They were new to the school and were having similar experiences as me. We were all together in school receiving the same education and at the same time learning about each other.
In The Ethics of Living Jim Crow, I saw how Richard Wright only understood the lessons his mother taught him about segregation and racism when he experienced it for himself. "I had learned my Jim Crow lessons so thoroughly that I kept the hotel job till I left Jackson for Memphis." (pg 27) When Wright worked in Memphis, he often felt shame and embarrassment. But in hindsight, he realized that he accomplished many things in a society that had and continued to discriminate against him in many ways. He had to overcome many obstacles, but every obstacle he overcame only made him stronger and more tolerant. He mentions how he had to exercise a great deal of ingenuity to stay out of trouble. He learned how to lie, steal and to do many other things in order to be able to survive of his life. Racism was something that Wright understood as he went through different stages in his life. When I applied to the school I am in now I didn't realize the change it was going to be and I didn’t really recognize the significance of that change in my life.
When I was accepted into the High School for Environmental Studies, I never expected to see so much diversity. In fact, I didn’t even know it existed. The schools which I attended previously were in my community and the people that I encountered were usually Hispanic. New York is a very diverse state as a whole, but there are certain places were you might only find a particular group of people. However, when I entered high school, I encountered people from many different backgrounds, and this is how I learned about different races. I was able to interact with people and see the cultural differences.
When I met people that came from different backgrounds, I became more aware of the world in which I live. I realized how many different countries and languages there are. I began to see things from a different perspective because I was no longer in my small community. I was out in the real world, surrounded by strangers.
My experience with a different race is similar to the Richard Wright”s in The Ethics of Living Jim Crow. The story progresses from him being a child to him becoming an adult. When Wright has to work in order to sustain himself, he works with and for Caucasians, which was new to him because he was used to being around blacks, his own race. Unlike Richard Wright, I didn't face racism but I did become more aware of my surroundings and others just as he did. The Wright was accustomed to living and interacting only with his own race. "We lived in the very heart of the local black belt. There were black churches and black preachers; there were black schools and black teachers, black grocieries and black clerks. In fact, everything was solidly black that for a long time I didn’t t think of white folks. But this could not last forever" (pg12). Wright was surprised by the way Caucasians acted and the way in which they treated him. At first he didn’t really understand that he was considered inferior and that he had to be submissive in order to be able to maintain his job and to avoid being physically hurt. The more he experienced, the more he learned about himself and about others. He learned how to respond in a certain way in order to maintain his job.
When I entered my school, I learned to approach people that came from different backgrounds. They didn’t t seem racist and didn’t display the attitude that the Caucasian from The Ethics of Living Jim Crow did. However, I still didn’t know them. Before I entered the High School for Environmental Studies, I had never really come in contact with Asian kids. When I was in classes with them it was interesting talking to them. As I got to know them better, some shared personal experiences with me and I learned more about their family lives and the things which those specific families believed in and I saw how they were different then my family. Like Richard Wright I was often astonished by the things that I learned. I know that most parents have rules which their children have to follow but I was surprised that a couple of them had parents that were very strict, and that the way in which they spoke to their parents was different then the way I spoke to my parents. It seemed as if there was more distance and more standards that had to be followed when speaking to elders in general and elders included their parents. I respect my parents, but I speak to them like I would regularly speak to people with whom I’m close. In addition, I learned more about Thailand because I have a close friend that use to live there. She often taught me small words in her language. I also learned a lot about different religions, specifically from someone that was Muslim. There are many teenagers in my school who are religious and are very involved with their church. It's interesting to learn things about other people with whom you normally would not interact unless you’re in a particular setting.
People from similar races usually stay together because it is more comfortable to speak to someone who understands you completely, that understands your background, and with whom you may feel comfortable saying certain things because you know that you will be understood. However, we have to be prepared for the reality in which we live in. In order to understand others and their beliefs we have to communicate with them. The Richard Wright’s interaction with another race wasn’t positive, but he had to deal with real everyday issues like everyone else. He slowly learned his way around things. He found very small ways to make his situation a little bit better. Even though he wasn’t allowed to take out library books because of the color of his skin, he still found ways to educate himself and to maintain his dignity. My experience was similar to Richard Wright in that I had to step out in the real world and learn how to communicate with others. It was easier for me then it was for Richard Wright because the people that I spoke to responded in a friendly manner. They were new to the school and were having similar experiences as me. We were all together in school receiving the same education and at the same time learning about each other.
In The Ethics of Living Jim Crow, I saw how Richard Wright only understood the lessons his mother taught him about segregation and racism when he experienced it for himself. "I had learned my Jim Crow lessons so thoroughly that I kept the hotel job till I left Jackson for Memphis." (pg 27) When Wright worked in Memphis, he often felt shame and embarrassment. But in hindsight, he realized that he accomplished many things in a society that had and continued to discriminate against him in many ways. He had to overcome many obstacles, but every obstacle he overcame only made him stronger and more tolerant. He mentions how he had to exercise a great deal of ingenuity to stay out of trouble. He learned how to lie, steal and to do many other things in order to be able to survive of his life. Racism was something that Wright understood as he went through different stages in his life. When I applied to the school I am in now I didn't realize the change it was going to be and I didn’t really recognize the significance of that change in my life.
Race Does Not Limit Your Destination(Final Essay Draft)
Has it ever occurred to you that race has anything to do with the way we limit ourselves to certain things in life? Do you think that race has a big impact on your life and what you become? I’ve always happened to think that because of my race there would be a limit to what I could do but I never put myself down because I thought this way. The summer after I turned sixteen I got admitted to attend Choate Rosemary Hall, a very prestigious boarding school in Wallingford, CT. Stereotypically enough I thought that only people who belonged to the white race were privileged enough to attend a school like this because they are seen as superior in America and they are said to be very wealthy. In fact this is what scared me the most to be the one person out of the few to be on scholarship and to be of a middle class income around these people so different from me.
My experience at Choate Rosemary Hall enabled me to learn how unimportant race really is and that we as minorities of color tend to limit ourselves too much because of what we are. I’m not of white descent and my family is not wealthy at all. They just happened to have enough income to live a decent life. Yet there I was sitting in the same place of someone that from way back in history has been said to be superior and better than any other race. This is where I began to realize that your race does not affect where you go and what you do in life.
This is why it really disturbed me when in Richard Wright’s story, ”The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” a white man expresses himself in such a way that was really disrespectful towards a young black man that was working in the same work environment. When the boy tried to get help from this guy because he was new at the job this man responded, “Nigger, you think you’re white, don’t you?” How do you say this to someone who is clearly as capable as you are just because he is of a different ethnicity? How are you too black to do something? It was just an irrational response, which shows how ignorant some people can be, specifically during the Jim Crow Era. How do you define capability by color or race? I never understood that. What you’re able to do is something that has nothing to do with your race; it has to do more with your skills, motivation, and the qualities you have to offer.
Wright’s experience in this story is very similar to my experience at Choate Rosemary Hall. My way of thinking is all in my personal mentality but this boy was forced to live in this mentality; this was reality to him. He was forced to live by rules that encouraged people to think a certain way about the black and white populations. The Jim Crow laws of segregation created differences between these two races and therefore created this idea that blacks were better than whites. No one at that time looked at the qualities that these black people had to offer. They were instead denied their human rights as citizens of the United States of America just based on their skin color.
Today, living in the 21st century, we don’t have to face these difficulties as far as segregation laws are considered. But the reality is we still feel inferior. I created the thought that because of my race I wouldn’t be permitted to enter anywhere the standards were too high. Both the main character of this story and I were put in a situation were we felt scared of the reality we had to face while feeling proud of showing every person of color that it’s possible to do what seems unattainable.
We minorities have a fear of working to our fullest potential because we think we’re going to be deceived or turned down by the white race. It’s scary how, until this day, this remains our automatic response to everything that seems out of our circle of life. We tend to limit what we can do and question our capability because we are always so focused on how others see our race. Race does not limit our destination; we do. Humans were not created of different colors to be categorized as failures or superior in life. We need to get over this ignorance and show the world that we can be as successful as every white person in this world.
My experience at Choate Rosemary Hall enabled me to learn how unimportant race really is and that we as minorities of color tend to limit ourselves too much because of what we are. I’m not of white descent and my family is not wealthy at all. They just happened to have enough income to live a decent life. Yet there I was sitting in the same place of someone that from way back in history has been said to be superior and better than any other race. This is where I began to realize that your race does not affect where you go and what you do in life.
This is why it really disturbed me when in Richard Wright’s story, ”The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” a white man expresses himself in such a way that was really disrespectful towards a young black man that was working in the same work environment. When the boy tried to get help from this guy because he was new at the job this man responded, “Nigger, you think you’re white, don’t you?” How do you say this to someone who is clearly as capable as you are just because he is of a different ethnicity? How are you too black to do something? It was just an irrational response, which shows how ignorant some people can be, specifically during the Jim Crow Era. How do you define capability by color or race? I never understood that. What you’re able to do is something that has nothing to do with your race; it has to do more with your skills, motivation, and the qualities you have to offer.
Wright’s experience in this story is very similar to my experience at Choate Rosemary Hall. My way of thinking is all in my personal mentality but this boy was forced to live in this mentality; this was reality to him. He was forced to live by rules that encouraged people to think a certain way about the black and white populations. The Jim Crow laws of segregation created differences between these two races and therefore created this idea that blacks were better than whites. No one at that time looked at the qualities that these black people had to offer. They were instead denied their human rights as citizens of the United States of America just based on their skin color.
Today, living in the 21st century, we don’t have to face these difficulties as far as segregation laws are considered. But the reality is we still feel inferior. I created the thought that because of my race I wouldn’t be permitted to enter anywhere the standards were too high. Both the main character of this story and I were put in a situation were we felt scared of the reality we had to face while feeling proud of showing every person of color that it’s possible to do what seems unattainable.
We minorities have a fear of working to our fullest potential because we think we’re going to be deceived or turned down by the white race. It’s scary how, until this day, this remains our automatic response to everything that seems out of our circle of life. We tend to limit what we can do and question our capability because we are always so focused on how others see our race. Race does not limit our destination; we do. Humans were not created of different colors to be categorized as failures or superior in life. We need to get over this ignorance and show the world that we can be as successful as every white person in this world.
EZ's Esssay
Race is something that we all have. It gives us our identity in the marathon. As we grow up, we tend to have different thoughts and opinions on these different races. Having these thoughts and ideas affects the way we tend to act toward other races. Experiences like this are revealed through Richard in “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” written by Richard Wright and through my own life experiences.
In “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” a very small and young African American boy named Richard is portrayed throughout the whole story as kind of a student who is taking a class on how to live under Jim Crow laws. Richard makes some mistakes and pays a price when he does. He learns a very painful lesson in the very beginning of the story. He is a young boy who lives in the black part of the town. One day he got into a fight with a group of white boys. Richard was throwing cinders at them. But all of a sudden, they threw a glass bottle at him. Richard was seriously hurt. He fell to the ground and cried for help but his friends ran away from him because of the fear of getting hit by a glass bottle. Luckily someone helped him up and took him to the nearest hospital where he got three stitches. When Richard came home he waited anxiously for his mother to come home to reassure him. To embrace him. When his mom came home he told her all about his experiences earlier in that day. His mom was outraged. “How come yuh didn’t hide?” she asked instead of asking are you okay. She gave him a horrible beating that he would remember for the rest of his life. His mom told him to not fight anyone let alone white people. He was never to talk back to white people, he was never to disrespect white people, he was always supposed to be inferior to black people. Richard was very shocked about the fact that he was not equal to white people.
Similarly to Richard I had experienced situations that enabled me to learn about race. Up until I was in Bangladesh to the age of 9 I used to think everyone was equal. I never questioned the meaning of race because we all were Bengali. We all were from the same country. I used to believe that we all were equal in every single way possible. But when I came to America I was just amazed to see all of these people from so many different races that had so many different views and perspectives on the world. I would still act the same way I did in Bangladesh. I was race blind. I treated everyone equally. But unlike Richard I did not learn about race the hard way. I did not get physical experience to learn about race.
And that is I think due to the civil rights movement. It gave me the ability to live, eat, be next to, stand up with, walk with, look at, share with, talk with everyone. And it gave us a chance to be friends with everyone and anyone despite their race. And I think that is one of the best achievements of mankind in all of history.
In “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” a very small and young African American boy named Richard is portrayed throughout the whole story as kind of a student who is taking a class on how to live under Jim Crow laws. Richard makes some mistakes and pays a price when he does. He learns a very painful lesson in the very beginning of the story. He is a young boy who lives in the black part of the town. One day he got into a fight with a group of white boys. Richard was throwing cinders at them. But all of a sudden, they threw a glass bottle at him. Richard was seriously hurt. He fell to the ground and cried for help but his friends ran away from him because of the fear of getting hit by a glass bottle. Luckily someone helped him up and took him to the nearest hospital where he got three stitches. When Richard came home he waited anxiously for his mother to come home to reassure him. To embrace him. When his mom came home he told her all about his experiences earlier in that day. His mom was outraged. “How come yuh didn’t hide?” she asked instead of asking are you okay. She gave him a horrible beating that he would remember for the rest of his life. His mom told him to not fight anyone let alone white people. He was never to talk back to white people, he was never to disrespect white people, he was always supposed to be inferior to black people. Richard was very shocked about the fact that he was not equal to white people.
Similarly to Richard I had experienced situations that enabled me to learn about race. Up until I was in Bangladesh to the age of 9 I used to think everyone was equal. I never questioned the meaning of race because we all were Bengali. We all were from the same country. I used to believe that we all were equal in every single way possible. But when I came to America I was just amazed to see all of these people from so many different races that had so many different views and perspectives on the world. I would still act the same way I did in Bangladesh. I was race blind. I treated everyone equally. But unlike Richard I did not learn about race the hard way. I did not get physical experience to learn about race.
And that is I think due to the civil rights movement. It gave me the ability to live, eat, be next to, stand up with, walk with, look at, share with, talk with everyone. And it gave us a chance to be friends with everyone and anyone despite their race. And I think that is one of the best achievements of mankind in all of history.
The Grace of Youth
Imagine a life where hate is the norm. Picture a world where murder and violence are acceptable. Visualize death and danger. This was the way of life for Blacks in the 1950's. African-Americans were constantly and continually brutalized by whites. They had to deal with racial epithets, harsh brutality, and the constant threat of angered whites. Growing up in that day and age was extremely difficult for Black youth. They were basically robbed of their childhood because they were too busy living in a life of terror and threats to be capable of carrying on a normal life.
Many children today, and in the 1950's have had a hard time identifying who they are at a young age. One work of literature that portrays this is a children's book called Amazing Grace. Grace is a little, headstrong African-American girl whose dream is to play the lead role in her class production of Peter Pan. After trying out for the part, however, she is discouraged by many of her classmates to take the part because she is a black female trying to play the part of a white male. Having been so young and never being faced with the issue of race or gender, the incident left Grace sad and confused. She didn't see anything wrong with her trying to play Peter Pan. To her he was just a character who could easily be portrayed or represented by anyone. Race or gender had never served as a barrier for Grace before.
Her issue can relate to Black youth in the 1950's because they are growing up in an era of legal white supremacy. Their parents and those before them are used to being shut down. They are accustomed to the oppression and constant segregation. After years of "yessir" and "no sir" rolling off their tounges, they have no idea how to adapt to a new way of life. The youth of that time was confused with the way of life. How is it that the government could sit back and allow such crimes to take place? Many youths who were from other parts faced that hardship too. Fourteen year old Emmet Till moved to Mississippi from Chicago, two almost completely seperate worlds. Up North in Chicago, Blacks were actually treated humanely. Down South, however, was a whole other story. Lynchings were still rampant, and the terror group, the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) had the nasty practice of bombing homes and leaving large burning crosses around. Blacks, men especially, were brutally punished for the simplest things such as forgetting to say "Yes sir" to a white man or for looking at a white woman. Emmett made the innnocent mistake of whistling to a white woman, influencing her husband and brother-in-law to brutally murder him. He was so beaten so severely, his face was practically unrecognizeable. The only way they identified his body was by the ring he wore that he inherited from his father. Although his was one of the few reported cases of violence, it was knowledge to many that there were many more victims of white supremacy.
Growing up today is much less of a challenge than it was during the civil rights movement for youth as a whole, not just black, but also white. Those who supported the civil rights movement were considered traitors and sinners. Facing constant ridicule, fighting, and opression, Southern youth was forced into an age of rapid mental maturity. Due to the study of history
Many children today, and in the 1950's have had a hard time identifying who they are at a young age. One work of literature that portrays this is a children's book called Amazing Grace. Grace is a little, headstrong African-American girl whose dream is to play the lead role in her class production of Peter Pan. After trying out for the part, however, she is discouraged by many of her classmates to take the part because she is a black female trying to play the part of a white male. Having been so young and never being faced with the issue of race or gender, the incident left Grace sad and confused. She didn't see anything wrong with her trying to play Peter Pan. To her he was just a character who could easily be portrayed or represented by anyone. Race or gender had never served as a barrier for Grace before.
Her issue can relate to Black youth in the 1950's because they are growing up in an era of legal white supremacy. Their parents and those before them are used to being shut down. They are accustomed to the oppression and constant segregation. After years of "yessir" and "no sir" rolling off their tounges, they have no idea how to adapt to a new way of life. The youth of that time was confused with the way of life. How is it that the government could sit back and allow such crimes to take place? Many youths who were from other parts faced that hardship too. Fourteen year old Emmet Till moved to Mississippi from Chicago, two almost completely seperate worlds. Up North in Chicago, Blacks were actually treated humanely. Down South, however, was a whole other story. Lynchings were still rampant, and the terror group, the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) had the nasty practice of bombing homes and leaving large burning crosses around. Blacks, men especially, were brutally punished for the simplest things such as forgetting to say "Yes sir" to a white man or for looking at a white woman. Emmett made the innnocent mistake of whistling to a white woman, influencing her husband and brother-in-law to brutally murder him. He was so beaten so severely, his face was practically unrecognizeable. The only way they identified his body was by the ring he wore that he inherited from his father. Although his was one of the few reported cases of violence, it was knowledge to many that there were many more victims of white supremacy.
Growing up today is much less of a challenge than it was during the civil rights movement for youth as a whole, not just black, but also white. Those who supported the civil rights movement were considered traitors and sinners. Facing constant ridicule, fighting, and opression, Southern youth was forced into an age of rapid mental maturity. Due to the study of history
essay draft...
In a time where Jim Crow was the law and whites have the power to get away with murder, racism is something that is both taught and experienced first hand by children both black and white. No matter what the race of a child is, in America especially, and in other countries, children become aware of their identity and ethnicity. Some feel that racial profiling comes from a nonstop recycling of old customs and practices that live on dormant in the back of the mind. People chose to ignore signs of racism and try to forget the hardships of past civil rights activists and live on. However children of all colors are able to identify and respond to racism at a young age and even question the experiences they’ve had.
In River East Elementary school there were about ninety five percent of black and Hispanic children attending. I lived in Harlem my entire life and when I had to leave my school a year early to attend middle school in the sixth grade, I was very upset. My first day of class was one I will never forget. I was afraid of the new school and being around the different kids. I remember that there were no more than about four black kids in the classroom with me. It bothered me to see for the first time that people looked at me differently because of the way that I talked and the things I wore to school. Some of the students thought it was cool but others gave me funny looks and made me feel almost un accepted. That was one of the first times I experienced any kind of racism and social disorder.
Because I was young and put in an element that I was very unfamiliar with, I decided to join a group of girls who were more like me and those who I could identify with more so. It was not until my third year at Manhattan East Middle School that I had finally learned how to participate and interact with students with unfamiliar cultures. By the time I was ready to go to high school I was used to being one of the only black girls around in many situations. When in high school I was put in a very similar environment, where the classes were mixed but there was still a very small amount of black students in the same classes with me, By this time people had grown so used to being comfortable with stereotypes that they felt it necessary to ask questions that they thought were funny.
There is a new idea housed by urban youths that a black student who speaks correct English talks white and an illiterate slang speaker “talks black.” I never paid any attention to this idea but when asked why I do not “talk black” I simply replied by saying, “I do not know much about color languages, I speak purple myself but orange is my native tongue.” Being educated in situations like this one helped me to face the reality of what people realistically think of black people. It also causes people to stop and think about what they have said just like the situation that occurred in The Sky is Gray where the young black man in the story chooses to question the people of the Jim Crow times by saying to a woman “Don’t you believe the wind is pink?” and later when the woman said “ And what color is the grass, honey?” the boy replied “Grass? Grass is black.” However many young people both now in the twenty first century and then in the Jim Crow age, were unable to stand up against the norm or understand the significance of the racism they encounter.
Children are taught many things by their parents but it is the actual experiences that they have that mold them into adults and set the standards for what they chose to pass on to their children. Although the important lessons learned by our parents at a young age stick with us when we grow older, children like Richard from The Ethics of Living Jim Crow have to have many encounters with racial profiling and discrimination in order to grasp the concept of social order and acceptance. His first thoughts as a child were “It was alright to throw cinders. The greatest harm a cinder could do was leaving a bruise. But broken bottles were dangerous; they left you cut, bleeding, and helpless.” After about nine life lessons on living Jim Crow and a situation were a white man on an elevator he says, “I evaded having to acknowledge his service, and in spite of adverse circumstances, salvaged a slender shred of personal pride”, helped Richard
The young Richard like myself was unable to identify the seriousness of what he had done. When his mother punished him it was his first lesson in understanding that he had to watch everything that he did very carefully to survive. I too was unable to recognize the difference between myself and the majority of the students in the middle school and what it was that made me fear being like them. When Richard grew older and had more scary encounters with the white men telling him he was “lucky” to have gotten away with minor things, he was forced to learn how to function in his society even if it meant pretending to be happy and turning the other cheek when there was trouble.
Even though it is up to adults to make sure that children know what they need to know to survive. It is ultimately up to the child to experience certain things and then apply the lessons learned form past mistakes. Eventually children can teach themselves how to function in societies where every thing is not necessarily fair or equal, whether they live in our day or in the 1950’s.
In River East Elementary school there were about ninety five percent of black and Hispanic children attending. I lived in Harlem my entire life and when I had to leave my school a year early to attend middle school in the sixth grade, I was very upset. My first day of class was one I will never forget. I was afraid of the new school and being around the different kids. I remember that there were no more than about four black kids in the classroom with me. It bothered me to see for the first time that people looked at me differently because of the way that I talked and the things I wore to school. Some of the students thought it was cool but others gave me funny looks and made me feel almost un accepted. That was one of the first times I experienced any kind of racism and social disorder.
Because I was young and put in an element that I was very unfamiliar with, I decided to join a group of girls who were more like me and those who I could identify with more so. It was not until my third year at Manhattan East Middle School that I had finally learned how to participate and interact with students with unfamiliar cultures. By the time I was ready to go to high school I was used to being one of the only black girls around in many situations. When in high school I was put in a very similar environment, where the classes were mixed but there was still a very small amount of black students in the same classes with me, By this time people had grown so used to being comfortable with stereotypes that they felt it necessary to ask questions that they thought were funny.
There is a new idea housed by urban youths that a black student who speaks correct English talks white and an illiterate slang speaker “talks black.” I never paid any attention to this idea but when asked why I do not “talk black” I simply replied by saying, “I do not know much about color languages, I speak purple myself but orange is my native tongue.” Being educated in situations like this one helped me to face the reality of what people realistically think of black people. It also causes people to stop and think about what they have said just like the situation that occurred in The Sky is Gray where the young black man in the story chooses to question the people of the Jim Crow times by saying to a woman “Don’t you believe the wind is pink?” and later when the woman said “ And what color is the grass, honey?” the boy replied “Grass? Grass is black.” However many young people both now in the twenty first century and then in the Jim Crow age, were unable to stand up against the norm or understand the significance of the racism they encounter.
Children are taught many things by their parents but it is the actual experiences that they have that mold them into adults and set the standards for what they chose to pass on to their children. Although the important lessons learned by our parents at a young age stick with us when we grow older, children like Richard from The Ethics of Living Jim Crow have to have many encounters with racial profiling and discrimination in order to grasp the concept of social order and acceptance. His first thoughts as a child were “It was alright to throw cinders. The greatest harm a cinder could do was leaving a bruise. But broken bottles were dangerous; they left you cut, bleeding, and helpless.” After about nine life lessons on living Jim Crow and a situation were a white man on an elevator he says, “I evaded having to acknowledge his service, and in spite of adverse circumstances, salvaged a slender shred of personal pride”, helped Richard
The young Richard like myself was unable to identify the seriousness of what he had done. When his mother punished him it was his first lesson in understanding that he had to watch everything that he did very carefully to survive. I too was unable to recognize the difference between myself and the majority of the students in the middle school and what it was that made me fear being like them. When Richard grew older and had more scary encounters with the white men telling him he was “lucky” to have gotten away with minor things, he was forced to learn how to function in his society even if it meant pretending to be happy and turning the other cheek when there was trouble.
Even though it is up to adults to make sure that children know what they need to know to survive. It is ultimately up to the child to experience certain things and then apply the lessons learned form past mistakes. Eventually children can teach themselves how to function in societies where every thing is not necessarily fair or equal, whether they live in our day or in the 1950’s.
essay
John Gutierrez
Being born and raised in New York, you notice the positive and negative of society. This became apparent when I read, “ The Sky is Gray” because there are certain times where I can relate to James. I was the first-born child of my mother, and it was hard times for her. This opened my eyes because it remained me of the scene to where James was hungry, but his mother had no money to give. As a whole we should learn from others experience because it can better adapt us to an environment that we are presently in or about to face.
My mother was a strong worker who wanted the best for me. As ones body meets a certain age, there is little that we can do, so this forced her to stay home and raise me with little money on the table. The situation got more complex because of my baby sister, and that met more mouths to feed. Since I was growing up, I wanted thing that I saw others have that I did not. All that pressure sunk my mother because she had to deal with my needs, my sister, family in the Dominican Republic, and herself. Even though she faced all of this at one time, she had time and money for me. She gave me all she could and had food on the table with a roof over our heads. All she told me was, “Get an education because I want you to live a better life.” With aid from all over, it told me that she was very sociable with everyone because of all the people who would call her or come if her were sick or hurt.
As time years go by, I learn to mature to the situation that is face, not only by my mother, but my family. Soon I am going to college, and I know I have to put my part in it and I know that my mother will give her support for me. Still I cannot stop to think about how I acted when I was younger because it would not reflect the person I am today. Back then I would ask my mother for money so I could eat Mc Donald or some pizza when I see that she cooked food for me. This is something I know would never help my mother because she would loss money both on the food she cooked and the money for me to go eat outside. Nonetheless she gave me the money, yet I did not feel guilty because I got what I wanted. It was because of her kindness and generosity that in September of 2006 when she was hospitalized, I was the one who sent her, I was the one who stayed that night, and I was the one who visited her each day to see her expression. That was when I had to grow up and watch myself and maintain myself with the money she gave me. With that little money she gave me, it opened my eyes because this was how we really lived.
In “The Sky is Gray”, James is a boy that had a toothache. Even though the mother had barely any money, she took him to the dentist. When he got to the dentist, it was full, and it was a colored dentist. As time went on, James never got his tooth checked and he was cold and hungry. Knowing that there was little money that his mother had, he stayed quiet. Even though they passed through several food stores, mostly whites, he never said a thing.
If you were to compare James to me, you will see a difference. However you need to understand the difference in the times. James was around the 1950’s and 1960’s, and my time period is the early 2000’s. Therefore the difference can be seen because James faced segregation and poverty, while I just faced poverty. Segregation is the one difference, but it is the major gap between James and me. As a result James was more mature at a young age because of all the treatment he and his mother received. Personally I never went through what colored people went through, so to be mature at that time was a must if you were to survive. Now I can see that we must not focus on ourselves because whatever we do can and will affect other we love.
Being born and raised in New York, you notice the positive and negative of society. This became apparent when I read, “ The Sky is Gray” because there are certain times where I can relate to James. I was the first-born child of my mother, and it was hard times for her. This opened my eyes because it remained me of the scene to where James was hungry, but his mother had no money to give. As a whole we should learn from others experience because it can better adapt us to an environment that we are presently in or about to face.
My mother was a strong worker who wanted the best for me. As ones body meets a certain age, there is little that we can do, so this forced her to stay home and raise me with little money on the table. The situation got more complex because of my baby sister, and that met more mouths to feed. Since I was growing up, I wanted thing that I saw others have that I did not. All that pressure sunk my mother because she had to deal with my needs, my sister, family in the Dominican Republic, and herself. Even though she faced all of this at one time, she had time and money for me. She gave me all she could and had food on the table with a roof over our heads. All she told me was, “Get an education because I want you to live a better life.” With aid from all over, it told me that she was very sociable with everyone because of all the people who would call her or come if her were sick or hurt.
As time years go by, I learn to mature to the situation that is face, not only by my mother, but my family. Soon I am going to college, and I know I have to put my part in it and I know that my mother will give her support for me. Still I cannot stop to think about how I acted when I was younger because it would not reflect the person I am today. Back then I would ask my mother for money so I could eat Mc Donald or some pizza when I see that she cooked food for me. This is something I know would never help my mother because she would loss money both on the food she cooked and the money for me to go eat outside. Nonetheless she gave me the money, yet I did not feel guilty because I got what I wanted. It was because of her kindness and generosity that in September of 2006 when she was hospitalized, I was the one who sent her, I was the one who stayed that night, and I was the one who visited her each day to see her expression. That was when I had to grow up and watch myself and maintain myself with the money she gave me. With that little money she gave me, it opened my eyes because this was how we really lived.
In “The Sky is Gray”, James is a boy that had a toothache. Even though the mother had barely any money, she took him to the dentist. When he got to the dentist, it was full, and it was a colored dentist. As time went on, James never got his tooth checked and he was cold and hungry. Knowing that there was little money that his mother had, he stayed quiet. Even though they passed through several food stores, mostly whites, he never said a thing.
If you were to compare James to me, you will see a difference. However you need to understand the difference in the times. James was around the 1950’s and 1960’s, and my time period is the early 2000’s. Therefore the difference can be seen because James faced segregation and poverty, while I just faced poverty. Segregation is the one difference, but it is the major gap between James and me. As a result James was more mature at a young age because of all the treatment he and his mother received. Personally I never went through what colored people went through, so to be mature at that time was a must if you were to survive. Now I can see that we must not focus on ourselves because whatever we do can and will affect other we love.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
EZ's Essay
Race is something that we all have. It gives us our identity in the marathon. As we grow up, we tend to have different thoughts and opinions on these different races. Having these thoughts and ideas affects the way we tend to act toward other races. Experiences like this are revealed through Richard in “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” written by Richard Wright and through my own life experiences.
In “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” a very small and young African American boy named Richard is portrayed throughout the whole story as kind of a student who is taking a class on how to live under Jim Crow laws. Richard makes some mistakes and pays a price when he does. He learns a very painful lesson in the very beginning of the story. He is a young boy who lives in the black part of the town. One day he got into a fight with a group of white boys. Richard was throwing cinders at them. But all of a sudden, they threw a glass bottle at him. Richard was seriously hurt. He fell to the ground and cried for help but his friends ran away from him because of the fear of getting hit by a glass bottle. Luckily someone helped him up and took him to the nearest hospital where he got three stitches. When Richard came home he waited anxiously for his mother to come home to reassure him. To embrace him. When his mom came home he told her all about his experiences earlier in that day. His mom was outraged. “How come yuh didn’t hide?” she asked instead of asking are you okay. She gave him a horrible beating that he would remember for the rest of his life. His mom told him to not fight anyone let alone white people. He was never to talk back to white people, he was never to disrespect white people, he was always supposed to be inferior to black people. Richard was very shocked about the fact that he was not equal to white people.
Similarly to Richard I had experienced situations that enabled me to learn about race. Up until I was in Bangladesh to the age of 9 I used to think everyone was equal. I never questioned the meaning of race because we all were Bengali. We all were from the same country. I used to believe that we all were equal in every single way possible. But when I came to America I was just amazed to see all of these people from so many different races that had so many different views and perspectives on the world. I would still act the same way I did in Bangladesh. I was race blind. I treated everyone equally. But unlike Richard I did not learn about race the hard way. I did not get physical experience to learn about race.
And that is I think due to the civil rights movement. It gave me the ability to live, eat, be next to, stand up with, walk with, look at, share with, talk with everyone. And it gave us a chance to be friends with everyone and anyone despite their race. And I think that is one of the best achievements of mankind in all of history.
In “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” a very small and young African American boy named Richard is portrayed throughout the whole story as kind of a student who is taking a class on how to live under Jim Crow laws. Richard makes some mistakes and pays a price when he does. He learns a very painful lesson in the very beginning of the story. He is a young boy who lives in the black part of the town. One day he got into a fight with a group of white boys. Richard was throwing cinders at them. But all of a sudden, they threw a glass bottle at him. Richard was seriously hurt. He fell to the ground and cried for help but his friends ran away from him because of the fear of getting hit by a glass bottle. Luckily someone helped him up and took him to the nearest hospital where he got three stitches. When Richard came home he waited anxiously for his mother to come home to reassure him. To embrace him. When his mom came home he told her all about his experiences earlier in that day. His mom was outraged. “How come yuh didn’t hide?” she asked instead of asking are you okay. She gave him a horrible beating that he would remember for the rest of his life. His mom told him to not fight anyone let alone white people. He was never to talk back to white people, he was never to disrespect white people, he was always supposed to be inferior to black people. Richard was very shocked about the fact that he was not equal to white people.
Similarly to Richard I had experienced situations that enabled me to learn about race. Up until I was in Bangladesh to the age of 9 I used to think everyone was equal. I never questioned the meaning of race because we all were Bengali. We all were from the same country. I used to believe that we all were equal in every single way possible. But when I came to America I was just amazed to see all of these people from so many different races that had so many different views and perspectives on the world. I would still act the same way I did in Bangladesh. I was race blind. I treated everyone equally. But unlike Richard I did not learn about race the hard way. I did not get physical experience to learn about race.
And that is I think due to the civil rights movement. It gave me the ability to live, eat, be next to, stand up with, walk with, look at, share with, talk with everyone. And it gave us a chance to be friends with everyone and anyone despite their race. And I think that is one of the best achievements of mankind in all of history.
My Essay?
Imagine a life where hate is the norm. Picture a world where murder and violence are acceptable. Visualize death and danger. This was the way of life for Blacks in the 1950's. African-Americans were constantly and continually brutalized by whites. They had to deal with racial epithets, harsh brutality, and the constant threat of angered whites. Growing up in that day and age was extremely difficult for Black youth. They were basically robbed of their childhood because they were too busy living in a life of terror and threats to be capable of carrying on a normal life.
Many children today, and in have a hard time identifying who they are at a young age. One work of literature that portrays this is a children's book called Amazing Grace. Grace is a little, headstrong African-American girl whose dream is to play the lead role in her class production of Peter Pan. After trying out for the part, however, she is discouraged by many of her classmates to take the part because she is a black female trying to play the part of a white male. Having been so young and never being faced with the issue of race or gender, the incident left Grace sad and confused. She didn't see anything wrong with her trying to play Peter Pan. To her he was just a character who could easily be portrayed or represented by anyone. Race or gender had never served as a barrier for Grace before.
Her issue can relate to Black youth in the 1950's because they are growing up in an era of legal white supremacy. Their parents and those before them are used to being shut down. They are accustomed to the oppression and constant segregation. After years of "yessir" and "no sir" rolling off their tounges, they have no idea how to adapt to a new way of life. The youth of that time was confused with the way of life. How is it that the government could sit back and allow such crimes to take place? Many youths who were from other parts faced that hardship too. Fourteen year old Emmet Till moved to Mississippi from Chicago, two almost completely seperate worlds. In Chicago, Blacks weren't treated badly in Chicago
Many children today, and in have a hard time identifying who they are at a young age. One work of literature that portrays this is a children's book called Amazing Grace. Grace is a little, headstrong African-American girl whose dream is to play the lead role in her class production of Peter Pan. After trying out for the part, however, she is discouraged by many of her classmates to take the part because she is a black female trying to play the part of a white male. Having been so young and never being faced with the issue of race or gender, the incident left Grace sad and confused. She didn't see anything wrong with her trying to play Peter Pan. To her he was just a character who could easily be portrayed or represented by anyone. Race or gender had never served as a barrier for Grace before.
Her issue can relate to Black youth in the 1950's because they are growing up in an era of legal white supremacy. Their parents and those before them are used to being shut down. They are accustomed to the oppression and constant segregation. After years of "yessir" and "no sir" rolling off their tounges, they have no idea how to adapt to a new way of life. The youth of that time was confused with the way of life. How is it that the government could sit back and allow such crimes to take place? Many youths who were from other parts faced that hardship too. Fourteen year old Emmet Till moved to Mississippi from Chicago, two almost completely seperate worlds. In Chicago, Blacks weren't treated badly in Chicago
Yudany's essay
What is the best approach to raise children? Mothers are guardian angels regardless of their unique approach to guard their children. Often time’s society portrays mothers as if they are all equal and it is not; that is a misconception. Mothers are dolls in all sizes and color. Often time mothers are very caring and over protective to the point of spoiling their children. But my mother brought me up in a totally different maternal environment. When my parents decided to take different paths in life my mother was too young and poorly prepared to be in charge of her self and me. As she was learning how to survive in a world full of challenge at the same time she was raising me. I was sent to school when I was three years old. As most little kids I was afraid of the dark and my mother made go to the bathroom by myself. I would cry, but she would not come with me. She taught me that fear only existed in me mind and to get rid of it. She taught me how to roller blade in big roller blades, she taught me to ride a regular bike. She taught me to be strong at all times. When I turned six in one night she taught me how to read, write and how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. From that day on I had to do my homework on my own. It was intense and I thought it was too early but I could not disobey her. If I wanted something I had to wait for to her buy it when she felt I needed it, not before. While other kids would be playing around and getting the latest toys, I was reading or writing and did not get what everybody had.
Years later seeking better opportunities for me we came to the United States when I was thirteen. She did not want me to grow in the Dominican Republic for the lack of progress. My mother whose name is Dinorah had high expectations of me. When I went to high school, one counselor told me it was going to be hard for me to perform well in a school that did not have a bilingual program and I might fail the grade. I was terrified but my mother made me go to that school and told me to what I knew how to do. My mother never helped me with anything regardless of my schoolwork but I must bring home excellent grades. As I grew older I was the one responsible to go and pay the bills of the house. She would only give me the bills and I had to made the calculations and tell her the amount of money she had to give me. To this day I do not have a cell phone because she took it away. I am the one responsible for my education and I made my own decisions. I follow all her rules and follow our moral values.
As I was reading the story “ The Sky is Gray “ by Ernest J. Gaines, I was astonished by the connection I discovered between James, the main character, and myself. “Then I catch her kind of looking where I’m. I smile at her a little bit. But think she’ll smile back.” (Pg. 91) When I read this quote I had a spontaneous flashback. James a boy of only eight years old growing up during the times period of Jim Crow was acting like a man to satisfy his mother. “ I love my mama and I want put my arm round her. But I’m not supposed to do that. She say that’s weakness and crybaby stuff…”(Pg. 84). I almost cry because I have experienced the feeling of hugging my mother but she is not the type of caring and loving mother. He is afraid of the dark just as I was but his mother also made him confront his fear. He was hungry and cold and did not say anything. Always looking straight because his mother told him. It is hard for an eight-year-old boy to act this way. I thought of my childhood and sympathize deeply with him.
How can a story change you? “The Sky is Gray” is a story that shows the fears and intimidation of the black society due to racism and the era of Jim Crow. Just as my mother all of a sudden had to step out and raise me when she and my father separated, James’ mother had to step out and more than anything protect James after his father was sent to the army. James mother was training James to survive and to not be a victim of the Jim Crow era. Being aware that his mother’s approach to raise him was to prepare him for life and to survive and that she did it because she loves him with all her heart made see my mother’s approach to raise me from a different perspective. As well as James’s mother I understood that my mother loves me and that all she does is because of that maternal love and responsibility. My mother has been training me to be successful and be able to confront all types of circumstances. To survive in this society and in the United States as minority. It is hard to be a Latina and I realize that all my mother did and does is because she knows that to function well in this country and anywhere I go I have to be strong, independent and have a good education. The story opened my eyes and helped me to appreciate my mother more.
Even though James mother and my mother have similar approach to prepare us for life they have their differences. The age and time period is very different and thank god I have not experienced discrimination in the same level as James did. His mother was more concern to mentally prepare him to be saved and keep him away from getting in conflict with white people. As in the other hand my mother have been preparing me to be successful in life and to function well in a society in which regardless of the fact that the Latino race is a minority there are many opportunities to take advantage of. It has been a preparation to be independent, open minded and educated rather than to protect me from racial conflicts. The different purpose of their method of raising us also has a bigger impact. Different personalities are built and different path are taken. The way James being raised I predict he is going to be independent and strong as well as a hard-worker person. However, his mother has also taught him to be just a black person who knows his place and to not go against the white people. As in terms of race I have been taught that race is not a frontier/ barrier for me. I have no limits; I only have to fight my way there with effort and a good education. The world and society for which we were trained is different.
As a kid during the civil rights movement at an early stage one had a conclusive racial identity and awareness of what position in society that specific race had. Now days we still struggle with racism but in a smaller scale. Now as a kid race is just cultural and background identity. After, all I have come to realize that there is no right, wrong, better or worst approach to raise a child. Mothers are different and the way they raise their child depends on many things. Race, socioeconomics and background also play a role on the approach the heart of a mother chooses to raise their child.
Nothing in life is totally good or bad. Everything has its pros and cons, as well as there is matter and anti-matter. A loving and spoiling mother makes life easier for their kids but their kids may or may not learn how to live life on their own. A strict and “cold” mother helps prepare their kids for life and to confront adversity, but love is also an essential component of ones happiness. There is no school to teach mothers how to be a mother and there is no school to teach kids how to be kids. It is natural instinct which one follows and acquire through experiences. Which makes me think; what type of mother would I be?
Years later seeking better opportunities for me we came to the United States when I was thirteen. She did not want me to grow in the Dominican Republic for the lack of progress. My mother whose name is Dinorah had high expectations of me. When I went to high school, one counselor told me it was going to be hard for me to perform well in a school that did not have a bilingual program and I might fail the grade. I was terrified but my mother made me go to that school and told me to what I knew how to do. My mother never helped me with anything regardless of my schoolwork but I must bring home excellent grades. As I grew older I was the one responsible to go and pay the bills of the house. She would only give me the bills and I had to made the calculations and tell her the amount of money she had to give me. To this day I do not have a cell phone because she took it away. I am the one responsible for my education and I made my own decisions. I follow all her rules and follow our moral values.
As I was reading the story “ The Sky is Gray “ by Ernest J. Gaines, I was astonished by the connection I discovered between James, the main character, and myself. “Then I catch her kind of looking where I’m. I smile at her a little bit. But think she’ll smile back.” (Pg. 91) When I read this quote I had a spontaneous flashback. James a boy of only eight years old growing up during the times period of Jim Crow was acting like a man to satisfy his mother. “ I love my mama and I want put my arm round her. But I’m not supposed to do that. She say that’s weakness and crybaby stuff…”(Pg. 84). I almost cry because I have experienced the feeling of hugging my mother but she is not the type of caring and loving mother. He is afraid of the dark just as I was but his mother also made him confront his fear. He was hungry and cold and did not say anything. Always looking straight because his mother told him. It is hard for an eight-year-old boy to act this way. I thought of my childhood and sympathize deeply with him.
How can a story change you? “The Sky is Gray” is a story that shows the fears and intimidation of the black society due to racism and the era of Jim Crow. Just as my mother all of a sudden had to step out and raise me when she and my father separated, James’ mother had to step out and more than anything protect James after his father was sent to the army. James mother was training James to survive and to not be a victim of the Jim Crow era. Being aware that his mother’s approach to raise him was to prepare him for life and to survive and that she did it because she loves him with all her heart made see my mother’s approach to raise me from a different perspective. As well as James’s mother I understood that my mother loves me and that all she does is because of that maternal love and responsibility. My mother has been training me to be successful and be able to confront all types of circumstances. To survive in this society and in the United States as minority. It is hard to be a Latina and I realize that all my mother did and does is because she knows that to function well in this country and anywhere I go I have to be strong, independent and have a good education. The story opened my eyes and helped me to appreciate my mother more.
Even though James mother and my mother have similar approach to prepare us for life they have their differences. The age and time period is very different and thank god I have not experienced discrimination in the same level as James did. His mother was more concern to mentally prepare him to be saved and keep him away from getting in conflict with white people. As in the other hand my mother have been preparing me to be successful in life and to function well in a society in which regardless of the fact that the Latino race is a minority there are many opportunities to take advantage of. It has been a preparation to be independent, open minded and educated rather than to protect me from racial conflicts. The different purpose of their method of raising us also has a bigger impact. Different personalities are built and different path are taken. The way James being raised I predict he is going to be independent and strong as well as a hard-worker person. However, his mother has also taught him to be just a black person who knows his place and to not go against the white people. As in terms of race I have been taught that race is not a frontier/ barrier for me. I have no limits; I only have to fight my way there with effort and a good education. The world and society for which we were trained is different.
As a kid during the civil rights movement at an early stage one had a conclusive racial identity and awareness of what position in society that specific race had. Now days we still struggle with racism but in a smaller scale. Now as a kid race is just cultural and background identity. After, all I have come to realize that there is no right, wrong, better or worst approach to raise a child. Mothers are different and the way they raise their child depends on many things. Race, socioeconomics and background also play a role on the approach the heart of a mother chooses to raise their child.
Nothing in life is totally good or bad. Everything has its pros and cons, as well as there is matter and anti-matter. A loving and spoiling mother makes life easier for their kids but their kids may or may not learn how to live life on their own. A strict and “cold” mother helps prepare their kids for life and to confront adversity, but love is also an essential component of ones happiness. There is no school to teach mothers how to be a mother and there is no school to teach kids how to be kids. It is natural instinct which one follows and acquire through experiences. Which makes me think; what type of mother would I be?
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