Long Division, The Ideal Man Essay

Black males within American society struggle to be successful because of challenges arising from racism and oppression, lack of effective educational leadership, and adverse racial stereotypes. Toby S. Jenkins’, “Mr. Nigger: The Challenges of Educating Black Males Within American Society”, Bell Hooks’, “We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity”, and Tyrone C. Howard’s “Who Really Cares? The Disenfranchisement of African American Males in PreK-12 Schools: A Critical Race Theory Perspective” provide insight to understanding the challenges Black males face within American society and especially the educational system.

In his essay, “Black Men and Public Space” Brent Staples a journalist explains that unconscious prejudice and racism exists against black men in our society. Unfortunately, these preconceived notions alter the way people respond to black males, making black men feel alienated. As an African American male, Staples supports this theory, providing people with insight into his own personal experiences. Brent discusses his childhood growing up in Chester, Pennsylvania, a city ridden with gang violence watching friends and family go to prison or end up murdered. His first encounter with racial stereotyping was a decade ago when he turned the corner one evening, keeping a distinct distance from a white female because she was cautiously watching

Though the Civil Rights Movement will eventually end segregation, for the most part, this racism expressed in “Man of All Work” still exists in today’s society when you look at maldistribution of wealth and opportunity to those of color. What is also observed in this novel is the lack of boundaries that the whites are willing to take in order protect their own innocence, at the African American’s expense.

Black men have the consistent challenge of finding and proving their place in society with unquestionable evidence. In this, men such as: James Cone, Brent Staples, and W.E.B DuBois provide argumentative and expository techniques that aid in the constant discourse of the black man’s presence. In their respective works, Nothing But a Man, Black Men in a Public Space, and On Being Black, these men show rhetorical strategies that allow readers to explicitly recognize the common strengths, ideas, and morals that are found in today’s black men. However, James Cone takes the approach to allow the reader to not only see the power a black man can command, but also the faults he is subjected to by his community that makes him

“All men are created equal,” a broad saying that attempts to describe the equality of our country. We have been abiding by these words since the creation of America, however, many events and circumstances have contradicted them. In the early ages of society, it seemed that the only beings who were granted privileges were rich white males. African-Americans and Native Americans found a common ground while they both struggled for their equality for a duration of time, and some could argue that they continue to struggle today. They were viewed as outcasts and in some cases even monsters. White people chose to oppress them only because they looked different and believed different. Literature does a good job of expressing these struggles through their themes. Two readings that stand out while relaying this theme are “Custer Died For Your Sins” and “Confessions of Nat Turner.” Within these readings, it is clear that both African-Americans and Native Americans endured the struggle of being oppressed, while also being generalized as unequal outcasts solely for their different looks and culture, forcing them to turn to violence as their only option for liberty.

“I have a dream that… they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” (Martin Luther King Jr) Racism is a big part of this society. For ages this unending journey has continued, white people have judged black people by their skin tone. Brent Staples, the writer of “Black Men in Public Space” brings up this idea with which everyone can sympathize.

Staples, Brent. “Black Men and Public Spaces.” The Longman Reader. Judith Nadell and John Langan . New York: Bedford, 2016. 190-193. Print.

Du Bois’s main proposal in this book is to explain the effect racism had on the identity of African Americans. Du Bois tries to make his audience comprehend the systematic oppression that African Americans faced during the time of reconstruction through a series of true anecdotes and narratives. He uses the anecdotes and narratives not only to appeal to his audience’s pathos and ethos, but also to convince his audience with evidence in a realistic and clear manner. He tries to have his audience understand the very different life African Americans lived compared to those that white Americans lived, and how that existing racism affected the identity of those African Americans. Throughout this book, he explains that the law and order of society in a post-slavery era prevented African Americans from achieving true equality, which hindered their understanding of their own blackness. Du Bois explains this oppression African Americans faced through three significant

These texts displayed some of the most powerful and disturbing messages which ignited monumental changes in society, many sharing a common theme of oppression. In Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois addresses two very important concepts, the veil and double consciousness. He talks about his own experience growing up behind the veil and how it affected his life. These two terms highlight the many hardships African Americans faced including racism, white supremacy, and lack of education. However, Du Bois proclaims those hardships are still in existence today, “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line” (DuBois 41). Here, DuBois engages questions of race, racial domination, and racial exploitation. On one hand this text calls our nation’s attention to the gross inequities of power, wealth, opportunity, and access between whites and the majority of the world. Yet, on the other hand it also shows oppression the other majority of our world faces, and the impact our actions have had and will continue to have on society and

In the 1950s African Americans were treated unfairly and discriminated against. During the post civil war time tensions were still high, the discrimination and separation between the blacks and whites was still prevalent. Discrimination is portrayed through Jim Crow laws, which affected every African American tremendously, the narrator’s experience at the Battle Royal, and the narrator 's transition from the black college to New York and The Brotherhood. In the Invisible Man, Ellison utilizes characterization to represent the division between whites and blacks in America in the 1950s.

This essay was written in my 12th grade year as my quarter two independent novel. I chose to read this book because I believed it would help me on the AP English and Composition exam. My reasoning behind this is because it had appeared as an excerpt several times in the past. The book Invisible Man was written by Ralph Ellison, and it tackled the heavy topics of segregation, race, and community. For our final on this independent novel, we were asked to pick one or more prompts out of a list we were given, and then we were to compose a professional essay based on those prompts. The essay was used to test our comprehension of the book, and to make additional connections by thinking of the meaning in a deeper context.

The media assume a tremendous part in characterizing what is satisfactory. For example, people, we all have a need to add to an individual character that isolates us from others. Inquiries, for example, 'Who am I?' and 'What am I doing here?' or 'What is my motivation in life?' are not kidding parts of tolerating ourselves and characterizing our self-personality. Essentially separating ourselves from other individuals makes characterizing our personality a social examination. The truth about race and the absence of differing qualities in the purest sense, deters the exertion and challenged people the dark male's capacity to really advance into masculinity. The black male is left to continually battle and battle for his personality, for force, for appreciation, and for comprehension. Social character theory clarifies that we can characterize ourselves by the social classifications that we feel we fit in with, for example, nationalities, religious or political affiliations, sexual orientation parts, families. There is both an inward and an outside element to self-character. Self-personality is so troublesome on the grounds that we assess ourselves as individuals in view of precisely how we trust we should feel and how we should act as indicated by

In the novel Invisible Man, race and racism is a constant issue of equality and inequality. In the 1960s, a black man confronts racism against not only to white folks, but society’s from degradation, but the narrator 's experiences in the battle royal and his role in perceived the Brotherhood organization. However, the novel goes more in-depth in a race that makes it hard to find an individual identity. Finding out that the outside context of racism is more imposed into others while the narrator if mostly shocked with the idea of showing off values and knowledge when it came to the college experience that the narrator desire. The overall perception of the narrator skin color and social status conflict with his idea of the true reality that

Holding a belief that opposes the advice his Grandfather once gave him, the narrator welcomes others to exploit him. His Grandfather had once warned him of the tricks that the white would play, a sense of trickery that the narrator becomes part of time and time again. For example, at the university he is one of many African-American males, but as he incorporates his own values into his work with Mr. Norton he makes a huge mistake. The mistake itself being, bringing Mr. Norton to a a bar less than suitable for a man of his color and standing. While at this bar he encounters a veteran who warns him about Dr. Bledsoe and society as a whole. Dr. Bledsoe, an African American man with a role of authority becomes intertwined with the fate of the narrator as misplaced trust is once again exploited. This time taken advantage of by those of the same race and background,

Mostly, I am able to keep my calm in these types of situation. It has taken me weeks of concentration to be able to endure the kind of pain that plagues me every night while I sleep, the nightmares that will not seem to cease no matter how many times I visit Dr. Eckle. Throughout the pain I would find a spot in the room, zoning in on one spot as I give it my complete focus. The pain is numbed. When the flash of their wands would stop bouncing off my skin I did not listen to their whispers. I paid no attention when a man I had never seen before slither into the room with his robes sweeping the spotless floor.