Mr. T-By Terrance Hayes Analysis

The general argument made by Peter Catapano in his work, “Performing Race on the Great Divide”, is that minstrelsy has been a significant topic that’s been examined upon by many intellectuals. More specifically, Catapano argues that minstrelsy has influenced the field of race and entertainment. He writes, “popular music, theater, and popular advertising images were particularly destructive to their notion of uplift and respectability of a race that was suffering under an assault of odious stereotypes.” In this passage, Catapano is suggesting that there were stereotypes about African-American culture in music and shows back in the older days. In conclusion, Catapano’s belief is that even though the great divide raised a challenge between the

This argument debunked the discriminatory myth of African Americans as a merciless and power-crazy race. It is amazing how the writers as black citizens, who are branded by their enemies(whites) as lowly unruly savages, successfully made their enemies appear as the lawless and savage

In The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, the narrator, James Weldon Johnson, makes the decision to live life disguised as a white man after seeing and experiencing the troubles that hound the African-Americans after the abolition of slavery. In Lalita Tademy’s Cane River, a slave family struggles to survive through their enslavement and the aftermaths of the Emancipation Proclamation. Throughout both of these stories, white people are disrespectful to the black people despite them deserving respect. Occasionally, this disrespect festers and turns into unjustified hatred. Through the gloom of death in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man and Cane River, one can see how prejudice is devastating to everything that stands in its path.

Where do we draw the lines between adoration and mockery, influence and appropriation, and individuality and stereotyping? Accordingly, the racial subject has always been a touchy topic to discuss, but with the lasting effects that the black minstrelsy has left in the society, we most definitely need to deal with the racial subject. Only this way can the American society move forward both as a nation and as a species, and through such efforts, only then can we ensure that such history can never repeat

Although race relations in the United States between whites and African Americans have significantly improved since the abolishment of Jim Crow laws, director Spike Lee’s socially conscious satire, Bamboozled shows that discrimination has only evolved. Released in 2000, the film sought to edify the African American population about the racist and stereotypical treatments blacks endured during the Jim Crow era when they were used to entertain the white masses. Moreover, it also shows how that culture is still propagated today, with African American film makers just as guilty. From the time the first African set foot in the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, race relations have always been whites’ superiority over blacks.

Two of Kevin Robertson’s poems were included in the anthology, For Colored Boys. The anthology won the American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award. He’s the winner of the Elma Stuckey Writing Award. He has read at the prestigious ALOUD Reading Series at the Los Angeles Downtown Public Library. As an educator, he has taught writing workshops at the University of Southern California, Long Beach Job Corps, and Franklin Whaley Middle School.

Lorraine Hansberry’s play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” perfectly captures the problems of an African-American family during the 1950s. Most of the conflicts portrayed by the characters are still very relevant to this day and the over looming issues of racism and stereotypes are still existent to society today also. These problems don’t just affect one group or race of people nowadays; they affect almost everybody in our society no matter what race or gender you are. In the play, personal conflicts such as Beneatha’s internal struggle to genuinely be herself can be seen in the present society. Racial profiling is also portrayed effectively in this play, and can also be seen in our present society.

Ben Carson and Kanye West are a few among many African-Americans who have fallen victim to the media’s prejudice. Ben Carson is an African-American but unusually represents the Republican party and Kanye West is a highly intelligent artist but is scoffed when he announced that he will be running for president. In both circumstances the media has portrayed them as unintelligent African-Americans who shouldn’t be taken seriously. In The Adventures of Huck Finn, Mark Twain positively depicts various stereotypes to illuminate the prejudice and discrimination in America. However, the novel has aroused a vast amount of controversy in education regarding black stereotypes.

Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” is a short story exemplifying how an African American slave descendant fits in a white man’s world post slavery, a continued fight against racism, and their yearning for equality. This story centers on a teenaged African American protagonist, as he faces his deepest uncertainties when he realizes his success in life may be hopeless shortly after hearing his grandfather’s startling final words. Although a year is not mentioned, this story is published in the late 1940s. Ellison takes us on a journey depicting African American’s oppression post slavery era with the main character through the use of figurative language, tone, and symbolism/allegory. A review of these three literary tools will reveal the main character’s

“The Passing Of Grandison” is a short story by Charles Chesnutt about Dick Owens’s journey attempting to “run off” one of the enslaved people on his family’s plantation, Grandison. Chesnutt was a mixed race man who critically wrote about social issues; Chesnutt published “The Passing Of Grandison” in 1899. This was in the midst of the Jim Crow Era, which explains why Chesnutt uses this short story as an opportunity to satirize slavery and the stereotypes produced by it. Throughout this story, he incorporates many of these stereotypes and propagandistic ideas in an effort to challenge a larger issue. Charles Chesnutt makes use of these stereotypes to challenge ideas of Black inferiority in his short story “The Passing Of Grandison”.

Throughout his essay, Staples is able to make the audience understand what he has to deal with as a black man. Staples does this by using words and phrases such as, “...her flight made me feel like an accomplice in tyranny” and “... I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area…” (542). By writing and describing how he (Staples) feels, the audience is able to get an inside look into how black men are treated and better understand why society’s teachings, play a vital role in how we see each other. Staples’ powerful writing also allows the reader to take a step back and see how as a society, people make judgements on others based on appearance alone.

The climax of his career subsisted in the midst of national turmoil. During this time, African Americans were trying to define their Blackness and their humanity in a land where they were treated second class. Author Wallace Terry put in words the thoughts that spun through the minds of the African American community,

Therefore, Ellison’s short story “Battle Royal” uses metaphors to exhibit the racial equality issues during the royal battle. The battles is the metaphor of the constant fight for racial equality African Americans were forced to endure. African Americans were automatically in the fight to preserve themselves within the society of Caucasian control. The battle royal is a metaphor that insertions the narrator into an intense, confusing world rules where the rules of a society do not apply and where “….there are "no rounds [and] no bells at three-minute intervals to relieve [the] exhaustion “(Ellison 279). The battle between African Americans was entertainment for the Caucasian to see African Americans fight among each other for recognition or for financial gain.

It’s been 53 years since President Lyndon Johnson enforced the Civils Rights Act of 1964, but racism is still an ongoing issue to this day, whether it’s intentionally or inadvertently caused by the people in our society. Cornelius Eady evaluates the concept of racism through his poem, “The Cab Driver Who Ripped Me Off,” which focuses on the views of a prejudiced cab driver. Eady’s literary works focuses largely on the issue of racism within our society, centering on the trials that African Americans face in the United States. “The Cab Driver Who Ripped Me Off” from Autobiography of a Jukebox is an influential poem that successfully challenges the problems associated with racism, which is a touchy, yet prevalent problem that needs to be addressed.

Every immigrant group has been stereotyped in Hollywood since the 19th Century. But in the case of ignorance towards black people, white people have created prejudice that has made the stereotypes last untill now. Gone with the wind, a 1939 Epic Civil War drama, shows slaves as well-treated, cheerful, and loyal to their masters. Slaves are portrayed as normal employees, and these are rewarded with presents if they’ve been appropriately loyal. This movie portrays slavery unrealistically and childlike.