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¶ … Black No More
There is a book I used to read when I was younger by Dr. Seuss called The Sneetches. The main plot is about two groups of Sneetches: "The Star-Bell Sneetches," who "had bellies with stars," and "the Plain-Belly Sneetches" who "had none (stars) upon thars."
Naturally, those with the stars believed that they were much better than those without. They would walk around bragging and looking down on everyone else, "We're the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.' With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they'd snort, 'We'll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!'" Such a situation is prime for Sylvester McMonkey McBean, who is always looking for a way to make some quick money. He sets up a machine that adds stars to the individuals without them. Of course, the ones with stars then want theirs removed. McBean is pleased to do so. So it goes with McBean getting paid lots of cash to add and remove stars. Finally, no one remembers whether or not they had stars to begin with. They realize that Sneetches are no better with or without "stars upon thars."
As with any Dr. Seuss book, this one can be read just as a fun picture story. Or, it can be seen as a story that reflects on everyday life. Throughout the world, there are always people who believe they are better off because they have stars, or no stars, of a certain color or religion or race. What people do about their...
Some people are proud that they are different; some are ashamed and want to change and even try to make themselves look or act different to fit in. This is what Black No More written by George Schuyler in 1931 is about -- the negative attitudes about American blacks and the ways that the blacks handle such bigotry and stereotyping.
Using satire, role playing, playful scenes and lots of dry humor, Schuyler offers a solution to the race problem. Unlike Dr. Seuss' book, however, Schuyler clearly shows that racism cannot be eliminated, and any try by an individual to change what are considered inferior traits will eventually fail. Individuals will always find something to fault in someone else, often through race, in order to feel better about themselves. Schuyler also shows ways in which efforts to suppress feelings that are at odds with oneself can at times even increase the influence of such feelings.
In the book, Max Disher, a confident insurance agent becomes the first African-American to undergo Dr. Junius Crookmore's "black-no-more" treatment. Crookman recognizes that "if there were no Negroes, there could be no Negro problem. Without a Negro problem, Americans could concentrate their attention on something constructive." Disher is…
Notwithstanding its roots in African dance, in actuality, it was a fighting style designed by African slaves as a means of protecting themselves from government agents searching for them after their escape from enslavement. Likewise, Levine focuses heavily on the connection between the slave culture that was evident in the American South, while much of it may actually have been shaped by the need to conceal it from white
This story clearly outlines the level of difference and separation that is experienced by many members of the African-American community in a variety of ways, and most clearly deals with the economic impact and institutional nature of the racism this community has experienced. Another very interesting perspective is provided in McPherson's memoir regarding his own experiences, Crabcakes (1999). Many different episodes reflecting sometimes subtle and sometimes quite obvious differences in
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He thus rejects Afrocentrism as a fundamental political act of self-definition by American Blacks along with the term as an African Diaspora to describe slavery, given that the slave trade dispersed members of Black tribes in Africa and in other areas of the Western world. Black Americans, once again, have produced a unique cultural legacy and suffered unique historical injustices, as distinct from the injustices of colonialism. Also, even
.. The history of miscegenation in this country...demonstrate[s] how society has used skin color to demarcate lines between racial groups and to determine the relative position and treatment of individuals within racial categories. (Jones, 2000, p. 1487) Prior to the civil war lighter skinned blacks were more likely to gain their freedom, and own property, through favor or inheritance. This is probably in part to the public, sometimes even official, recognition
Black Picket Fences Sharlene looked at me with her big, watery brown eyes. "No," she said emphatically, with a definite doleful tone in her voice. "I have never felt like I fit in here." Sharlene, who is 31 years old and has two children, is a black woman that falls into what Mary Patillo-McCoy calls the "black middle class." However, unlike the men, women, and children that Patillo-McCoy interviews for her