Racism and Prejudice in Angelou, Hurston, and Staples
This essay examines how three prominent African-American writers — Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurston, and Brent Staples — use personal anecdote, ethos, and rhetorical argument to convey the realities of racial prejudice in America. Through close readings of Angelou's "Graduation," Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," and Staples's "Just Walk on By," the essay explores how each author connects individual experience to broader social and political structures. It also considers a shared theme of personal empowerment and self-determination as a response to systemic racism, while acknowledging the ongoing need for political and social change.
- Introduction: Personal Anecdote and the Argument Against Prejudice: Personal anecdote as effective rhetorical tool against prejudice
- Maya Angelou's 'Graduation' and Institutionalized Racism: Angelou's graduation essay exposes school segregation and racism
- Zora Neale Hurston and the Construction of Racial Identity: Hurston explores how society shapes racial self-perception
- Brent Staples and the Stereotype of the Threatening Black Man: Staples confronts fear-based stereotypes of Black men
- Racism as a Systemic Problem in American Society: Racism examined as ingrained structure in American history
- Conclusion: Empowerment, Writing, and Social Change: Writing as act of resistance and call for political change
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper uses close textual evidence — direct quotations from all three essays — to ground each analytical claim, making the argument both specific and traceable.
- It draws meaningful comparisons across the three authors, identifying shared rhetorical strategies (personal anecdote, ethos, spiritual resilience) while also distinguishing how each writer's experience differs.
- The essay connects individual experience to systemic analysis, showing how each personal story speaks to larger patterns of institutionalized racism, racial stereotyping, and social inequality.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates comparative literary analysis: rather than treating each author in isolation, it builds a running conversation between the three texts, noting both convergences (the theme of empowerment, the use of personal anecdote) and divergences (gender dynamics, the nature of the threat each author faces). This technique allows a richer argument than a single-text analysis could support.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens by establishing a theoretical framework (personal anecdote as persuasion; ethos as rhetorical strategy), then proceeds author by author — Angelou, Hurston, Staples — before widening to a systemic discussion of racism in American history. The conclusion synthesizes the three authors around themes of writing, political engagement, and personal empowerment. The structure is additive and cumulative rather than strictly argumentative, building its case through accumulated evidence across the three texts.
Introduction: Personal Anecdote and the Argument Against Prejudice
Personal anecdotes related to the experience of prejudice are usually the most effective means of convincing an audience that prejudice exists and that it is painful. Moreover, an effective author connects the issue of prejudice to broader issues that all readers can relate to, regardless of their personal experiences. It is therefore important to show how society as a whole suffers from prejudice. African-American authors are in the position of sharing personal anecdotes about prejudice from within the framework of what is supposed to be a free, open, and tolerant society. Because of the paradoxes in American society, prejudice seems all the more terrible and ironic. Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurston, and Brent Staples are all African-American writers who offer convincing arguments about prejudice.
Maya Angelou's 'Graduation' and Institutionalized Racism
Maya Angelou's autobiographical essay entitled "Graduation" is about her high school graduation at a segregated public school in Arkansas. Angelou's story is like that of other black students in her generation. In "Graduation," Angelou describes the excitement of the big day. There was a great deal of "anticipation" about the upcoming ceremony, as the students would cease to be children and become young adults (22). Angelou mentions early on in the essay that "unlike the white school, Lafayette County Training School distinguished itself by having neither lawn, nor hedges, nor tennis court, nor climbing ivy" (23). Mentioning ivy underscores the fact that Angelou is about to discuss the reasons for academic achievement disparities in American society. Black students do not have as many opportunities to attend Ivy League colleges, as Angelou's narrative makes clear.
The valedictorian of the class, along with Angelou herself — who ranked second — had to listen to a group of white men deliver a speech at the graduation explaining why black students were only suited to be athletes. As Angelou puts it, "the white kids were going to have a chance to become Galileos and Madame Curies and Edisons and Gauguins, and our boys (the girls weren't even in on it) would try to be Jesse Owenses and Joe Lousies" (29). The white men came to Lafayette County Training School to deliver a cruel message: that the black school children would amount to nothing more than their white overlords would allow them to be. The white school already had tennis courts and trees, while the black school had nothing and would continue to have nothing.
Angelou's autobiographical account is poignant because she relies on personal anecdote that links to broader social issues like school segregation and institutionalized racism. The government, represented by the two white men who came to speak at the graduation, not only permits prejudice — it actively causes it. The black students in the graduating class hung their heads low, until the valedictorian led the school in the "Negro National Anthem" and a spiritual song that uplifted Angelou's soul. The prejudice the students felt when the white men were present was erased by the pride of being black.
Works Cited
Angelou, Maya. "Graduation." Occasions for Writing: Evidence, Idea, Essay. DiYanni, Robert, and Pat C. Hoy. Boston, MA: Thomson Heinle, 2008. 335–342.
Hurston, Zora. "How It Feels to Be Colored Me." Occasions for Writing: Evidence, Idea, Essay. DiYanni, Robert, and Pat C. Hoy. Boston, MA: Thomson Heinle, 2008. 159–161.
Staples, Brent. "Just Walk on By." Occasions for Writing: Evidence, Idea, Essay. DiYanni, Robert, and Pat C. Hoy. Boston, MA: Thomson Heinle, 2008. 153–155.
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