African American Essays (Examples)

African-American Studies

Harlem enaissance

The Harlem enaissance is a cultural movement that began during the second decade of the 20th century, also known as the "New Negro Movement." The Harlem enaissance came about as a result of a series of changes in American society during the time. One major turning point during this period of American history was the significant changes in the American population. econstruction was over; the country began its attempts at a stoic integration. Yet during this period, numerous American blacks migrated around the country. Many moved into urban areas on the coast and the Midwest. econstruction was not the end of transition and turbulence for American and for African-Americans. The 19th century closed with a mixed sentiment of uncertainty and of hope. There was great potential for African-Americans to make further strides and changes for civil rights, education, and creative expression. The 20th century saw surges…

To quote such examples are those that described arguments between former masters and freedmen over the rights to the labor power of family members or between husbands and wives in broken marriages. They however, did not evidently support his argument that kinship was redefined in the process (James, History Services).

Sometimes, his analyses appeared to conflate "family" and "household" in a more incomprehensible manner rather than illumination. This might be due the African case, where slaves were usually acknowledged part of the slave-holders' kin group, and led him lost. Overall, the Claims of Kinfolk is a unique piece of study that will have an important impact and influence on future scholarship (J. illiam, Journal of American History).

Conclusion

The book "The Claims of Kinfolk" is of maximum value in terms of professional interest to economic historians of the nineteenth-century United States. However, it is an attention grabbing, meditative and systematic…

Furthermore, as a result of these conditions there was a general failure of black business and entrepreneurships. "Black businesses failed, crushing the entrepreneurial spirit that had been an essential element of the Negro enaissance." (the Great Depression: A History in the Key of Jazz)

However this did not crush the general spirit of the African-American people and there was a resurgence of black culture and enterprise in area such as Harlem. acism and prejudice were also rife during this period and many jobs and posts occupied by African-American were take away and given to whites. In some Northern cities, "...whites called for blacks to be fired from any jobs as long as there were whites out of work." (Great Depression and World War 11, 1929-1945) in 1930 it is estimated that as much as fifty percent of all African-Americans were unemployed." (the Great Depression)

The situation was also exacerbated by…

Thus, the New Negro Movement refers to the new way of thinking, and encompasses all the elements of the Negro Renaissance, artistically, socially and politically (New).

The Harlem Renaissance changed the dynamics of African-American culture in the United States forever, for it was proof that whites did not have a monopoly on literature, arts and culture (Harlem). The many personalities of the era, such as composer Duke Ellington, dancer Josephine Baker, writer Jean Toomer, and artist Horace Pippin, not only helped define the New Negro Movement, but they inspired future generations of artists and writers such as Alice alker and Toni Morrison (Harlem).

Civil Rights Movement

hen Rosa Park refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, the African-American community united in what is referred to as the Civil Rights Movement, which was the beginning of the end of American apartheid (Munro 2005). This movement was led and…

Interestingly, in the first sections of the website, little is said about the inherent sexual violence within the slavery system. The exhibit focuses on positive examples of empowerment and resistance of women, or more generalized discussion of overall trends in Black history. For example, one section on the Great Migration of blacks to the north after the formal end of reconstruction contains no mention of how this specifically affected African-American women. However, other sections, such as the career of anti-lynching journalist Ida B. ells-Barnett, and the founders of the first African-American women's colleges, bring hidden history to light. Some African-American women during the early 20th centuries accomplished feats even white women had not, such as Maggie Lena Mitchell alker, the president of the Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia, the creator of the patented 'folding' bed Ira E. Goode, the sculptress Mary Edmonia Lewis, and the aviatress Bessie…

African-American Immigrations

African Immigration to the New orld

The initial immigration of Africans and people of African descent is inexorably linked to the slave trade and the institution of chattel slavery in the United States. Although immigration patterns would inevitably vary, they all tended to do so according to the relationship between this country and its regard for slavery. Due to the fact that the beginnings of these people's immigration to the U.S. -- which is noted to have begun as early as the middle of the 16th century (no author) -- precipitated the founding of the nation, Africans and those of African descent would play a fairly integral role in the foundation of the nation-to-be. In purely economic terms, their very landing on American soil already represented the monetary impact that they would have on this society, since slave labor was very costly. Additionally, however, these people would be…

African-American males are more likely to face jail or prison time than men from other races and ethnicities. The violent death rate for African-American males is much greater than it is for all other segments of society. However, one area of study has not been a significant issue for young African-American males compared to their counterparts in society until recently. In the last 20 years, the pattern of the suicide rate among African-Americans has changed, and African-American males are almost as likely to commit suicide as their white counterparts (CDC, 2007). In that time period, African-American males have seen a drastic increase in the number of suicide rates per 100,000, and although that rate has declined in the past decade, it remains alarmingly high.

Researchers have considered many factors during this rise in suicide rate, but there are many areas that have not been subjected to detailed review. With the…

African-American's Ethnic Or Cultural Background Affects Ethical Convictions"

How African-American's ethnic or cultural background affects ethical convictions.

For most African-Americans, their history of slavery and discrimination has had the most profound, shaping effect upon their ethical convictions than any other historical experience. This is one reason that African-Americans overwhelmingly vote Democratic, when compared with other groups, given the party's support of civil rights. "Nearly 80% of blacks vote Democratic... [yet] many African-American voters -- including Democrats -- line up with conservatives on social and cultural issues," such as social issues like gay marriage" (Cloud 2008).

African-Americans tend to be more religious and to regularly attend church than their white counterparts. "After controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, African-American men reported significantly greater levels of religiosity...compared with European-American men. African-America men also reported significantly greater levels of future temporal orientation [i.e., that the future would be better than the present" (Halbert et al.…

The oil spill in North Carolina caught her attention along with the fact that "Forty-one states send [toxic] waste to Emelle, Alabama, where 86% of the population is African-American" (Kaplan, p. 378). The skill that Burwell showed in pushing the issue that there was clearly a strategy to place dangerous toxic waste dumps -- that give off cancer-causing PCBs -- in areas where minorities lived was impressive. "Dollie, determined at all costs to keep her neighborhood from becoming a dump, never thought of herself as a leader until this time," Kaplan writes (p. 383). Kaplan concludes that "Not since the civil rights movements had African-American People in the South Mobilized in such large numbers to demonstrate that they had reached the end of their rope and wouldn't have their human dignity and their very lives discounted because they were black and poor" (Kaplan, p. 386).

orks Cited

Brown, Elsa Barkley.…

African-American Literature

Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folks offers the reader glimpses into the heart and mind of black men and women living in the post-reconstruction south when the splendor that had resided especially in the cotton market, had all but disappeared. The disappearance of the cotton market left in its wake thousands of black men and women the legacy of the laborers that built the place still laboring and still slaves to the land and the landlord. In Chapter 7 "Of The Black Belt" Du Bois describes an area in the south that is filled with black people mostly renting land from the heirs of fine plantations, the heirs who all had better places to be but still collect rents that equal a man's annual wages if they do not exceed them. The epigraph of the chapter the song "Bright Sparkles" references grave goods associated with the…

African-American HBP

An effective health education program must be culturally aware, sensitive to the history and specific needs of the community. Within the African-American community, there is an unfortunate history of mistrust with regards to the healthcare system and establishment. As Thomas & Quinn (1991) point out, "there remains a trail of distrust and suspicion" that hampers health education in Black communities (p. 1498). The root cause of the specific mistrust of healthcare system, policy, and practice can be traced to the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Lingering effects of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study include a resistance to education and intervention related to HIV / AIDS among African-Americans. Therefore, health education related to heart disease and high blood pressure must be treated with sensitivity and awareness of this historical conflict between Black communities and healthcare, which is largely viewed as a white institution. The proposed health education program is for a neighborhood.…

African-American Odyssey

Through the reasoned and systematic analysis presented in Martin & Malcom & America: A Dream or a Nightmare, author James H. Cone investigates the fundamental philosophical contrasts between the ideas espoused by the Civil ights movement's most revered leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And Malcolm X In the preface of the book, Cone identifies both King and Malcolm X as the founding fathers of "the two main resistance traditions in African-American history and culture -- integrationism and nationalism" (Preface ix). The remainder of the work comprises a comparative examination of each man's overarching belief system, with Cone relying on both King's and Malcolm X's religious background, family upbringing and social influences to contextualize their competing views and values. Cone uses the term integrationism to encompass King's overall adherence to peaceful protesting and nonviolent methods to achieve social reforms, while the term nationalism describes Malcolm X's insistence on…

The research has high validity because much of the evidence is videotaped and not just entered in written form. This provides a more objective record of results (ibid., 137). The question of controlling or non-controlling feeding patterns and their effects on obesity are especially interesting to this author due to the potential for heading off later obesity issues. The resource will reflect on the class presentation by documenting the immediate impacts of early parenting styles among African-American parents upon obesity issues.

This resource will definitely be useful in creating the presentation because it presents a proactive opportunity to intervene and improve parenting skills and child welfare.

tewart, E.B., E.A. tewart, and R.L. imons. "The Effect of Neighborhood Context on the College Aspirations of African-American Adolescents." American Educational Research Journal. 44.4 (2007): 896 -- 919.

The purpose of the article is to measure the neighborhoods in which African-American adolescents live and…

African-American Art

Creative African-American Literature

Were one to pause to give this subject consideration, it would appear that the vast majority of African-American artwork within the 20th century was organized around and largely revolved about pressing social issues of the time period. Despite the fact that African-Americans had been legally emancipated from slavery in the middle of the 19th century, there were still a number of eminent social issues (most noticeably civil rights and the lack thereof for African-Americans) that were addressed in both a political as well as an artistic context. One of the leading purveyors of works of arts to challenge and elucidate the numerous social ills African-Americans chose to address during this time period include the creations of writers. The medium of writing, both in the form of traditional creative writing as well as in the form of creative nonfiction writing, lent itself as the perfect voice…

African-American History- Christian Denominational Involvement

The African-American church, and African-American clergy, have been at the forefront of "nearly every major social, moral, and political movement in the black community," according to the Encyclopedia of American Religion and Politics (Djupe, et al., 2003, p. 9). And there is not one particular denomination that African-American Christians are drawn to, any more than there is any one specific denomination that Caucasians are drawn to. This paper reflects the different churches that African-Americans have been drawn to, namely the AME, the Pentecostal Roman Catholic Church, and Episcopalian Church.

The School of Divinity at Regent University reports in its 2007-2008 Colloquium on African-American Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements in the U.S. that "Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity is the fastest growing segment of the African-American Church." Indeed, black Christians have been heavily involved in nearly all aspects of the Pentecostal movement "…from founding at the Azusa Street Revival at…

African-American 20th Century Political History

Author's note with contact information and more details on collegiate affiliation, etc.

There is a point in African-American history where many of the various political groups worked together toward common goals. The 1960s was a time around the world where groups organized and united in the name of civil and human rights; African-Americans were very much an active part of this trend/group. For years late in the 20th century, the African-American struggle for civil rights and equal treatment under the law and in society at large was on an upswing. They had significant momentum. This period did not last; many key figures in the movement were assassinated by various U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies and many groups suffered from in-fighting as a result of various internal and external factors. This paper will focus on the political history of African-Americans, specifically in the mid --…

(Archie-ooker, Cervero, and Langone, 1999) This study concludes that: "...power relations manifested themselves concretely through these factors in the social and organizational context, which by defining African-American learners as generic entities, produced undifferentiated educational programs." (Archie-ooker, Cervero, and Langone, 1999)

The work of Gilbert and Wright reports a study conducted through collecting a series of articles in which African-American women were interviewed concerning living with AIDS. They write in their book entitled: "African-American Women and HIV / AIDS: Critical Responses" that: "From the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, the concept of culture has been used to interpret, define and further distance the 'other' or members of groups deemed socially deviant." (2002) They state additionally that African-American women "have long suffered from being defined by mainstream dominant society's cultural characteristics of popular images of them, examining their behavior and creating policies that affected their well-being. Reconstructing realities for HIV-positive African-American women…

In search for honest leadership in the church she wrote "Character is the first qualification," without that, the minister is a menace." She stated that ministers should have a clean and unselfish purpose, be innovative, dedicated to the issues of the community, sincere in their mission and not lazy.

In effort to stay true to her vision for black women, urroughs introduced "Women's Day" to the National aptist Convention in 1901. The idea was to incorporate women from congregations and train them to publicly speak. urroughs was successful in this attempt. Women's Day became a part of every African-American denomination and congregation.

urroughs was adamant in her search for racial uplift. It was her position that hard work and manual labor meant self-worth. It was her womanist attitude that fought for the acknowledgement of the working poor. She felt that value and strong work ethic could improve racial turmoil. To…

..'Let there be light..." (Genesis 1:3, NKJV) on this dark subject.

CHAPTE 2

LITEATUE EVIEW all Americans are the prisoners of racial prejudice." - Shirley Chisholm (b. 1924), African-American politician (Columbia, 1996)

2.1: All American Affected.

acial prejudice, which frequently leads to unfair acts do not just imprison the race receiving the prejudice. As Chisholm notes at the start of this section, racial prejudice imprisons all Americans. The following three synopsis reflect a sampling of information from literature that will be reviewed in the proposed study.

2.2: Considered Contentions

From the Minds of Adolescents

The article, "Gender, ace, and Urban Policing: The Experience of African-American Youths" (Brunson & Miller, 2006) utilizes a survey along with interviews, to examine ways gender influenced youths' experiences with their neighborhood police,

Minority youth participating in this study in present their perspectives regarding issues and relate personal disturbing information on numerous police practices, noted in…

Other evidence suggests patterns of dependence symptoms and alcohol abuse may be linked with depressive or other disorders in adolescents, which may progress into adulthood leading to criminal activity (Martin, Kaczynski, Maisto & Bukstein, 1995; Kessler, et. al, 1996; Kilpatrick, et. al, 2000).

Other evidence links aggressive behavior later in life with affective disorders in adolescence or young adulthood which may contribute to adult violent tendencies (Downey & Walker, 1992; Elze, Stiffman & Dore, 1999; Fergusson, Horwood & Lynskey, 1996; Ackerman, et. al, 1998). Elze, Stiffman & Dore (1999) emphasize the "correlation between violence and youth's mental problems" explaining the two are "inextricably linked" to one another, and that mental health problems when not addressed adequately can lead to violence unchecked in adolescence and later in life (p. 222). This notion is further supported by Carlson & Dalenburg (2000) who suggest that violence and abuse may be "exacerbated" in conditions…

African-American Women in New York State

"About 30% of Hispanic and 20% of African-Americans lack a usual source of health care compared with less than 16% of European-Americans" (Agency for Healthcare esearch and Quality, 2003). "acial and ethnic disparities in health care, whether in insurance coverage, access, or quality of care, are one of many factors producing inequalities in health status in the United States" (Lillie-Blanton & Lewis, 2005, p. 1). "No universally accepted definition of health disparities or health inequities currently exists; to some, disparities are simply differences in health processes or outcomes between population groups" (Meyers, 2007, p. 1).

"Clearly understanding ethnical and racial health disparities demands a careful examination of all groups in all societies in which such disparities exist" (Dressler, Oths & Gravlee, 2005, p. 233). Eliminating disparities in health and healthcare was a priority identified in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Healthy…

African-Americans Spinal

African-American with Spinal Cord Injury: Cultural Analysis of Disability

African-American's with a severe disability face many unique challenges socially. A number of programs have been instituted that impact the quality of life for minorities with disabilities, including those related to their career prospects and interpersonal well being. There have been numerous laws enacted in recent years to protect people with disabilities in the workforce. The ADA is the most well-known of these. Many studies have been conducted that identify the impact of a disability on an individuals lifestyle and career, whereas others have focused on the impact being a minority has on one's potential for life and career achievement.

There have been relatively few studies however that has addressed specifically minorities with disabilities and the impact the disability has not just on their employment opportunity, but also on their personal outlook, societal status and chances for success post…

" You figure, illiams explained to the author, you don't like what's happening at home in Chicago, and now in the U.S. Marines "...you finally get a chance to get away." Those were illiams' reasons for joining the military and participating in the Vietnam ar as an African-American youth. Indeed illiams saw the military as not just an escape, but as "a form of incarceration" - but the war might offer him "a fuller measure of freedom than the kind of imprisonment that seemed inevitable if he were to stay on the street" (Appy 78).

Another key reason the author discovered in terms of black youth volunteering for duty in Vietnam was for "self-advancement" (as was mentioned earlier in this paper). The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) survey in 1964 found that nearly twice as many blacks as whites offered "self-advancement" as their main reason for signing up for war…

African-American Academics

African-American Students and Success and Failure in the School Setting

Do African-American students use different strategies to achieve academic success than other groups?

The strategies suggested by African-American students themselves have a lot of merit, in the matter of their own academic achievement. In a research study published by Child Study Journal (Tucker, et al., 2000), 22 elementary and 21 high school students completed an open-ended questionnaire delving into the question of how to enhance the academic success of African-American youth.

The questionnaire was given to the 43 students because, as the authors of the article suggest, "there exists a persistent and substantial gap between the school performance of African-American and European-American students." And the questions to be addressed for this paper: what are the explanations for this gap, and what strategies and programs need to be instituted to bridge the gap, prepare more African-American students for a…

esearchers in Chicago found the following statistics in relation to NYC heavy users of drugs among those in detention in terms of gender, race and age. The following figures reveal what their findings were.

Heavy Users in Detention All Detained Youth

Gender Gender

Male 82% Male 83%

Female 18% Female 17%

ace ace

Black 64% Black 63%

Hispanic 31% Hispanic 31%

White 5% White 4%

Other 0% Other 2%

Ages Ages

Source: Callahan (2001) Vera Institute of Justice eport

Treatment Options

Cognitive therapy is one form of treatment for substance abuse as well as collaboration with parents in the treatment options and therapies.

Summary & Conclusion

It is critical to note that the African-American is all too many times the primary face in the United States that is in the bracket delegated to those who live in poverty. That fact, in combination with the extremely pressured and loosely, and poorly…

These rituals performed in their indigenous countries can lower the levels of depression found in African-American women in their host countries. Such rituals are now performed less and less in western societies. More formal institutions of baptism, priest's blessings or circumcision secures the child's soul into the formal religious community. These practices integrate the child into the fold of the community but there are no such rituals for the recognition of the mother's new status. (Jones, 2002) The loss of interest in the ancient rituals while still maintaining traditional beliefs on depression and spirituality, have worsened the issue of postpartum depression for African-American women.

CONCLUSION:

African-Americans have maintained many of their traditional beliefs and values dear. However, as with every community, old rites gradually disappear amalgamating into new concepts and theories. There is a limit to which ancient values can withstand the tide of changing time. As Catherine Cartwright Jones…

In many cases, AVID on the transcripts impresses by itself, as does the college and advance placement courses in the program. The other significant benefit in the advanced programs is that it tends to foster better decision making outside of the classroom, as the students have a more clear picture of their future and are travelling on the road with like-minded peers. (Hubbard, 1999).

Erin McNamara Horvat and Kristine S. Lewis, in Reassessing the "Burden of 'Acting hite'": The Importance of Peer Groups in Managing Academic Success, examine the phenomenon of negative peer pressure associated with academic success among African-American students and strategies to combat it. Horvat and Lewis restate a relatively well-known trend among black students to feel that excelling in school can lead to an image of them being considered not African-American, or certainly in not having 'street cred.' Being able to withstand these pressures to 'conform' can…

From this course I hope to gain a better understanding of the history of African-Americans. I want to know more about their past, their achievements, their struggles, their ideals, their impact on American culture and so on.
My favorite African-American personality is Malcolm X. I think he is the most articulate and thoughtful African-American in the 20th century and he has a great deal of power and conviction in his words. As a Civil Rights leader he was a non-conformist: he did not ascribe to the same methods and ideals as Martin Luther King, Jr. Instead, he followed the Prophet Elijah Mohammed and joined the Nation of Islam. But then he left them when he realized his leader was not being honest about his own life. Malcolm X grew up like a thug, but during his time in prison he underwent a conversion that affected him mentally and spiritually—so there…

African-Americans History And Culture

The false and misleading notion that "African-Americans created themselves" completely ignores and invalidates the rich history of those whose ancestry lies in the great African continent. While African-Americans have adopted and incorporated many cultures into their own (not unlike any other cultural group in America) that in no way signifies that African-American's have no culture or history of their own.

"Black people have no history, no heroes, no great moments," this was told to a young Arthur Schomburg by his 5th grade teacher. Schomburg, with both African and Puerto ican ancestry went on to become a great historian and curator of African-American history; helping to dispel the very "truth" that his teacher tried to feed him about his own history and culture many years prior. The statement that "African-Americans created themselves" simply means that the Black American is devoid of history and a culture to call…

The 1950s was a time when the last of the generation of slaves were beginning to disappear from communities but their first generation children were attempting to make sense of the lives they led and the cautionary tales they had applied to their lives as a result. The work shows that for the 1950s African-American family it was a time of remembrance and resolution as well as a time to reflect on change and hope for even greater change in the future, with the inclusion of the fact that defacto segregation and suppression was still occurring in a rampant manner all over their lives.

Secondary Sources

Jewell, K. Sue. 2003. Survival of the African-American Family: The Institutional Impact of U.S. Social Policy. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Jewell develops a social history that demonstrates all the many disparities of the African-American vs. majority culture and how these disparities, legal, social and economic…

At the same time, however, the ghettoes resulted from the people's desire to form a united community to which they could relate and that could offer comfort from a society that, despite its more opened views, still viewed blacks from the point-of-view of the segregation policy.

The ghettoes however represented an environment that would later offer one of the most important and relevant elements of the American culture: the music and religious atmosphere that was traditional for the black community. As a means of resisting the struggle against segregation and inequality, many communities saw music as the connection that united all black people in their suffering. The soul music thus became a means of expressing both sorrow and joy, hope and despair among the black communities. Even though such practices had been seen in the South as well, once the Great Migration started, the black people exported their core values…

African-Americans in the News

From some of the articles that I have studied, it seems that many articles on the African-American community focus on their problems, on analyzing them and on suggesting possible solutions by which the community can improve its condition.

One of these articles, for example, addresses the problem of HIV / AIDS as it is reflected in the African-American community, suggesting that the best solution may actually revolve around taking responsibilities rather than pointing fingers to the people who are to blame. Taken from the Philadelphia Inquirer and quoting directors from the lack AIDS Institute, the article is keen to point out that "in 2005, AIDS in America is mostly a black disease"

. However, even more worrisome is the perception existing at the community level according to which HIV / AIDS was a white manmade disease, specially created to eradicate and/or control the community. In this…

African-American Heritage & the Amish

African-American people traditionally have different communication patterns and family roles than their white counterparts. They are more likely to have families headed by single parents (usually single mothers) and they are also more likely to have poor communication skills and not express their deepest feelings so that they can get help for the family problems they are facing (Franklin & Moss, 2001). Unemployment and underemployment runs high through the African-American community, although there are certainly exceptions. Because the culture of the majority of African-American people is different from the culture seen in the white community, the interaction between the two groups can sometimes be more complex than one would expect. African-Americans are more likely to be part of the high-risk population when it comes to health and well-being (both mental and physical), and they are more like to live in areas of the country and…

African-Americans are second only to Native Americans, historically, in terms of poor treatment at the hands of mainstream American society. Although African-Americans living today enjoy nominal equality, the social context in which blacks interact with the rest of society is still one that tangibly differentiates them from the rest of America. This cultural bias towards blacks is in many notable ways more apparent than the treatment of other people of color, such as Asian immigrants, as is reflected in disparate wages and living conditions experienced by these respective groups. Common stereotypes hold the successful, college educated black man or woman as the exception rather than the rule, whereas Asians are commonly thought of as over-achievers. Although any bias undermines social interaction in that it shifts attention away from individual merit, the bias towards African-Americans can be said to be worse than most, and lies at the root of discrimination and…

African-Americans and Western Expansion

Prior to the 1960s and 1970s, very little was written about black participation in Western expansion from the colonial period to the 19th Century, much less about black and Native American cooperation against slavery. This history was not so much forbidden or censored as never written at all, or simply ignored when it was written. In reality, blacks participated in all facets of Western expansion, from the fur trade and cattle ranching to mining and agriculture. There were black cowboys and black participants in the Indian Wars -- on both sides, in fact. Indeed, the argument over slavery in the Western territories was one of the key factors in breaking up the Union in the 1850s and leading to the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. In the past thirty years, much of the previously unwritten and unrecorded history of the Americas since 1492 has been…

e learn that art can indeed reflect life but it can also inspire it beyond what the human mind can dream.

orks Cited

Bailey, Thomas, et al. The American Pageant. Lexington D.C. Heath and Company, 1994.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. New York: Penguin, 1982.

Levernier, James a. "Frederick Douglass: Overview." Reference Guide to American Literature, 3rd ed. 1994. GALE Resource Database. Site Accessed August 3, 2006. http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com

Norton, Mary Beth, et al. A People and a Nation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990.

Richard Powell. African-American Art. 2005 Oxford University Press. http://www.aawc.com

Rodriguez, Junius P.. "African-American Experience: Art." African-American Experience. 12 September, 2008. http://aae.greenwood.com

Norton, Mary Beth, et al. A People and a Nation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, (1990). 278.

Bailey, Thomas, et al. The American Pageant. Lexington D.C. Heath and Company, (1994). 69.

Norton, Mary Beth, et al. A People and a…

African-American MOTHES AND THEI DAUGHTES

Ethical Issues in Gumdrop Northern

The Executive Officer, ABC Company

Ethical Issues in Gumdrop Northern

It has come to my attention that the actions and functions of the Gumdrop Northern are not up to standards. The company besides afflicting the American citizens, particularly the military, has lacked a sense of corporate social responsibility to both their employees, customers and the natural environment. Notably, the business world faces the notion of corporate social responsibility in all aspects of business undertakings (Bitektine, 2011). In a wide assortment of issues, corporations get motivation of to behaving in a socially responsible manner. In the contemporary world, corporate businesses focuses on the interest of the society through taking responsibility for the effect of their actions on employees, shareholders, communities and customers in all facets of their operations (Bitektine, 2011).

Nevertheless, this is contrary to what Gumdrop Northern is doing to…

African-American authors have been essential to elucidation of the race and gender issues that face Blacks living in America. In particular, Black female authors have confronted the woes of societal stereotypes and idiosyncrasies that reflect life in America for people of color. The intention of this discussion is to examine how women writers analyze the race, class, and gender discrimination that black women have often faced. e will examine the works The Color Purple by Alice alker and The Bluest Eye written by Toni Morrison.

Alice alker

First let's examine The Color Purple which was published in 1982 and subsequently became an academy award nominated screenplay. There are several aspects of the novel that explore race, class and gender. The novel is narrated by a character named Celie. The primary theme of this novel has to do with plight of Celie and explores the manner in which women are treated…

988).

Perceived and real institutional barriers, a lack of awareness and real availability of need-based aid thus have a clear effect upon many students' perceptions about the role of the medical profession. Medicine is a demanding but rewarding field, and it is necessary that students dare to dream about becoming doctors, to ensure that African-American health outcomes do not continue to fall short of those of other minority groups, and to ensure that community concerns are addressed by the profession as a whole. Role models can be made more available by increasing access of African-American youth to African-American physicians, through visits to schools like the young doctors. Social barriers can be overcome by increasing educational awareness about scholarships and programs to help minorities navigate the challenges of medical school. Specific, culturally aware education about the barriers and ways to overcome financial barriers to medical school is essential to change the…

" (Seitles, 1996)

Seitles claims that integration has been a success in the fight against racial prejudice and states that: "Social consequences of racial isolation intertwine with grim economic realities for minorities. Due to the lack of interaction between racial groups, African-Americans are unprepared to work and socialize in a white majority society, while conversely, whites are not relating to, working with, or living with blacks. Prospects for African-American children raised in such communities are greatly diminished because of the lack of interaction between blacks and whites. Moreover, minority possibilities for advancement consequently decline from the lower quality of education afforded to them in ghetto schools, precluding them from competing for high-income employment. Although these inequalities are not always directly caused by intentional discrimination, residential racial segregation perpetuates these inequalities. Thus, minorities who live in racially homogeneous communities are faced with disadvantages beyond the present economic and social inequalities associated…

LEADING CAUSES OF MOBIDITY:

Some of the diseases which often result in early death in African-Americans, provided that the go untreated or undiagnosed, include hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, dementia (i.e., Alzheimer's disease), diabetes and certain types of cancer, most notably lung cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer and prostate cancer (in men). Exactly why the morbidity rates for these disease are so much higher in African-Americans than in other ethnic/racial groups include a lack of education, lower incomes and the inability to access professional health care providers and clinics ("Health and Health Care," 2009, Internet). At the top of the list, there is hypertension, coronary heart disease (especially arterial blockage), stroke and some major types of cancer. With hypertension, some studies have shown that if a black male lives in poverty, his chances of being stricken with high blood pressure increases, perhaps because of the stress which goes…

In G. Landsberg, M. Rock, & L. Berg (Eds.), Serving mentally ill offenders and their victims: Challenges and opportunities for social workers and other mental health professionals. New York, NY: Springer.

Carroll K.M. (1997). Enhancing retention in clinical trials of psychosocial treatments: Practical strategies. In L. Onken, J. Blaine, & J. Boren, (Eds.), Beyond the therapeutic alliance: Keeping the drug-dependent individual in treatment. [NIDA Research Monograph Series #165, 4-24]. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Chou C.P., et al. (1998). Interaction effects of client and treatment program characteristics on retention: An exploratory analysis using hierarchical linear models. Substance Use & Misuse, 33(11), 2281-2301.

Goldkamp, J.S., White, M.D., & Robinson, J.B. (2001). Do drug courts work? Getting inside the drug court blackbox. Journal of Drug Issues, 31(1), 27-72.

Snyder, H., Finnegan, ., Stahl, A., & Poole, R. (1999). Easy access to juvenile court statistics: 1988-1997 [data presentation and analysis package]. Pittsburgh,…

African-American males between the ages of 15 and 24 are at relatively higher risk of suicide according to Center for Disease control and prevention. Since 1980s the suicide rate has increased tremendously and many young seemingly successful males are committing suicide following years of suffering from chronic depression. Such cases highlight the importance of recognizing signs of depression young males but since researches and studies do not always reach parents on time, they fail to stay on top of it. This is how Gina Smallwood felt when in 2008 her young son shot himself right before his 20th birthday. (Thomas, 2009) Gina had no idea Kelvin was at the risk of suicide or that there were any statistics that placed African-American youth at greater risk of suicide. Instead she felt that since her son had been an honor student and had a bright future ahead of it; suicide would be…

The fact that this figure remains a guess says something important about what orrison was up against in trying to find out the full story of the slave trade. uch of that story has been ignored, left behind, or simply lost.

Through her works she attempted to retell the stories of grief associated with slavery and terror, her characters living their lives with greater understanding of its value than almost any other set of characters in fiction today.

Within the genre of the autobiography there is a different tenor of thought the words and deeds are that of the author and the message is clearly self, devolvement. Angelou in the Heart of a Woman demonstrates the ideals of her time, as a civil rights organizer and protestor. She clearly spells out the strife that exists between whites, and blacks and the dangerous dance they are doing during what most would…

African-American in the Media

The comedy Barbershop, starring Ice Cube juxtaposes the harshness of city life with the resiliency of the people living in the city. The movie with its black cast has an impressive standing in the movie industry for the year 2002. I'm not sure that I agree that this specific film means a breakthrough for African-Americans in the industry. The Black person has after all been part of the industry for a long time, and there are many African-American stars, not featured in this movie, who have made a great success of their movie careers.

The "integration period" for example is determined to be around the years 1949-1969. During this period there is an integration of Black people into the societies depicted in films. Thus the African-American is portrayed in a more positive way. Also, "black" themes and issues of conflict among races and peers are depicted…

African-American Fixation and Modern Superiority in Sports

Sports are significant in many ways to any individual of the society and their values can notarize any political ideology. Sports have often been considered as a missionary tool of liberation, as anti-hegemonic. Fascists, communists, liberal marketers and filibusters have always revered sports. Even political group of dissidents has also vituperated sports, paradoxically. Sports have marked itself as the most powerful form of human expression during all of man's time. Sadly, sports fail to serve the United States ideology in any ways people decided to define democratic values during this, the American Century, when we became the most powerful purveyors of sports in all history (Gerald Early, Performance And Reality Race, Sports and the Modern orld).

Race does not comprise of a system consisting of the privileged or discredited abilities. It is rather an entirety of clashing rumination of what it means to…

If someone returns a questionnaire with identifying personal information, then it will not be used in the study and will be destroyed. The questionnaires will also be constructed so that there will be no questions that could potentially violate the participants privacy in any way. For instance, there will be no questions asked about the particulars of the child's suicide, where the mother works, what particular community she's from and what church she is a member of, etc. Questions such as these could deter the target audience from responding because of fear that their privacy could be jeopardized.

The introductory letter sent with the questionnaire plays an important role in weeding out any ethical issues that may arise. The letter will clearly define the survey and discuss why the prospective participants were chosen. They will know that none of their personal information was used in order to send them the…

2.

In keeping with the theme of individuality highlighted above, each of the main characters in the assigned readings struggle to define his or her identity in terms of the dichotomies in the society they observe. Each point-of-view differs according to the person's stage of life and background, and each person seeks to establish an identity by means of the cultural and social tools they have at their disposal. At times these tools comprise family members, friends, or teachers, and at others they are something much more focused and personal, such as the intellect or determination.

Sylvia, the main character of "The Lesson," establishes her identity in terms of the financial contrast between her own social construct and those who can spend $1,000 on a toy. For her, the concept of financial security provides a platform for constructing an identity. Her determination to contend with the rich for a place…

Self-esteem and self-efficacy are issues that are of primary importance. These are affected by a number of environmental factors, including immediate family, but also the environment in which a person moves, as well as the wider social environment.

Contextualism

Contextualism was promoted in 1942 by S.C. Pepper, and was previously known as "pragmatism." This term was often used in the work of Charles S. Peirce, William James, Henri

ergson, John Dewey, and George Herbert Mead (Morris, 1997). In psychological development, contextualism suggests the influence of a broad number of categories, beginning with the immediate family, and broadening to the peer group, society, and global environment. ehavior is therefore to be seen in the context not only of immediate family and peer influence, but also in the context of broader society.

According to Morris (1997), Pepper's use of the term "contextualism" first occurred during 1932, where he referred to John Dewey's…

S. news magazines between January 1, 1993 and December 31, 1998. They concluded that the images of the poor in these news magazines "do not capture the reality of poverty, but instead provide a stereotypical and inaccurate picture of poverty that results in a misconception of beliefs about the poor, antipathy toward blacks and lack of support for welfare programs.

Similarly, Dixon and Linz (2000) researched the content of a random sample of local TV news programming in Los Angeles and Orange counties to determine representations of blacks, Latinos, and whites as lawbreakers and law defenders. "Intergroup" comparisons of perpetrators found that blacks and Latinos are significantly more apt than whites to be shown as lawbreakers. "Interrole" comparisons, lawbreakers vs. law defenders, similarly found that blacks and Latinos are more likely to be shown as lawbreakers than as defenders, whereas whites are significantly more apt to be portrayed as defenders…

A cannot live on tomorrow's bread." (Langston Hughs)

The poem of Hughs ends by expressing that freedom comes to be needed by those who are deprived the most of freedom.

CULLEN: UNCLE JIM

In the work of Cullen entitled "Uncle Jim" the entirety of understanding this poem is in the first line which states:

White folks is white," says Uncle Jim" (Countree Cullen)

In just the first line of this poem it is expressed how all the blacks were not ready at the time of this poem for feeling or accepting that they were, just as the white people, Americans.

ROWN: "ITTER FRUIT OF THE TREE"

Many of Sterling rowns first works have been called "...lighthearted narratives...' To be followed by "itter Fruit of the Tree" which has been termed to be a "...spiteful vendetta..." In which he speaks of the suffering of his family, specifically his grandmother and grandfather…

Some might argue that the movies and television depicting African-American and white adolescent girls reinforces stereotypes and can only negatively affect body image. This argument is supported by the fact that the vast majority of media and film sexualizes young women, African-American or white (Baker 13-15). It is true that women are held to a higher ideal because of advertising and media. However, the difference in the advertising of African-American and white women is the submissive sexiness of white women opposed to the independent sexiness of African-American women (Baker 13-15). It is true that both back and white girls feel compelled to emulate sexiness. However, African-American girls are also given an ideal that includes the tools for self-acceptance. That is, the independence and assertiveness found in the advertising depicting African-American women helps girls to feel confident and self-assured.

Close family relationships may be another factor in positive body image in…

African-American women can access ownership in the U.S. oil and gas sector.

Sub-questions:

To what extent has the oil and gas sector provided ownership opportunities for African-American women?

What factors or challenges hinder African-American women from accessing ownership in the U.S. oil and gas sector?

What measures can be put in place to increase access to ownership among African-American women in the U.S. oil and gas sector?

Interviewing

Answers to the above questions can be obtained through interviewing. Indeed, interviewing is one of the most common methods of collecting qualitative data. In spite of involving a great deal of time, effort, resources, and planning, interviews enable a closer interaction between the researcher and the subject(s), thereby facilitating a deeper inquiry of the subject matter (Bryman, 2008).

There are three major types of interviews from which the researcher may choose: structured interview, unstructured interview, and semi-structured interview (Robson, 2016). A structured…

Afican-Ameican

Racial Passing in the Oxheding Tale

This pape discusses efeences to the topic of acial passing in the novel Oxheding Tale by Chales Johnson. The discussion ties to answe the questions of why, how, and with what effects Chales Johnson mentions this theme in the novel.

The main chaacte in the novel is Andew. He had his mothe's hai. She was the wife of a plantation owne in South Caolina. His fathe was a slave who seved as his maste's butle. The conception of Andew was an "accident." On a night in which the maste and the butle, Geoge, had gotten dunk, the maste asked Geoge to switch beds with him, supposedly to avoid thei wives' ecimination fo thei dinking. Anna, the maste's wife, mistakenly thought that Geoge was he husband in the dakness of the bedoom and pusued intecouse. Geoge was a man who liked to finish his…

As the vast majority of African-Americans do not know where their ancestors came from, it is difficult to trace one's roots back to the African continent. At the same time, the United States, while certainly the nation that nearly every African-American would consider to be home, has hardly been hospitable to African-Americans throughout history. Even today, nearly a quarter of all African-American families in the United States live below the poverty line.

Nation plays a more prominent role in Hispanic-American communities, as these communities tend to organize themselves around national heritage. For example, the Puerto ican community in the United States is distinct from the Mexican-American community.

It should be kept in mind, however, that both Hispanic-Americans and African-Americans tend to identify their national heritage with the United States of America - despite their troublesome relationship with their home country over the centuries.

Institutional Networks

Institutional networks continue to play…

Selling in public obviously can result in an arrest far easier than selling in a dorm, or a bar, or a workplace, as whites tend to do. Police can stop a black man on the street and frisk him without a warrant. And so if African-Americans are far more likely to be selling crack in the open air, and crack sales result in far longer jail sentences than powder cocaine sales, there is at least part of the answer as to why African-Americans serve longer sentences in some cases.

A ashington Post analysis of 79,000 federal sentences between the years 1993 and 1995 (referenced in Jet Magazine) reflects that "Blacks received 2% longer jail terms than whites" nationally, and in the District of Columbia Blacks received sentences that were 12% longer than whites (Jet Magazine).

Meantime, in the publication Sentencing Law and Policy (a participant in the law Professor Blogs…

That being said, it is quite difficult to be honest with oneself, even thought as we stand in front of the mirror, naked and bare, Didion says we remain "blind to our fatal weaknesses." One might think that being too self-critical would damage the ego, but for Didion, it is completely the opposite -- by knowing out flaws, accepting some and working towards the goal of solving others, we become more actualized and powerful. Without this realization, "one eventually discovers the final turn of the screw: one runs away to find oneself, and finds no one at home."

Both Didion and Walker focus on self-respect, self-actualization, and in a very real way, a pseudo-Marxian approach to alienation from society. There are several points in common for the authors: one's own approach to self; seeking and finding self-respect; and taking an active role in our own place in the universe. Conversely,…

Brent Staples and Jamaica Kinkaid have written seminal short stories, contained in anthologies of American and African-American literature. Although Kinkaid's "Girl" and Staples's "Just alk on By" were published about twenty years apart, they share in common themes related to racism and the experience of being black in the United States. Kinkaid and Staples both address the intersection of gender and race, with Kinkaid focusing on the role expectations of women in black society and Staples concentrating on the perception of black males by the dominant white culture. Both Staples and Kinkaid imbue their writing with emotional intensity, not shying from anger, but rather, transforming powerful feelings of frustration into points of liberation.

In "Just alk on By," the narrator describes his experience as a night walker, someone who enjoys taking long walks at night in the city. hat would typically be considered a normal activity takes on tremendous political…

African-American Perspectives on Education for African-Americans

Education has been an issue at the forefront of the African-American community since the first Africans were brought to the colonies hundreds of years ago. For centuries, education was forbidden to enslaved Africans in the United States with penalties such as whipping and lynching for demonstrating such skills as literacy. As the abolitionist movement gained strength and the Civil War commenced, more and more enslaved Africans saw education as a sign of freedom and a representation of the many ways in which they were held back yet simultaneously integral to American culture. Two African-American writers, scholars, and leaders, W.E.B. Du Bois and Frederick Douglass, discuss the power and the potential for education in the African-American Community. Douglass wrote his seminal work, his autobiography, in the middle of the 19th century, before the Civil War, econstruction, the industrial revolution, and the turn of the 20th…

African-Americans in Major Historical Events

Although African-Americans have been seen as being the catalysts of major historical conflicts such as the Sectional Crisis, the Civil ar, and Reconstruction, they actually impacted these events. For example during the Sectional Crisis, African-American presence in the U.S. Courts, as they sued for their freedom, brought the injustice that African-Americans faced to the national spotlight. In addition, during the Civil ar, African-Americans' presence was widespread as they fought on the field and worked behind the scenes. Finally, African-Americans shaped the period of Reconstruction as they continued their fight for equality through their presence in government politics. This essay will discuss these specific contributions of African-Americans during each of these eras.

The Dred Scott Decision

The Sectional Crisis was the period preceding the Civil ar that began in the 1840s and peaked during the 1850s. During the period of the Sectional divide contributions of African-Americans…