African American Argumentative Essays Samples For Students

For a long time now, the question as to who is an American has and continues to puzzle many, Perhaps this can be accredited to the rise in the number of immigrants residing in America. Historically, only people of white decent were the only ones who were considered as Americans. Nonetheless, things changed immensely and people of other descents can also be referred to as Americans. Inclusion or being considered an American national does not occur in isolation, but requires one to have been born in American or born to American parents. African Americans occur as a significant proportion whose identify ...

Language and imagery are powerful tools to use when conveying messages, which is why media advertisements rely heavily on the use of flowery and creative words as well as visually attractive pictures to lure consumers into buying their products. Most of the time, such techniques lead to stereotypical portrayals of certain social classes or people in roles that are oftentimes regarded as funny, endearing, scary, and in some instances, derogatory. One such example is the Aunt Jemima group of advertisements that began in the late 1800s and still exist today. Through language and imagery, Aunt Jemima depicts the image ...

Bikinis, full lips, thin waists, gyrations – the black woman in a rap video is usually one of many, surrounding the male rapper in question with a stable of women he implicitly has sexual command over. This is the image that is often found in most rap videos, at least as far as women are concerned. Due to the exclusive and alienating nature of a substantial portion of these images, representation has turned into misrepresentation, as many people use these portrayals to characterize the entirety of African-American femaleness in an incorrect and unflattering way. Joan Morgan, in her essay “from Fly-Girls to Bitches ...

Rhetoric in martin Luther king Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech.

Introduction.

Martin Luther king was a clergyman, activist and a leader of the African-American civil rights in the American continent. King was a great national icon in the Americans history but however, there are few Americans today who are still not familiar with martin’s philosophical speeches like his famous speech, “I have a dream.” Which he delivered in Washington on March. At the time he gave this speech, America was in the middle of a civil rights movement that would end segregation and other injustices. King was well recognized for his use of ...

In this paper this paper will examine very closely four stories by Flannery O’Connor and justify the use of the phrase ‘the pain of the past’ in the title. O’Connor’s life and background will be briefly examined, as will the historical context in which she wrote her stories. I will also examine other common features that are characteristic of her stories. The use of symbolism in her stories will be considered. The four stories I have chosen are ‘Geranium’, ‘The Barber’, ‘Greenleaf’ and ‘Everything that Rises Must Converge’ Each of the four stories will then be ...

Long before we had books and places to store information, people used story telling as a form of passing their message from one generation to the next. Most of these stories were used to teach about national pride or the great works of their various gods and this gave rise to myths and legends. As time went on these stories also began to change to make them fit whatever the current generation was. The early Greeks were experts in the use of myths and many of their myths are still being read and studied and made into movies today. Today, ...

Reilly Dowd, an online reporter for ABC news website, poses a rhetorical “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?’’ in his article “ Young African Americans Support President Obama, but Turnout Not a Guarantee.” He further suggests the existence of a divide among young African American voters in the 2012 elections. From various sources as regards the 2008 presidential elections, President Obama won a staggering majority of the African American vote and a significant proportion of the vote from the young population under 30. It is a shared worry that much of the enthusiasm that helped bring the African Americans in droves ...

The major events of the U.S. civil rights movement from 1948 to 1970 caused a profound change in the American society and culture by challenging the White superiority myth. The success of desegregation in particular professional areas demonstrated that Blacks could also perform traditionally white activities, and even perform them better. Furthermore, the desegregation of the first schools challenged the myth of the intellectual superiority of Whites. African American students could demonstrate that they could keep up with Whites, and they could soon flourish in the public arena, to the extent that they were allowed to do so. Finally, ...

Krumping, also spelled Krumpin', is a street dance popularized in the United States that is characterized by free, expressive, exaggerated, and highly energetic movement involving the arms, head, legs, chest, and feet (Paggett 20). Krumpin’ has its roots in the central parts of southern Los Angeles (The Heart of Crump). At first, it was reserved to African American neighborhoods but has grown to other neighborhoods and countries (The Heart of Crump). The dance style started emerging in early 1990s but it was not until the early 2000s that the style achieved significant popularity. The word Krump was derived from the ...

Racism has been a major problem in the societal milieu of the United States of America for the past times. The country has had a dark history of racial discrimination, slavery, lynching of black people, struggle for racial equality, right to vote, and so on. However, all that is written in the pages of history as the present era has ensured that there is no such racial discrimination in the society of the nation. On an apparent level, America has moved much forward from the dark chapters of racial clashes and subjugation of communities based on their racial and ethnic identity.
...

Literature

Dana, a modern black woman, was celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with Kevin, her husband, when she was snatched abruptly from her home in Altadena, Los Angeles, California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, a young white boy, was drowning, and Dana jumped into the lake and rescued him. It was as though Dana had been summoned to rescue the boy. Dana was repeatedly drawn back to the early nineteenth century, to the slave quarters, where her stay grew longer and longer with each transit. Each visit grew longer, more arduous and equally dangerous for her. This continued, until, it became ...

Both Jane Addams and Booker T. Washington are incredibly important figures in the realm of providing positive social change in America, offering individual and institution solutions to the problems of economic destitution and social discrimination, respectively. Addams, with her Hull House, sought to provide a center for women and immigrants to have a place to stay, learn languages and trade, and have a place to stay when no one else would have them. Washington, with his Tuskegee Institute, was much more focused on vocational training and providing a newly freed black population with a better chance to enter proper American life during the Reconstruction. ...

David walker was an African-American author and activist born on 28th of September, 1785, North Carolina, United States. He inherited free slave status from his mother who was free slavery, but she died while David was still young. Although he was free of slavery, he witnesses misery the slaves were experiencing on a daily basis. It is believed it is this mistreatment of slaves and slavery institution as a whole that forced him to leave North Carolina for Boston where he engaged in second-hand clothes business. In Boston, he engaged in charitable initiative by helping the poor and the runaway slaves. ...

Introduction

Nelle Harper Lee, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird, thrived in an era in which racial injustice against African-Americans flourished. To Kill a Mockingbird drew several references from the life of Harper Lee, whose father, Amasa Coleman Lee, was a lawyer and state legislator of Alabama who once served in the defense of two African-Americans (the Scottsboros) accused of murder. Rotating around themes of racial injustice, class and gender issues, To Kill a Mockingbird stood as a heavy social critique by Harper Lee against American society, which was undergoing turbulent changes such as the African-American civil rights movement that coincided with ...

Compare James Baldwin's view of personal liberation with Jamaica Kincaid's

Compare James Baldwin's view of personal liberation with Jamaica Kincaid's

Introduction

In this paper, the ideas of liberation have been discussed from the perspective of James Baldwin and Jamaica Kincaid. The ideas of both these authors have been derived from their writings. The writings of James Baldwin, which have been used to understand his point of view, include, going to meet the Man, This Morning, This Evening, So Soon, and others. The movie of James Baldwin i.e. the Price of the Ticket has also been analyzed. On the other side, Jamaica Kincaid’s book Lucy has been used for this ...

In the play A Raisin in the Sun, one of the most important themes is the coming of age of the main characters, Walter and Benethea. In the beginning of the play, they are both very flawed and selfish characters – Walter seeks to help the family in the wake of his father’s death, but his decisions often lead to disastrous consequences. Benethea, on the other hand, must learn to make her own decisions and forge ahead in life, as well as change her already established preconceptions of race and identity. Hansberry’s play, like the Langston Hughes poem “ ...

The role of the media is to inform, educate and entertain its viewers; however Black Television Network (BET) only does the entertaining, and the wrong kind of entertaining. It mainly broadcasts hip-hop music videos that have vulgar language, are sexist, feature drug use and scantily dressed women, it is type of programming that makes me agree with critics that BET perpetuates negative images of black people, anti- intellectualism and has greatly failed the black community.
Rap music has never been more popular or profitable than it is today; this is mostly because of aggressive promotion by television stations ...

Introduction

Behind alcohol and tobacco, marijuana is considered as the third most popular recreational substance not only in the United States, but also in some parts of the world. The thing that differentiates marijuana from the other two is its legality. This paper will draw the four most important arguments about marijuana that justifies the reason for making it legal. The four areas of concern whether the government has the strong grounds to prohibit marijuana, health implications and benefits, economic value and social significance will be explored in order to make a strong stand to imply its legalization. In the past decades, marijuana ...

Barack Hussein Obama Junior was born on 4th August 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is the son to Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Senior. His mother grew up in Wichita, Kansas. His father, however, was a Kenyan from the Luo ethnicity in Nyanza Province. Barack’s parents officially divorced in March, 1964 when he was only two years of age. His mother then re-married another foreign student named Soetoro.
Obama lived with his mother and step mother in Indonesia where he attended multi-religious schools. His mother wanted him to get good education and therefore sent him back to Hawaiian ...

Should physical education classes be a required class in college?

Nowadays, people prefer to do things without the need to use too much time, effort and force due to the importance of using time wisely. For children and teenagers, they would prefer to hang at home and play either with their video games or their computers. Outdoor activities are reduced to visiting malls, schools, and family get-togethers rather than have physical activities such as sports played with peers, family or even with community. In some instances, people tend to see sports or other physical activities in television or pictures as some no longer see the need or importance of ...

THESIS

The death penalty in the United States has long been a controversial issue – the idea of putting someone to death for their crimes is thought, by some, to be an antiquated idea that went out with the stocks. However, there is still significant public support for the measure as a deterrent. When considering the prison costs and the flaws inherent in the justice system, it becomes somewhat clearer that the death penalty is not a cost-effective or ethical measure. Given the non-unanimous level of support for the death penalty, as well as the possibility of executing innocent citizens who have been wrongfully ...

Introduction

There are numerous debates about the death penalty in the United States. America continues to allow states to decide whether to apply the death penalty or not. There are 32 states in America that have the death penalty as opposed to 18 states that have abolished the practice.
The United States of America continues to act as the leader of the free world. American exceptionalism is premised on the fact that America is a uniquely free nation based on democratic ideals and personal liberties. America has led the process of exporting liberal democracies around the world and many nations ...

Introduction

It was a unique time in history; slavery had been abolished, Jim Crow las were in effect but the civil rights movement had not yet begun. Voices like Langston Hughes spoke out against the racial oppression. Hughes himself wrote many short stories, poems and plays in his time. One of the themes that repeats itself in the works of Hughes is the word “mulatto”. “Mulatto”, a word used to describe a person of mixed black and white heritage, elicits a negative feeling or response from most people given the prejudiced nature of the word. Due to the negative nature ...

Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin (1957)
“Sonny's Blues” by James Baldwin is a popular story, in which are metaphorically emphasized musical elements. Closer consideration of blues and jazz forms application and use of musicians such as Creole, Charlie Parker and Louis Armstrong by Baldwin shows that the basic motives of the story are supported by these themes. The blues, as music and state of being, can be considered as basic to story’s structure. Richard N. Albert says, “In this story, content (message) of the blues is all important,” because by a number of blacks they are considered to ...

The United States has always been a nation of immigrants, but not all of them have been welcomed or received the same opportunities for a better life. The difference in treatment is explained by the concept of whiteness, which has evolved since colonial days. The immigrant group that set the standards of whiteness was the Protestant, White American who could trace his ancestry to the first Anglo-Saxon settlers. During the nineteenth century immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe began to make their way to American industrial cities such as Chicago. While these immigrants fared much better than the African slaves who ...

Physical features determine one’s position in the society as they provoke prejudice about intelligence, personal characteristics, work ethics and all aspects of life. Although it could be argued that there are differences between different races, in this paper, I will argue that the racial diversity also implies cultural diversity which enriches the world people live in. Whereas The Sneetches is a children’s story, Alcoff’s text is a scientific research about the same problem of racial prejudice. These two texts are similar in a way that they both describe that there is no biological difference between the races as neither ...

In 1970s, people were very active in participating to various movements that would help in achieving their long-time hopes and goals of seeing that changes in their situations would change. African Americans continued to struggle to end legalized racism despite several previous declarations of it being illegal in buses and schools. Women were struggling to put an end to sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace that constantly put them in fear. Gays and lesbians were screaming out loud for them to be liberated and be given equal treatment in the society. Workers, on the other hand, fought hard ...

[Subject/Course]
[Submission Date]

Cultural products have significant importance because they bear distinctiveness, ethics/principles and facilitate a society to move on and progress both economically and socially. When people belonging to a particular culture make efforts for the preservation and promotion of their cultural diversity, it encourages the development of cultural industries (Horkheimer, Adorno & Noerr 95). As far as United States of America is concerned, the society here has been influenced by various cultural forms (musical style, film genre, media technology etc.) from a number of other countries and cultures. In this paper, Blues music would be discussed and explored as being ...

Introduction

The word segregation is commonly used to describe the obligatory separation of certain ethnic group based on the racial prejudice. The racial segregation in America was viewed as a discriminatory practice that oppressed the African American. This is because it was associated with the consequences such as perpetual urban poverty, lack of affordable houses, and economic oppression of the minority community. Although this led to the Civil Right Movement in the history of America, the segregation practice prevails in the present lives and is mainly affecting the American minority groups. For instance, from the education perspective, the African-American student experiences ...

Identity in the United States

Identity is a major challenge in the society today, including the developed countries. Identity can be related to differences in ethnicity, skin color, religion, sexual orientation, gender, or any other markers. In Ronald Takaki’s article “The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority,” and Stanley Fish’s “When ‘Identity Politics’ Is Rational,” they discuss the identity issues in American society in relation to the aforementioned markers. While the first article compares the Asian American to other Americans in terms of economic prosperity such as income levels, Stanley Fish compares the differences in identity politics across American populations with major inclination toward ...

This essay discusses the short story “Sonny’s Blues” – a story of two brothers – Sonny, the principal character, and his (unnamed) brother who narrates the story. As a short story, this one is actually quite long, running to some 27 pages (122-148) in the version sourced from the website of the Southwest Career and Technical Academy (SWCTA). Most critics consider James Baldwin as one of America’s great writers and cite “Sonny’s Blues” as a straightforward account of two brothers, endeavouring to live a right and proper life in an era and environment rich in a climate characterized by “hatred and oppression” (Zimmerman, ...

In Charles W. Mills’ book The Racial Contract, the author challenges the idea of the social contract, wherein John Locke, Immanuel Kant and others stated that people are kept in line and socially equalized by the creation of government and the need to maintain peace with each other through the restriction of certain individual freedoms for the greater whole. Mills’ perspective on this is much different; Mills does not believe that the social contract applies to everyone, if it existed at all. Understanding the Racial Contract is vital to comprehending the way our world works now, particularly in the ‘ ...

Objectification according to the word web dictionary definition refers to a concrete representation of an abstract or an idea or principle. Immigrants are people who move to foreign countries and live there permanently and people of color are the non white skin, like blacks and Indians. Objectification has diverse meanings. Some schools of thought, Luke Muehlhauser for instance, maintain that objectification refers to the act of treating others as a means to an end, without being keen on their goals feelings and preferences.
With objectification, not only is vivid the fact that the overall change of culture will not solely ...

1. Question 1

Affirmative action can be defined as an active effort that is made to address past injustices, so as to create a fair balance in educational institutions and work places. Race based affirmative action has been used over the years. However, researches have shown that it only serves the middle and upper class citizens among the American population (Barr, 2010). The result is that most people who deserve assistance do not get it. This is mostly evident amongst low income African-American populations. The American people have been actively seeking for alternative models of affirmative action because of these ...

‘Theme of English B’ by Langston Hughes A Comparative Essay

These two poems are completely different in tone, message and overall impact. They also use language in very different ways to create a completely different world.
‘Fire and Ice’ by Robert Frost is short and cryptic and, in one sense, very conventional – he uses rhyme to give his poem a clear pattern. The poem is casual and child-like in tone, but the subject matter is very adult – it is an apocalyptic poem, imagining the end of the world. Frost deals with abstract emotions – desire and hate – and explicitly compares them to, respectively, heat and fire, and to ice. His inspiration ...