The multicultural society of today exerts pressure on the individuals living in the society to maintain and identify of themselves and live within the context of their class and culture. Today, one can identify at a number of levels and in a different sense, such ethnic, cultural, personal or social sense. As a result, it can lead to conflicting situations and conflict within one’s identity. While an individual’s class is predetermined by birth, he can still achieve a higher position in a capitalist society. Cultures continue to evolve and develop and because of technological advances, the Cultural traditions have become blurry within a society. Who can forget the brave story of Rosa Parks who ignited the civil rights movement? Her refusal to give her seat on the bus to a white passenger is seen as an act of bravery. After all, very few blacks had the courage to stand against the racial discrimination meted out to them at the hands of the whites. The Black community had always been engaged in battles that went on and on for decades for their basic right such as access to good jobs and equal social spaces. The belief that supported their battles was that human rights do not mean any segregation of public space (Krochmal 924). Today, the rising recognition of diversity in families and societies have triggered alarm among certain politicians and religious leaders. Families are undergoing complex changes and at the same time, governments are pulling back their support by lowering social welfare provisions. The term “life course” is being used for an individual’s passage through life and the sequence of life events cover birth, marriage, divorce, parenthood, and retirement. Attitudes and classes get denied according to the place where one lives and where he gets his education from (Chambers 50). "When Addiction Has a White Face" is a thoughtful article by Ekow Yankah, who shows the two faces of society to the same problem. When addiction surfaced in America somewhere around mid -eighties, there were endless images of African-Americans and a national imagination around lawless landscapes developed for those living in crack-plagued areas. The society got warned of a new kind of predators.“ We were warned of a new wave of “super predators,” young, faceless black men wearing bandannas and sagging jeans, with the face of young black men in bandanas and jeans, terrifying others.” (Yankah 1) The African-Americans were cast once again as an unsympathetic mass that had failed morally. Now, years later, America under the epidemic of heroin addiction, shows another face, and it is white. The addiction is so widespread that for the first time white young adults are seen to be swept by it. Interestingly, there is a change in the attitude of the politicians and law enforcement agencies. Republican presidential candidates and police officers understand for the first time about the underlying addiction being the cues of crime and how the situation requires coordinated assistance (Yankah 2). One wonders as to why there is such a change of heart on addiction, and it is not easy to ignore the feelings of African-Americans as they see the national embrace of addicts. While the heroin addicts of today get tolerance and treatment, the Black drug users got jail cells. The author makes a caustic remark in the end by saying that to have a problem treated more humanely; the society should not wait till it has a white face. He takes the example of the addiction problem in America and how the Blacks were treated differently from the whites facing the same problem. Needless to say, the blacks were always treated with brutal policing as their fate, and it is no surprise to see them getting surprised at the sudden change in the attitude of politicians and law enforcement when the white communities face pressing problems of addiction. The poem” We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar examines the social pretending in the world. It seems like everybody in the society is wearing a mask, hiding their emotions and what they feel. According to the poet, we allow others only what we want to be seen, while hiding our hurts and tears inside. Dunbar’s poems have often been on black themes, but here in this poem, he generalizes by saying “We.” It seems that poem itself serves as the mask and points to the plight of the Blacks in America (Dunbar 2015). One could say that the poems reflect the black man's plight in America. After all, the African-Americans in the early United States were suppressed physically and emotionally. Treated with humiliation and disrespect it is no surprise to see those wearing masks, hiding their real emotions and their true thoughts. They did things they were expected to and as dictated by the Whites. Their respect and dignity had been taken away from them. Significantly, the poem is meant for black people and black people. Dunbar is careful in showing that the mask is grinning but the black man behind lies in torment. The White man sees the smile on the mask and thinks all is well. When the poem was published, hostility toward blacks was common and widespread in America. Although the Civil War had liberated blacks from slavery, they were still far away from the status of equality. The battle for justice was not limited to the blue-collar men in mines and mills, but Black teachers also demanded equality with their white counterparts. As stated by Krochmal (929), most black workers still had the lowest-paying jobs and remained workers even after World War II. The white workers enjoyed higher wages and skilled positions. Black workers fought for and economic justice from the late 1940s through the 1960s, even though their civil rights unions suffered defeats.
“Education played a critical role in African American society in the age of Jim Crow, and teaching represented a highly respectable occupation for the black women who dominated the profession”. (Krochmal 936). The struggle for jobs and justice persisted among the African Americans' throughout long civil rights movement. Economic issues during the Great Depression and World War II did not go away (Krochmal 958 ), What weakened the black activists was their dependence on independent protest organizations, and they are batted in an environment of growing social democratic unions. Dunbar recognizes that perhaps this was the way the Blacks learned to survive and by hiding behind the mask. The poem cries out for the African-Americans, the suffering they have endured throughout history, just excuse of the color of their skin.“With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties”(Dunbar lines 4-5). Nikki Giovanni’s poems often revolve around personal experiences and emotions.” Nikki-Rosa” is about the expertise of growing up as a black. It sheds life on the pleasures and pains of the being a black in white communities. She creates her respect for black folk culture through this poem and addresses some ground realities. The poet describes her experience of growing up in a black household and poor family. Their color and poverty often lead other or the whites to make false assumptions about them. ”Nikki-Rosa” is an introspective poem where the poet speaks to the reader directly, forcing him to think (Giovanni 2015). The title itself may hint towards the Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks. In the poem, the narrator is a black and addressing a black audience. Her childhood has been a mixture of good and bad events. She has lived a life of poverty, but always had the support of a close-knit family. The narrator fears that from outside, her family may look downtrodden and impoverished, but the world fails to see the simple pleasures of her childhood. The poet rejects the white interpretations of black life as they are biased. According to her, the Whites are incapable of assessing what it is to grow up in a black family in a black community. The whites will always look the Blacks in a certain way. They carry different ideas about wealth and happiness. While wealth for the Whites is money, living the good life and higher paying jobs, there is wealth to be found in other places and ways. Wealth for black people is family, the togetherness and a close-knit community.“But only that everybody is together and you and your sister have happy birthdays and very good
Christmases” (Giovanni lines 24-25) "Nikki-Rosa," poem truly helps the reader to get a better understanding of poverty and the childhood experiences of a black. Still, she places an emphasis on the possibility of wealth in other ways and their love for their community and one another. This is something that can never be snatched from them. The Blacks struggle every day, but still can look for happens within them and their females. The narrator in the power is thankful for the opportunities she received throughout her life and felt that she has many good reasons to feel happy about. The poet sends a powerful message across to her readers that even in the face of hardships and constant struggle, life could be full of happiness. The above discussion on poems and articles sheds light on the social discrimination and racial issue that have long existed between the Blacks and the Whites. The societies are changing and so are the issue related to culture and identity, race and economic justice. Today, the face of families and the spaces in society is changing. The spaces in the city and social scenes are getting grouped and as noticeably classed spaces. The individualization theses are further gets weakened by the district attributes of an ethnic minority group. The research earlier focused on social discriminations and prejudice against the minority groups plus their social exclusion. The socials problems revolved around racism, discrimination, and inequalities at the workplace and in the housing (Chambers 51). Until recently, the studies has shifted focus on the issue within the family and related to divorce, marital violence, and single parenthood. To conclude, it seems that the issues related to race, class, and economic justice are not completely over. The economic gaps remains for some communities and the problems remains the same, only its face changes. Moreover, the changing societies and its structure give rise to new issues and new problems.
Works Cited
Chambers, Deborah. "A Sociology of Family Life." John Wiley & Sons, 1.1 (2015): 1-256. Print.
Dunbar, Paul L."We Wear the Mask”, poetryfoundation. 2015. Web. 2 March. 2016.
Giovanni, Nikki." Nikki-Rosa” poetryfoundation. 2015. Web. 2 March. 2016.
Krochmal, Max. "An Unmistakably Working-Class Vision: Birmingham's Foot Soldiers and their Civil Rights Movement." The Journal of Southern History 76.4 (2010): 923-60. Web.
Yankah, Ekow N. "When Addiction Has a White Face." International New York Times 1.1 2016): 1-4. Print.
