Essays on Being White

Macbeth is a play written by William Shakespeare and The Bluest Eye is a novel written by Toni Morrison. Both Macbeth and The Bluest Eye deal with human nature and its striving to reach the best possible state of existence. The goal of Macbeth and his wife is to gain power at all costs which deprives them of humanity. Pecola also wants to improve her life which is why she wishes to have blue eyes. There is much suffering and fight for power in these texts as well as the age all problem of evil which affects all people. ...

The autobiography of Malcolm X provides insight into the life of a man who rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most influential civil rights activists in the United States. In his autobiography, it is apparent that Malcolm undergoes three keys states: the first stage reflects his early life, troubled youth, and struggle for identity; the second stage reflects his struggle to find God; and the third stage is his political work. In the course of the three life stages, Malcolm X held different convictions ranging from racial separatism to indifference in the later stages of his ...

How Race Survived U.S. History The book, “How Race Survived US History: From Settlement and Slavery to the Obama Phenomenon” is a highly acclaimed book, authored by David R. Roediger, who teaches history at the University of Illinois. The author, in his book, examines the issue of race in a broader manner and presents a very good analysis before the readers. This paper intends to discuss the above named book and further presents a succinct analysis of the book. Roediger explores the issue of race and examines how race was created deliberately in order to ensure the dominance of white people ...

The definition white person is dynamic idea depending on the geographical differences and historic context. This then makes it difficult for one to identify himself or herself with white as a race. The concept has been applied with various degrees of internal consistency and formality with a function as color metaphor for race. However, the concept has been used with a wide degree of variation as several scholars and socialist use the word as a race while others use it as skin color identification. The definition of the word white is not enough to identify the people referred to be white. The ...

Introduction

Racism has been in existent for a very long time in the history of human interaction. Race is often equated to skin color which implies that one can be categorized into certain dimensions because of being black, white or of mixed blood. A writer creates works that are closely connected with his or her life and which reflect some aspects of reality. A comparative analysis of the works of Phillis Wheatly (before 1865) and Kate Chopin’s Desiree’s Baby (after 1865) will reveal that despite the difference in the time and the races of the two authors, there was ...

Black like me

Plato, one of the most famed philosophy, reiterated that it is only in the light of justice that we can be able to truly define the real measure of an individual’s view; whether it existed or not. He further reflected that the non-existence of justice is the non-existence of what defines one as a man. This statement manages to capture what author Griffin faced during his self imposed experiment. In addition, the saying covers the widespread racial discrimination when he was writing his book; black like me. During this time, justice was a mirage to the black community in the ...

A birthday party was given for Robert Frost when he turned eighty five years old. His publishers, Henry Holt and Company hosted a party on March 26, 1959. The guest speaker at the event was the essayist Louis Trilling. During the speech Trilling referred to Frost as “a terrifying poet.” This comment caused a controversy. In the April issue of The New York Times Book Review the columnist J. Donald Adams criticized Tilling for using that description of Robert Frost. Several people had their angry letters published.

Does Trilling make a good point that Frost’s poems are terrifying? The poems will be ...

Most people perceive race as only the color of ones skin; many people do not consider that being racial is not really about how a person looks but in essence it is about the how the society views different races and the opportunities and privileges associated with each race. Race is normally about the eyes, hair or even skin color.

Despite the illusion about racial characteristics, the condition is very real. The values associated with each race have been in existence throughout history. It is not really a personal matter but a political and economic vice as everyone desires to be in a ...