Continuing the Fight!

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The Legacy Lives On

   The Piano Lesson by August Wilson is a play that explores the significance and importance of family heirlooms. The main point of conflict in the Piano Lesson is a piano. The piano has been in the family for years and has an extensive history with the main characters. Problems arise when a character in the book, Boy Willie, wants to sell the piano to buy some land. His sister, Berneice, staunchly refuses. She realizes the significance of the piano and doesn't want to part with it. Just like Berneice and Boy Willie, many families have family heirlooms. Heirlooms are important in that they carry on a legacy that is not easily broken. People die and stories change, but heirlooms are concrete.
   Before my great grandmother died, she passed on a pearl necklace that she used to wear all the time. She was known around my hometown as a very classy lady, and everyone knew who she was. Before I left for college, my mother passed the necklace on to me, and although I've never met my great grandmother, I have a connection to her. Her classy legacy lives on through the things she left behind--in my case her pearls. Many families have heirlooms, and each one is important for different reasons. They are apart of many families' legacies and histories, and they should not be carelessly sold or destroyed.

Stigmatized!!!

   There have been many instances in my life in which I have locked my car doors, held my purse a little tighter, or crossed the street because a person I thought was a threat was close by. In his essay entitled "Black Men and Public Space," Brent Staples talks about how he was sometimes the cause of such reactions. He tells about how his stature, the color of his skin, his beard, and state of dress make him come off as threatening. For many black men, this is a common occurrence. They are subject to many instances of racial profiling, but why is this so? Why are black men synonymous with so many bad things? This is because they have been stigmatized. 

    In his book, Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity, sociologist Erving Goffman wrote that to Greeks "the term stigma... refer[s] to bodily signs designed to expose something unusual and bad about the moral status of the signifier." For black men, this is invariably their skin color and sex. Because they are black males, they have been stigmatized to be aggressive, rough, thuggish, ect. It doesn't take a genius to realize that such assumptions are not true for everyone, but that doesn't stop people from reacting in certain ways when they see certain types of people. Truth is, we are all subject to certain stigmas and labels. Every person of every race has the ability to alter public space his or her own way.

    Placing stigmas on people is wrong in every case, but it is our job as people to break them. Not everyone is the same and we should not be treated as such!

Never Judge A Book By Its Cover!!!

   In his essay entitled "Black and Latino," Roberto Santiago tackles what it was like growing up black and Puerto Rican. Many people are not able to grasp how a person can be both black and Latino at the same time, but I soon found out that the term Afro-Latino refers to many people in America.

    When I first heard the term Afro-Latino, I was mildly confused. I didn't really get the concept of what it meant to be Afro-Latino--if you could call it a concept. My confusion was soon pushed away by understanding after a fellow classmate, Isabel Lorenzo, did a presentation on Afro-Latinos. From her presentation, I learned more about the background and culture of Afro-Latinos. She talked about how in school she would often times be mistaken for a black girl and also how only a few people knew that she was Dominican or Hispanic. Many people often times judge a person by how they look without ever talking to or engaging in a conversation with them. I am guilty of doing that on more than one occasion, but going to Howard and living in the D.C. area has really opened my eyes.

    Afro-Latinos have a very diverse culture. After attending a presentation on Afro-Latinos in pop culture I found out even more. Different topics included in the discussion were Spanish Novellas and Dominican hair salons. I found out that just like Americans, Hispanics have soap operas too. They are often times very dramatic and the characters very silly. The issue of colorism in the Spanish speaking community was also talked about. In many novellas, you find darker skinned women playing simple roles like that of the maid or mistress. It is never a leading role. Unlike American soap operas, which are long and ongoing, novellas are usually over in one episode, and they are also centered on different places and cultures of Latin and South America. After listening to two presentations about Afro-Latinos, I was thoroughly informed and very entertained. Ultimately, I learned to not judge someone by the color of his or her skin. Just because they are the same color as I am or darker does not mean they are Black!!!

Skin Color or Attitude???

    The African American or black race is one of the most diverse on the planet. This is because we come in many different shades of color. There are mocha, chocolate, caramel, honey, and even pecan colored black people, and each one is beautiful in its own right. Although each color is beautiful, there is still the problem of colorism. Colorism is the rejection of a person or group by their own people because of the color of their skin. Clarisse Jones tackles this issue head on in her essay entitled "Light Skin v.s. Dark Skin." 

     In her essay, "Light Skin v.s. Dark Skin," Clarisse Jones tells about different encounters in which she has experienced colorism. Many people told her that she was pretty for a dark skinned girl or that she was the prettiest dark skinned girl they had ever seen. My question is, why did all of those compliments highlight the fact that she is dark skinned? Why couldn't she be seen as just pretty? Many people place a lot of emphasis on the color of skin. The most favorable skin tones are those that are lighter in color. I think people put too much emphasis on the color of their skin. The color of a person's skin has nothing to do with who they are as a person. It is what's on the inside that counts.

    All people are beautiful despite the color of their skin, and it is time people stop living in the past when color was a huge deal. It is ultimately what's on the inside that counts. A person's attitude, not their skin color, can make or break them. If you have a bad attitude or are snobby, no one is going to want to talk to or befriend you. In today's world, attitude plays a bigger factor than the color of a person's skin!

Is It Just My Imagination???

Today, the United States prides itself on its multiculturalism. We claim to be a nation that is very tolerable of the differnent races and ethnicities that continually cross our borders each day. If anyone were to take a closer look, they would see the in discrepancies that still plague the black community. Karen Grisby Bates notes many of the racial slights that African-Americans still endure in her essay entitled "Excuse Me, Your Race is Showing." Bates' essay was written in 1997, and today, some of the same racial slights are still happening.
Most black people today can admit to having experienced at least one racial slight in their lifetime. Some have experienced them at school or work while others have experienced them in public places. We have built up a layer of tough skin, but the hardest thing to swallow is the accusation that we are imagining these things. Many white people believe blacks are just walking around with a chip on our shoulders waiting to expel our wrath. That is no where near the truth. Why does everything always have to be chalked up to our imagination when it comes to racism and racial slights? Is it too hard to believe that there are still racist people in America? It shouldn't be. Racism exists everywhere. It's more than just the imagination, and it's not fair to blacks that people assume we are always imagining things. Few black people walk around looking to be discriminated against, but when it happens, it gets noticed. As i stated before, racism exists everywhere. So, when it comes to blacks, why does it always have to be just our imaginations?