ktmeng/mec huggingface dataset:
Topic: racism

This was especially evident at camp before the Gettysburg run. When Boone had woken the football players up at 3:30 in the morning, Yoast comments in front of the players that they aren’t at boot camp. Boone gives a quick glare, turns around and starts running. Coach Boone was raising the anxiety level to the point where adaptive work could take place. Whether the intent was to get the players to unite and be angry with him, or wear them down to the point of exhaustion, the outcome was ultimately the beginning of a team forming that night.
Topic: racism

The leadership of the coaches, serves as a model of leadership to the students. Gerry Bertier, a white All-American, and the team captain, gives the verbal okay for the white players to start playing that night by calling out one of his white teammates who had intentionally missed a block. By Bertier calling out his white teammate, he showed that it was no longer acceptable for players to hide behind their race as an excuse for not performing. Coach Boone had effectively orchestrated the conflict to a point where this adaptive change could take place. Just as the coaches had worked out their differences and learned to balance each other out, the players were called upon to do the same. The players, as the season progressed, began to offer their starting positions to teammates of different races if that teammate was more qualified. By the end of the season the team was truly functioning as a complete unit.
Topic: racism

It was the player buy-in that eventually led the Titans to greatness. Two games into the season, when the team had gone 2-0 two of the ‘role players’ on the team called a team meeting. In doing so, they were exercising informal authority. Lewis Lastik, a white offensive lineman, and Darryl Stanton, a black defensive lineman, saw the team headed towards ‘Abilene.’ In this case, the team was not managing winning effectively. Although the team had won its first two games, they still hadn’t really come together as a team. After camp, they had returned to the reality of Arlington Virginia, a place filled with distrust and racism, and they had allowed the message from the community to resonate within themselves again. Lastik and Stanton called the informal team meeting and Bertier and Julius Campbell, the informal black authority on the team rallied behind their call, validating their cry for team unity. The team won the next game because of this team meeting but the team can’t look to this event as the catalyst for their perfect season.This sentence doesn’t make sense. There are multiple tenses, and the subject changes from the rest of a pretty good paragraph.
Topic: racism

Their were two key intra-racial exchanges that took place that served as the true catalysts for the adaptive work that was to be reflected in the whole of the community. At training camp, Bertier called to his white teammates to start playing as a team, a big step to getting a football team to win games. He had essentially mirrored what Yoast did by joining Boone’s staff, putting aside differences to come together and win. I feel like you already make this point earlier. I don’t know. However, when Yoast is out at dinner with the coach that he’d been with for over ten years, he made a decision that changed the course of events.
Topic: racism

When Assistant Coach Tyrell calls Yoast to choose sides, black or white, Yoast responds to Tyrell stating that, “you gotta do what you gotta do.” Coach Yoast told his friend and assistant coach for 10 years that he won’t tolerate racism. Tyrell, unable to change his ways, walked out of the restaurant. How deep seeded was/is racism? It was easier for Tyrell to walk out on a friend of 10 years than to treat Boone as an equal.
Topic: racism

Bertier had to make the same difficult decision with his best friend Ray Budds. Budds had intentionally missed a block in a game resulting in an injury for a black teammate. Bertier saw what happened, went to Coach Boone, the formal authority, and asked that Budds be kicked off the team. Boone, steadfast in his rules that he doesn’t cut any player, gave the task back to Bertier. As Team Captain, Bertier had to make a choice similar to the one Yost had made earlier: friendship and loyalty vs. doing what’s right, even when the “right” thing was extending beyond cultural norms. Bertier waited outside for Budds and released him from the team. Budds’ response was that Boone doesn’t cut players. Bertier acknowledged that and told him that it was his own decision. Again we revisit the Heiftz and Linsky “(leadership) asks them to take a loss, experience uncertainty, and even express disloyalty to people and cultures.” (pg. 30) For Bertier, the disloyalty was not only to his best friend but to his race as well. He didn’t allow Budds to hide behind his color anymore, and wasn’t going to be used by him any longer.
Topic: racism

Naturally this raises the risk factor for those leading. Whites serve as the informal authority to other whites in this battle, calling their brothers to go against the formal authority, in one case it was Yoast calling out a referee who was throwing the game. In this instance, Yoast threatened to go to the press to take the referee and even himself to jail if need be, in an effort to persuade the referee to not listen to the Hall of Fame Committee members that had solicited the referee to throw the game. The referee, from that point on, called a fair game. Again, it was with great risk on Yoast’s part that he made his white brother accountable. Time and time again, Yoast and Bertier were called upon keep their brothers accountable. Without this component, the success of the team would have been meaningless.
Topic: racism

As Bertier and other formal and informal authorities on the team broke down and worked through their racially motivated personal barriers, and their belief in integration shifted, the practice of integration grew to be functional, and became a positive shift for the communtiy. It was the mindset of the characters that drove the reality of the situation. Their reality mirrored their predominant thought. Once they believed that integration was good, it was good. The football team believed in it, so the families believed in it. This attitude rippled through community until they had a shared vision in the form of a team, and consequently and cause, that they could believe in.
Topic: racism

When watching the film closely, you notice that after the third game, and the caners Tyrell and Budds are removed from the team, the wins come easier and the crowd becomes more integrated. There are no clear white and black sections anymore, instead unified crowds cheering on the Titans. Wins alone weren’t enough. The players were faced with tough choices and made good decisions. Through the examples of Coach Boone and Coach Yoast the team was able to mirror their excellence.
Topic: racism

In the montage of footage during their mid-season winning streak a quote on locker room mirror flashes briefly on the screen which reads: “reflection is the better part of a champion.” Adaptive change can call authority figures to be role models and in some part victims of positive adaptive change. It is in this context where we can look to emulate leaders. Let us not forget the distinction between a leader, an authority figure and a manager. Leaders call us to do what is right for the right reasons. In doing this, the integrity of the process is as important as the outcome. Authority figures and managers however, aren’t necessarily as concerned with the process as the product.
Topic: racism

Remember the Titans offered many opportunities to examine various leadership styles. It was also an opportunity to take a look at the different ways authorities interact with one another, as well as other leaders. The movie is a reminder that adaptive work is a slow and tedious process. Every step forward in the process is small, while any setback may be huge. With this in mind, we must not become victims of our experiences and of our lives. We must stop reacting to situations and begin to look at why we are conditioned to respond the ways that we do to different stimuli. Many of my struggles with this class have centered around my desire to inspire adaptive change within others.
Topic: racism

I now see that I alone can do little to help this process. Adaptive change is the result of partnerships and collaboration between leaders and followers. Each plays an integral role in the process. The eventual success of the T.C. Williams High School Football Team was the product of the hard work and dedication of the coaches, players, players families, teachers and Arlington community. Without even one of these components, the process couldn’t have happened. When facing adaptive challenges now, we can look to the Titans spirit for inspiration to reflect the integrity, strength and courage they demonstrated.
Topic: racism

The story of the Last Mohicans is about war stories, adventure, frontier romance, pioneer life and racism. The novel is a historical fiction that takes place during the third year of the Indian and French war in 1755-1763. Indians play a very significant role in Indian and French since some of them became the French ally to help them explore the wild forest frontier of western New York. The story though didn’t focus much on the detailed events of the French and Indian War, but on the consequences of the interracial friendship and romance, revenge, nature and combat scenes in the wilderness.
Topic: racism

Chingachgook, Unca’s father also portrays the usual character of a native Indian because of his crafty and cunning intelligence who inhabits the forest for the longest time. Chingachgook in Chapter three interpreted that the reason of racial inequality is because of white’s interpretation of their “red skin” as the absence of intelligence. Though Cooper presented in the story that Indians can not operate white men’s rifle but it is evident how the fierceness of Indian’s handmade weapons became more powerful in the combat battles.
Topic: racism

In order to understand better how Cooper perceive and how he presented Indians, it is important to learn the character and disposition of the novel’s frontier hero named Hawkeye. He lives in the forest and share close bonds with some of the Indians especially with Uncas and Chingachgook. Though he was the main protagonist in the novel, he has a disturbing contradictory opinion about nature and race. In terms of friendship, he judge people by their principle and individuality. He obviously supports interracial friendship between whites and red but he opposes interracial romantic relationships between men and women.
Topic: racism

One of the quotations that support his racism is during his conversation in Chapter three with Magua. “I am not a prejudiced man, nor one who vaunts himself on his natural privileges, though the worst enemy I have on earth, and he is an Iroquois, daren’t deny that I am genuine white” (Cooper, 1804). In this sentence, he asserts that he does not discriminate but he will injure any man that will judge him of having mixed parentage. Hawkeye always asserts his genuine whiteness with his long rifle which symbolizes the European superiority in war materials.
Topic: racism

Cooper is likely to convey that any white, even the noblest and most sensitive man will be proud to be white in front of whatever race whether it’s white’s opponent. Another evident that supports Hawkeye racism is when he perceived Magua initially as a bad man without meeting the Indian yet. He based his judgment based on prejudice not on experience. “A Mingo is a Mingo, and God having made him so, neither the Mohawks nor any other tribe can alter him” (Cooper, 1804). Hawkeye like any other white men perceives Indians as horrible creatures basing on race.
Topic: racism

Though Cooper dislikes Hawkeye’s racisms, he made plots that justify that racism. The character of Major Duncan Heyward can be analyzed as well as to how Cooper presented the Indians in a way that will overlook the treatment about racism. A noble and conventional white man Heyward fell in love with Alice, half sister of Cora who is pure American. His love is pure for Munro’s daughter is pure but Munro suspected Heyward’s purity of love for Alice. Munro accused Heyward for racism since he chooses Alice over Cora. At the beginning, Munro was aware in the timid affection of Heyward and Cora.
Topic: racism

It is impossible according to Munro that Heyward fell in love with Alice instead of Cora since Alice is portrayed as vulnerable and weak and Cora as a noble and strong woman. It is because Cora is partly “negro”? In any way the colour corresponds to their fate. The concept of the interracial love and friendship are appealing, desirable but dangerous and destructive. Cooper through shared communion and friendship of Hawkeye between Uncas and Chingachgook is conveyed desirable. Their team up enabled them to save white military leaders against villains.
Topic: racism

However the interracial love of Uncas and Cora ends in tragedy and the forced interracial relationship of Magua and Cora are portrayed as unnatural (“The Last of the Mohicans”). Though it can be interpreted that Cora’s affection for both Indians is inherited since her mother was Indian, Cooper still presented the reality that interracial romance will lead to difficulties and eventually disaster. Cora despite her hybridity is still considered white. Magua opposition to Uncas both started with Cora, the white woman. However, Cooper gave a different perspective for both characters.
Topic: racism

Uncas pushes the limits of interracial romantic relationship and faced the unique challenges. Cooper suggests in the series of events that interracial relationship is difficult and perhaps doomed. The complication of interracial romance of Uncas and Cora is natural and passionate that can be happier mix culture in the future but it is doomed to tragedy. Magua on the other hand, seeks to win Cora as part of his revenge because of his exile by Colonel Munro. He is aware of white’s prejudices against the coloured descent and he knows that threatening to marry the colonel’s daughter will threaten the whites.
Topic: racism

The white feared interracial marriage and interracial sexual contact. The persistent and violent advances of Magua to Cora and his dangerous combat to Uncas Hawkeye show an exaggerated fulfilment for white men’s fears. Though latter in the story, Cooper puts a complication on Magua’s intentions since Magua unconsciously develops affection with colonel’s daughter. Magua’s anger initially shows how hostile Indians are that daunts the white for their prejudices. The seemingly unending combats in the novel underlie racial tensions.
Topic: racism

The adventure story full of battles, captures and rescues showcases Indians’ expertise in the wilderness which is used in their own advantage. Their crafty intelligence in the woods shows their attachment and loyalty to their own civilization. Magua personifies the typical fierce and dangerous Indian but Uncas and his father is admired not because they are Indians but because of their individuality. He is motivated by revenge and created constant threat in the story. But he is a well defined character that represents the evil Indian.
Topic: racism

The scene in the village of the Hurons again manifested Indian’s expertise in the Wilderness. In the story with Magua and Uncas opposition, there became divided loyalties between the Indians which ended something sad and tragic. Both have different motivations. Magua is motivated by revenge against the white’s prejudices but Uncas is motivated by his noble individuality by his love to Cora and to save other whites, Alice and Heyward. As a consequence, both Indians became enemies. They can actually join forces against the white to stop the possibility of their extinction.
Topic: racism

However, Cooper presented bad (Magua) and good (Uncas) Indians that will justify white’s notion about Indians through Magua’s character and the protagonists’ belief in individuality not race through Uncas’s character. In the latter part of the story with Magua’s confrontation with the Delawares when the white invaders are already winning, Indians slowly feared dispossession of sustenance and existence. Cooper presented Indian against conquest, possibility of extinction and dispossession. With the death of Uncas as the last Mohican, his race is decimated.
Topic: racism

Finally with Magua’s death the narrative action in the wilderness ends. In the story, Cooper manifested the changing idea of family and culture. Uncas and Hawkeye for example, adapted easily to the makeshift family structure. Uncas and Hawkeye even though they came from two opposing race manage to form a family and communion that transcends race. The intersection of nature and culture or the intersection of two races created difficulties with other characters but not with Uncas and Hawkeye who judge each other not through race but independence of character.
Topic: racism

The title itself “Last of the Mohicans” symbolizes the death of the native Indian Culture in the encroaching approach of European civilization. The death of Uncas particularly laments the end of the Mohicans civilization. The title itself determines the ultimate tragedy of the novel’s plot. The novel was fruitful contribution to still remember that once in American frontier; there came an ancient civilization that must be saluted with their expertise in the wilderness and pioneer life.
Topic: racism

James Baldwin the African-American novelist and social critic, was born in Harlem, (1924-1987). Baldwin grew up a poor, unhappy, man after his mother’s marriage in 1927. His stepfather, a domineering fundamentalist minister from New Orleans, seemed to hate his stepson. He read prodigiously, and became a junior minister whose oratory attracted a growing congregation, in his teens. James Baldwin lost his faith subsequently, and left Harlem to work in Jersey City. His experience of racism and segregation in Harlem drove him to Greenwich Village where he found a much better acial climate and more opportunities for him to write.
Topic: racism

In the essay, James Baldwin questions the use of fiction to advocate social change. He published his irst novel in 1953, which became the largely autobiographical “Go Tell It To The Mountain. ” The book set in Harlem, recalled the difficulties of his struggles with his Stepfather and recalled the difficulties in his adolescence. His collection of essays, “Notes of Native Son. ” Commented on racism in America. Baldwin’s novel “Giovanna’s Room” written in 1956, is considered one of his boldest treatments of homosexuality in American literature in that time.
Topic: racism

A long journey to the South resulted in highly rhetorical essays, collected in “Nobody Knows My Name” written in 1961 and “The fire Next Time” written in 1963, both led to Baldwin recognized as a major American Essayist as well as the leading critic of racism. Between these two books came “Another Country” in 1962, is the leading best-selling novel dealing with issues such as of racism, love and sexuality. These three books established Baldwin as an international celebrity. He was sought out by the press while he traveled among homes in France, Turkey, and the United States.
Topic: racism

In 1964, his controversial drama “Blues for Mister Charlie” about the most horrible crimes of the Civil rights movement, ran for 150 performances on Broadway. Baldwin brought to American the discussion about race, especially in his earlier novels and essays an understanding of the turmoil’s psychological nuances and its consequences. His complicated sense of himself as an artist, an African American, a homosexual, and a man of religion served James Baldwin well by his high intelligence, distinct literary ability, and his will to love, peace, and reconciliation despite his rage and itterness that racism inspired. His best work continues to this day affords clear insights into perhaps the most incendiary time of American social problems. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” tells the story of two brothers. They come to understand each other, in a way that highlights through its main characters and two sides of two African-American experiences. The narrator of the novel assimilates into white society as much as possible however, still feels the pain of institutional racism and the limits placed upon his opportunity.
Topic: racism

The character of Sonny has never attempted to Order# 11110450 Exploring a Literary Character Pg. 3 assimilate to find an outlet for the deep pain that status as a permanent outsider upon him. The character of Sonny channels his suffering into his jazz, bebop blues music. First Published in 1957; it was collected in Baldwin’s 1965 book, “Going to Meet the Man. ” Sonny’s Blues has biblical implications. James Baldwin utilizes an image from the book of Isaiah of the “Cup of Trembling. ” which symbolizes the suffering and trouble, which Sonny had experienced in his life. In the end of the novel, Sonny is laying the piano as Sonny’s brother watches a barmaid bring a glass of Scotch and milk to the piano. The cup reminds Sonny’s brother of all the suffering he and his brother had to endure throughout the novel and he begins to understand that he can turn his suffering into something beautiful and worthwhile through music. An interesting character to analyze from “Sonny’s Blue” is the narrator. The character is self-reflects his experiences with the various family members in the novel such as his younger brother, Sonny and his mother. The narrator is Sonny’s older brother who is 7 years older.
Topic: racism

The reader can see the narrator is disappointed with his younger brother Sonny at first on the count of his interest becoming a musician. He thought it only a phrase that Sonny is going through, and hopes it shall pass. The older brother patronizes Sonny with an insincere interest in music until it angers Sonny into telling his older brother “Don’t do me any favors. ” The narrator has a judgmental, stereotypical, predetermined way of thinking about the past. His thoughts and feelings are hard and cruel toward Sonny’s drug addict best friend when he tells him he doesn’t want to hear his “Sad Story. And yet, he Order# 11110450 Exploring a Literary Character Pg. 4 realizes both have something in common. The narrator has Sonny’s drug addiction to contend with whereas the friend has his own. the narrator realizes that everyone has a sad story. Sonny tried to express how he felt inside to reveal his drug abuse. The narrator did not accept his younger brother’s drug abuse. Just like Sonny, he feels alone and helpless, and cannot talk about it to anyone. In the end, Sonny the narrator and Sonny is able to come to a mutual understanding of one another through Jazz music.
Topic: racism

The part in the novel where the narrator went to Sonny’s territory which was the club, is the way the narrator accepts Sonny’s drug addiction on his own terms. This acceptance comes in full circle when he listens and watches Sonny express himself through his piano. The older brother (Narrator) was, at first disappointed in his brother’s choice of being a professional musician, to which he embraces it in the end. The reader sees how the narrator unconditionally loves his brother by listening and eventually accepting his brother as a musician. He is able to change his attitude about life, himself, nd Sonny’s choice. Tragedy and suffering is seen in the character of the narrator as he wrestles with his feelings toward his brother.
Topic: racism

Especially in the part were he wants to be shaved, his reference to the barbaric side of the people is made very clear. My old, old dream of bliss vanished into thin air! [… ] I said, with withering irony, that it was sufficient to be skinned – I declined to be scalped. (Twain, 114/115) This description of the people in the Western world has a very different tone than the description of the landscape. While he generally suggests that the western part of Europe looks orderly and beautiful, in this part there is a little reference to barbaric actions as removing another person’s scalp.
Topic: racism

From the time one starts ashore till he gets back again, he execrates it. [… ]Ashore, it was-well, it was an eternal circus. People were thicker than bees, in those narrow streets and the men were dressed in all the outrageous, outlandish, idolatrous, extravagant, thunder-and-lightning costumes that ever a tailor with the delirium tremens and seven devils could conseive of. ” (Twain, 358/359) The further Twain goes away from America and the values of the American society, the more critical his descriptions become.
Topic: racism

Railton even links Twain’s attitude to racial preconceptions. At this point it is important to keep in mind that most people in Turkey possessed the Islamic religion and had an Islamic lifestyle instead of the Christian religion in America. Turkey was in many ways the opposite of the American culture and belonged more to the eastern side of the world than to the western side. As I said before the East was portrayed as backward and uncivilized in the 19th century. With his description, Twain continues and expand this existing attitude.
Topic: racism

Although, Twain suggest in his preface that he will describe Europe and the East with his own eyes instead of the eyes the people who travelled to those countries before him, with his descriptions towards the West and the East he confirms the cultural attitudes which already existed. Through his portray of the East and West he confirms the uncivilized and backwardness of the East and with his popular book he contributes further to this viewpoint. Only the western European descriptions can be seen as different from the existing cultural attitudes.
Topic: racism

The play “Master Harold”… and the Boys”, by Athol Fugard, illustrates life in South Africa under the apartheid rule. The play is written in the South African context and the issue of apartheid is central in the play. The play is an informative and autobiographical one-act play about the relationship between Hally, Willie and Sam. Throughout “Master Harold”….. and the Boys, Fugard describes many emotions that take place between the characters, to which different reactions are noted. The primary emotions in the play are love, happiness and anger.
Topic: racism

This was obviously not very common during apartheid rule, with most Blacks finding themselves in the same position as Willie. Like most Blacks Sam is uneducated. However, he is interested in learning and gains his personal education from Hally’s textbooks which he brings home after school. Their friendly relationship can be exemplified by their dialog held throughout various educational topics and world significant figures. Throughout this dialog both Sam and Hally set forward arguments trying to check the other and both characters succeed in winning over one argument over the other person.
Topic: racism

This illustrates their friendship, because Hally accepts Sam’s choice of Alexander Fleming as a man of magnitude. First of all, most Blacks at that time would probably never know who Alexander Fleming was and his significance in contribution to medical advancements and secondly at all it was through Hally that Sam gained such knowledge. This example underlines the significant difference in communication relevant in Sam and Hally’s relationship compared to other White-Black relationships during apartheid rule. Sam, even though a black has been helping the white boy Hally as a mentor and a moral guide.
Topic: racism

They have been living as friends despite the gap that exists between them as people of two races. Natural human qualities manifest in their relationship. Though Hally has been culturally and psychologically conditioned and trained to think of himself as superior to the black characters, the time he spends in their company has helped develop his emotional attachment to Sam as a moral teacher. Though a black, Sam provide the white boy with sincere and responsible parenting. It is ironic that a black man in apartheid South Africa has the inner core and strength to teach living skills to a privileged white boy.
Topic: racism

After the second temper flair up in the play, the tempo settles again, where Hally, Willie, and Sam discuss the dance and Sam gives his metaphor on dancing. Sam’s engaging and subtle analysis of the dance contest for which Willie practices as a symbol of a harmonious world where no one “bumps” into anyone else, not onlyt hat tells us that Sam is intelligent and perceptive, but also helps Hally to realize that black South African culture is not as primitive or empty as he has been told. For Sam, the dance represents the possibility of integration, just as he, the expert dancer, has integrated white education with black know-how.
Topic: racism

Yet Hally refuses to learn to dance. Our only hope is that this is a result of his evident immaturity, indicated by his frequent inability to see the implications behind what is said and done, and not a sign of an irredeemable adherence to racist ideology. The tension seems lost – that is, until Hally gets another phone call home from his mother with the news that his father is indeed coming home from the hospital. The reader can sense another shift in tone from Hally; he is cold to his mother, and when he is put on the line with his father, he hides his unhappiness and pretends that he is fine.
Topic: racism

After the phone conversation, Hally insults Sam’s dream of a world without collisions and becomes incredibly nasty to Sam. He has changed again, and all because of the news of his father’s return. This conflict is the greatest in the play, much larger than the two that preceded it. Hally expresses his disinterest in his father, until Sam defends him, and Hally loses control of his emotions. At this point, both Sam and Hally are “dancing” too fast to stop from colliding with each other. While previous collisions could be avoided, both Sam and Hally take it to the extreme.
Topic: racism

When Sam is instructed to refer to Hally as “Master Harold,” the reader can sense that the tension has been ramped up so much that there is no going back to the way things were before. One realizes that an argument was inevitable, and while they hoped that it wouldn’t result in conflict, it now must be carried on. Hally brings the tension to an even higher level when he spits in Sam’s face – the physical abuse was hinted at in the play earlier, but the direct assault is too much, and it requires Sam to do the one thing that he thinks will hurt Hally the most.
Topic: racism

Sam tells the kite-flying story again, but this time from a different perspective. He remarks that the reason he couldn’t stay with Hally when he was flying the kite was because it was a white’s only bench, segregation that Hally hadn’t realized when he was younger because he didn’t know it was a choice to either accept or not accept whites. The story helps to show the toleration that Hally used to have towards blacks and his growing feelings of superiority later in life.
Topic: racism

Sam has tried to teach Hally of what it means to make that choice between what is right and wrong, but Hally has not learned, which mimics Hally’s feelings of his failure to teach Sam earlier in the play. Sam, long a victim of these official and traditional policies, has attempted to transcend the hatred and anger. He acts as a surrogate father to Hally, fortifying the boy’s sense of well?being (both through kind acts such as building the kite and through allowing the boy to teach him what he learned in school) and imparting his wisdom to Hally in a series of life lessons (his dance hall metaphors for peaceful coexistence). There’s no collisions out there, Hally. Nobody trips or stumbles or bumps into anybody else. That’s what the moment is all about. To be one of those finalists on that dance floor is like . . . like being in a dream about a world in which accidents don’t happen… It’s beautiful because that is what we want life to be like… ” The fact that a seventeen?year?old can spit in the face of a black man without even the thought of repercussions shines a harsh light onto the institutional policies of hatred that were fostered in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Topic: racism

At seventeen, Hally is an intelligent and sensitive individual, which makes the fact that he reverts to a racist stance all the more disturbing in its implication of the depths to which prejudice runs in South Africa. Under stress, his racist training sadly wins out over his humanitarian instincts. The white superiority on which apartheid rested is exposed as a sham, and Fugard suggests that through better education and communication it could be combated. The spitting on Sam by Hally is pivotal in the play and hints to the forthcoming of all that is bad in the world.
Topic: racism

It shows how deep rooted and inbred the emotions and training of a white apartheid world was against the black community and that Hally, still has it deep inside of him even though he thought himself to be above all these petty sentiments. To take a direct quote from the book with Hally saying “I know, I know! I oscillate between hope and despair for this world as well, Sam. But things will change, you wait and see. One day somebody is going to get up and give history a kick up the backside and get it going again. ”
Topic: racism

It does show Hally willingness for a better world but in the end his long instilled racism wins over his long cherished friendship with the one man that cares for him and acts as a true father figure in his life. In this pivotal scene where Hally spits in Sam’s face, it is Willie who groans (“long and heartfelt” according to the stage directions); It is Willie who stops Sam from hitting Hally; it is Willie who says that If Hally had spit in his face, he would also want to hit him hard, but would probably just go cry in the back room. Ultimately, Willie crystallizes the emotion of the play “is bad.
Topic: racism

Is all bad in here now”. The closeness and oneness of the two races brought by the kite flying story seems to come to an end with the spitting and impulse of a young person. Willie’s last few comments hints to the end of the perfect friendship of Sam and the now “Master Harold”. Hally’s disabled father embodies the whole apartheid system, his debilitating illness a metaphor for the racism that held South Africa back for so many years. Yet he is afflicted by more than a bad leg: he is also a drunkard, prone to borderline psychotic ranting against blacks and insistent that Hally accepts his racist outlook without question.
Topic: racism

His attitudes have emotionally influenced his son, even as Hally intellectually recognizes them to be false and prefers the more educated, non prejudiced ideology of Sam. When frustrated by his father’s limitations, the son behaves with the same prejudice, using Sam as a scapegoat to draw attention away from his own insecurities. This, Fugard suggests, is the central impulse behind apartheid: aside from the economic advantages of keeping blacks poor so they can be better exploited, it allows whites to cover up their own shortcomings by a pretence that they are superior just because they are white.
Topic: racism

Hally can either follow his parents’ lead or try to right the wrong, but if he chooses the former he will end up as bitter and twisted as his father. The confrontation between Sam and Hally is sparked by the conflict within Hally between the corrupt legacy of apartheid he has inherited from his birth father and the more humane education and moral guidance he has received from Sam, his preferred father figure. The conflict between the two begins verbally, but escalates to such outlandish gestures between them as spitting from Hally and Sam baring his buttocks.
Topic: racism

It becomes uncertain where they can go next. Sam’s decision to eschew violence and attempt to renew their relationship is a positive one, but it is one for which Hally is evidently not yet ready, as Willie suggests by emphasizing Hally’s youth. The “boys” of the title, refers to the adult males, Sam and Willie, as they are disparagingly called by many whites. But Sam, especially, despite the evident limitations of his life (he works in a tearoom), has a composure and intellect that belie the white assessment of blacks as inferior.
Topic: racism

Although the seven-year friendship between Sam and Hally may seem incongruous, given their backgrounds , this is overshadowed by the delight both gain from their interplay. For the most part, these two display both affection and respect for each other. Sam is more aware of the fragility of their relationship than Hally, but he maintains a faith that it can survive, which is supported by his evident love for the boy. Two central metaphors used by Fugard are the kite and the dance. The kite represents the hope of racial cooperation.
Topic: racism

Sam designs, builds, and flies the kite, despite young Hally’s doubts and embarrassment over the project. Its flight marks a positive moment for Hally, who expects to be “perpetually disappointed. ” Yet the young Hally misses the significance of the memory. Sam had made the kite to cheer up Hally after they had been to a bar to carry home his drunken father. The kite was meant to teach Hally to look up, rather than down in shame. But Sam now reveals something of which Hally had been unaware; the bench to which Sam had tied the kite was “Whites Only,” and only Hally could sit on it.
Topic: racism

Sam insists Hally is now old enough to open his eyes, stand up, and walk away from such benches, and thereby discard any intolerance of racial prejudice. The aftermath of the spitting scene, however, is far more destructive than any punishment, as Hally must carry with him the knowledge that he has gravely wronged one of his truest friends. Sam’s lesson helps Hally, however. He understands what it means in the dance of life, of trying to create the perfect dance – to not bump into one another.
Topic: racism

The play is all about the bumps and bruises of life, and the conflict in Master Harold shows the reader just how easy it is to make that collision — but it also shows how one can avoid it. But for us the readers we come to know, through the ending and through the non apology of Hally, even though Sam calls him Hally again instead of “Master Harold” that the once perfect union and friendship has developed an irreparable crack and life will no longer be the same for them.
Topic: racism

This issue lies deep in the heart of many black people and is indicated when Nichols uses the words “trampled” and “oppressed. ” These two words sum up how blacks were treated. However, Nichols highlights the fact that these are usually stereotypes and that blacks have now broken away from that period. This is repeatedly conveyed in the poem, for example, where it says: “For the abused stereotype already in their heads. ” Here, Nichols is explaining how judgemental others are towards black women, they pity their history and troubled past and don’t think of them as individuals.
Topic: racism

There is a definite segregation in society. Blacks and whites lived in largely polarised communities with clear demarcations between them. Cassie is a fighter, like her mother in many ways but more nai?? ve. She manages to get justice with Lillian Jean, this is a crucial point in the book where the situation has reversed and finally there is evidence of some form of even-handedness. Cassie has inflicted some form of control on a white girl and her contentment is evident when she says: “she apologized. For herself and for her father. For her brothers and her mother.
Topic: racism

For Strawberry and Mississippi, and by the time I finished jerking her head she would have apologised for the world being round had I demanded it. ” The exertion of power is not by some one who is rich and white but someone who is middle class and black. Equilibrium is reached which promotes impartiality, the insignificance of colour in humanity. This is a substantial issue in the novel, perhaps the most vital one. Taylor had used Lillian Jean, a high-class white girl and made an example of her, to show how the treatment of black people was unfair, trivial and in some cases traumatic.
Topic: racism

In the fifth chapter of the book Cassie is forced to apologise to Lillian Jean simply for standing in front of her: “You can’t watch where you going, get in the road. Maybe that way you wont be bumping into decent white folks with your little nasty self. ” Here, we can understand why Cassie longs for revenge. The spitefulness of Lillian Jean’s words and the demands she makes upon Cassie are horrendous and unjustified. She makes Cassie feel so inferior to her simply because she is black, this is emphasised in the two contrasting words “decent” and “nasty. ” These words simply meaning white (decent) and black (nasty).
Topic: racism

In my view this shows the difference in thought between white and black people of that time, white people considered themselves to be of a higher status, with more wealth and control. Black people viewed white people simply as racists, people who were their equal but have more power and so had to be treated with more respect. As readers we empathise with Cassie and the whole concept of racism. This is evident in Misty Pitts review of the book: “Anyone who reads this book acquires a new “appreciation” for the black people’s heritage and also feels shame for how people used to think.
Topic: racism

” Grace Nichols’ poems also highlight the gap between whites and blacks. However, Nichols’ poetry is written is from personal experience as a black woman who has lived in both her own native country (Guyana) as well as a western white dominated country (England). In A Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry only Mississippi is mentioned. A poem that accentuates the difference between Guyana and England is “Like A Beacon. ” Beacons are signals used to warn ships and aircraft of danger. As the readers we then assume that this poem is written about some kind of unhappiness.
Topic: racism

In the first stanza it says: ” get this craving for my mothers food. ” Nichols is alluding to a complex thought but describing it in an unpretentious way. This is portrayed in the word “craving”; a craving is to have an overwhelming desire for something. Most people use it in the context of food as Nichols has here. We then find it easier to relate to what she is saying. It is as though she is choosing between England and Guyana:” I leave art galleries in search of plantains salt fish/ sweet potato. ” It is patent which one she prefers.
Topic: racism

She is saying she would leave England and its culture (“art galleries”) because she craves for her own culture (“salt fish/sweet potatoes”). Her uncertainty is expressed in the single line ” I need this link. ” This line is placed in-between two stanzas as she is stuck in-between two cultures. She belongs to one and lives in another and there is no “link” between the two. Her yearning for her own, for her roots for her true identity is severe; the intensity of her feelings is signified in the last stanza: ” I need this touch of home. ” England is not what she considers to be her home.
Topic: racism

The word “need” is vital as it differs from the word “want” when you want something it is a aspiration, but when you need something it is a necessity, you have to have it to survive. The message Nichols is conveying here is that you need your own culture, need to feel at home, need to feel comfortable with your surroundings. The same implication is evident in “Hurricane Hits England. ” This title also expresses some form of danger but this danger is conveyed as positive danger. This is shown many times in the poem: “The blinding illumination, even as you short-Circuit us into further darkness?
Topic: racism

” Here, she has described the hurricane as a “blinding illumination”, she is admiring its natural beauty as it reminds her of her home country where hurricanes are a regular imposition. At the same time she knows that it is a natural disaster and that it can have a disturbing effect on people and this is portrayed in this stanza where it says “darkness. ” As in Like A Beacon she is specifying two contrary states of mind, this underlining her inner confusion. Both writers use natural objects to convey vital issues. This is perhaps more obvious in Grace Nichol’s “Hurricane Hits England.
Topic: racism

From Mrs. Dekelbaum’s speech, I learned that the Holocaust happened 6 years before World War 2. I learned that during the Holocaust, more than six million Jews, and four million non-Jews, were killed by the Nazis. The non-Jews that were killed in the Holocaust were, gypsies, homosexuals, disabled people, ill people, relatives of Jewish people, and people who helped the Jews. There is a saying about the Holocaust that says, “Not all victims were Jewish, but all Jews were victims.
Topic: racism

” There was a girl named Pearl. She went through nine concentration camps, and survived. Pear was the first Jew to have a baby who survived, and do to that, it brought more hope, and new life, to other Jewish people. Mrs. Dekelbaum was the baby. She said that during the holocaust, more than 1 and a half million children, under twelve, died. Only one out of ten Jews, survived. Poland, out of all other countries in the world, lost the most Jews.
Topic: racism

She said that neighbors, and friends of Jews turned on them and helped cause the Holocaust. At a concentration camp, Jews were ordered to make a sign saying, “You could earn your freedom from work.” When they did that, they made one letter into a secret message telling the Jews that it was a bad place, where they die. In class from the notes I learned that, World-wide depression had many Germans out of work, and they were hungry. Because of that, the Germans elected Hitler, as Chancellor of Germany in 1933.
Topic: racism

That year, Hitler began a boycott of Jewish business. The Jews lost their jobs in government and public services. Jewish children got segregated form school. All Jewish people received a curfew. Hitler blamed the Depression on the Jews, and they became scapegoats. In 1935 laws were pasted saying that Jews were no longer citizens, and that marriage between Jews and Aryans was forbidden. On March, 1938, Germans troops occupied Austria. On November, 1938, the Crystal Night happened. During that night, Germans burned and looted synagogues all over Germany. On September, 1939, Germany invaded Poland in “Lighting War,” and War was declared. The same year, England and France became Allies against Germany. On July 1942, Deportation of Holland’s Jews began. They were send to either Auschwitz, or Sobibor, which were death camps in Poland. Today, the Secretary of State is Jewish, and she never knew that. Her family background was from Slovakia, where 83% of the Jews died. She was raised as a Catholic, and her parents never told her she was Jewish. There was a Hidden Child Foundation, which was a place for Hidden Jews to come too. In conclusion, I think that it was very tough to be Jewish during the Holocaust.
Topic: racism

A fairy tale can be defined as a traditional, simple, formulaic, orally transmitted tale which is childlike in its nature and appeal. On the other hand, a realist novel is defined as an approach that attempts to describe life without idealisation or romantic subjectivity. The two genres are diametrically opposed. In examining how The Great Gatsby is like a fairy tale, a good place to start is considering the romance between Gatsby and Daisy.
Topic: racism

The critic Robert Emmet Long believed that Gatsby is a fairy-tale hero for the middle class, and he used the romance in The Great Gatsby to prove his point. Fairy tales usually have a romance element, and The Great Gatsby is no exception. There is nobility in a “prince’s” (Gatsby’s) efforts to win over a “princess” (Daisy). For example, Gatsby’s mansion is compared to a palace or castle, which is customary of fairy-tales: “it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy.