Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman: Positive Attributes of a Black Woman

â€Å"Now you understand just why my head’s not bowed, I don’t shout or jump about or have to talk real loud. When you see me passing it ought to make you proud I say it’s the click of my heels, the bend of my hair, the palm of my hand, the need for my care cause I’m a woman phenomenally, phenomenal woman, that’s me† (Angelou 1). Phenomenal Woman, a poem written by Maya Angelou about the positive attributes of a black woman. Maya Angelou is a black actor writer and civil rights activist. Growing up during the time black people were fighting for civility, Maya Angelou has come from a generation of black people who were criticized for their skin color; a generation where becoming an actor was as far-fetched as an black woman going to the moon. Even though now there are more black women in the entertainment world the portrayal of the black woman is still pretty much the same. Today the media’s portrayal of black women is a loud foul mouthed hot headed ghetto du-rag wearing hood-rat on welfare who don’t take care of her kids because she chasing after a man. In the 18 to 1900s black women were known as â€Å"sassy mammies who ran their own homes with iron fists including berating black husbands and children† (Abagond 1). Another name that was used towards black women was a â€Å"sapphire†, which was described as bitchy stubborn and hateful. During the early 1900s every role of a black woman was that of a spiteful angry vindictive black woman who demeans and beats her husband. Continuing through the 70s with the show Good Times, Esther Rolle played Florida Evans a house wife who lives in the projects of Chicago, the media once again portrayed the black woman as just that, angry. During the Jim Crow period, when real blacks were often beaten, jailed, or killed for arguing with whites, fictional Mammies were allowed to pretend-chastise whites, including men. Their sassiness was supposed to indicate that they were accepted as members of the white family, and acceptance of that sassiness implied that slavery and segregation were not overly oppressive. Another example of a Sapphire was the character Pamela (Pam) James played by Tichina Arnold, who appeared on Martin, a situational comedy that aired from 1992 to 1997 on the Fox network. Pam, Martin’s girlfriend Gina’s best friend and neighbor was a badmouthed, wisecracking friend/foe of the lead character, Martin. Tichina Arnold, the actress who played Pam, also plays Rochelle, a dominating, aggressive matriarch in the situational comedy, Everybody Hates Chris, which ran from 2005 to 2009, and is still aired on cable television. Although most of the sitcoms are used for entertainment people tend to believe that this is how every black woman is. Using derogatory jargon such Shaniqua and Aunt Jemima to describe African American women, many whites believe that what the media puts out is not a stereotype but the truth. Arnold has mastered the role of the angry, black woman. â€Å"Although the numerical representation of African-Americans in contemporary television advertising has improved in recent years, the authors' analysis illustrates how the potentially positive effects of including more African-Americans in advertisements are often mitigated by subtle racist elements that suggest African-American inferiority. Even in earlier cartoons when blacks were drawn into character, they were drawn to look similar to monkeys with dark skin big pink lips and ears and not very intelligent. Cartoonists went as far as to even put a monkey in the cartoon and make the monkey smarter than the black people featured in the cartoon. This was done for the amusement of white people. From the first cartoons to the first black president black people not just women have been the center of ridicule, calling them coons and monkeys, even going as far as photo shopping Michelle Obama’s face to that of a monkey’s keeping her hair and clothing the same. Cal Thomas a commentator of Fox network stated that black women are â€Å"usually angry about something; they’ve lost a son in a drive by shooting or angry at Bush. So you don’t have a profile of non angry black women† (â€Å"Transcrpit: Fox†, 2008).Works Cited EDu paper Jatau, Mary. (2009). Western Media’s Commodification and Consumption of African Women: A Review of Three News Channels. UC Los Angeles: UCLA Center for the Study of Women. Retrieved from: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/9gs2q469 1. Bristor, Julia M., Michlle R. Hunt, and Re'nee G. Lee. â€Å"Race and Ideology: African-American Images in Television Advertising.† Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 14.1 (1995): 48-59. Print. 2.Rucker, C. E. and Cash, T. F. (1992), Body images, body-size perceptions, and eating behaviors among African-American and white college women. Int. J. Eat. Disord., 12: 291–299 none 3.Schooler, D., Monique Ward, L., Merriwether, A. and Caruthers, A. (2004), Who's That Girl: Television's Role In The Body Image Development Of Young White And Black Women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 28: 38–47. None Jatau, Mary. (2009). 4. Western Media’s Commodification and Consumption of African Women: A Review of Three News Channels . UC Los Angeles: UCLA Center for the Study of Women. Retrieved from: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/9gs2q469. 5. Abagond (2008, March 7). The Sapphire Stereotype. Abagond. Retrieved from http://abagond.wordpress.com/2008/03/07/the-sapphire-stereotype/. 6. Bad times on the Good times set. (1975 September). Ebony.

“One Out of Many” by V.S. Naipaul Essay

Read â€Å"One Out of Many† by V.S. Naipaul (in the Anthology, A World of Difference, pp. 261-94). Discuss the ways in which the author explores the concept of freedom in the story. â€Å"One Out of Many†, a short story by the famous Trinidad-born British writer V. S. Naipaul, first published in his anthology In a Free State in 1973, is a story which concerns a young Indian man from Bombay who starts a new life and struggles with his own personal identity in the city of Washington D.C. Through narrative structure within the short story Naipaul seems to question the meaning of freedom, and what constitutes freedom on both a societal, and personal level. In order to fully explore the theme of freedom within the plot and the narrative of â€Å"One Out of Many†, it is worthwhile to mention a few of its key elements, and how they fit into a wider political, and social context. There are a number of important events that happen to the main protagonist, Santosh, that help to shape his own sense of self identity and thus bring him to question the freedom which he has in his own life. The first of these events is Santosh’s emigration to Washington D.C. with his employer, which causes Santosh to leave his wife and two children behind. Even at this early point in the story Santosh is divided. â€Å"Was there a job for me in Bombay?† Santosh questions himself, showing a reluctance to stay on in his native city without the security that has been provided for him by his vocation and his employer. Sometime into his stay in Washington D.C., Santosh seems to gain a greater sense of self-identity (which will be looked at in more depth later), and a sexual encounter with a â€Å"hubshi† woman at the time of the race riots in Washington D.C. leads him to abandon the life he has with his employer and to become a more independent citizen. This leads our protagonist on to what could be seen as one of his most important realisations in terms of his own sense of personal freedom within a wider context. Having met an Indian restaurant owner named Priya, Santosh discovers that a lot of his fellow employees within the restaurant are  indeed Mexicans who wear turbans in order to give a faà §ade of being Indian men. â€Å"Their talk amid the biryanis and the pillaus was all of papers and green cards,† notes Santosh, â€Å"They were always about to get green cards or they had been cheated out of green cards or they had just got green cards†. It is this talk of legal and illegal citizenship that leads Santosh to question his own freedom within US society, and eventually make a very important decision that will bring him a certain amount of freedom. Naipaul uses first person narrative effectively in order to bring the reader closer to the main protagonist, Santosh. Through this first person narrative the reader gains an insight into Santosh’s naivety within his new surroundings in Washington D.C., and his initial experiences within it. At times, therefore, it could be said that it is necessary for Naipaul to portray Santosh as a rather simplistic character in order to show just how little Santosh knows of the USA and the cultural differences between it and his native Bombay. Naipaul manages to achieve a much more, it could be said, â€Å"personal† experience for the reader through these means, with the reader also also being able to feel the same â€Å"fish out of water† feeling that is portrayed throughout Santosh’s travels and the â€Å"adventure† which unravels before him. Naipaul really emphasises the theme of freedom when Santosh seems to speak directly to the reader, and this is no more evident than when Santosh, upon realising his living space is a cupboard, says, â€Å"I understood I was a prisoner. I accepted this and adjusted †¦ I was even calm†. He is a prisoner not just of circumstance, but of his place on the class ladder. Later, upon leaving the confines of the cupboard and going on his â€Å"adventure†, he pursues what some would call the â€Å"American Dream†, and it is effective how Naipaul seems to allow the reader to question themselves with regards to just how â€Å"free† Santosh becomes. Another example of this effective use of first person narrative is when Santosh describes his guilt and desire for repentance directly after what he sees as a shameful sexual encounter with a â€Å"hubshi† woman. Incidentally, this is a key event in Santosh’s eventual pursuit of freedom. Throughout the story Santosh seems to gain a greater sense of identity, and a stronger perception himself. On his flight to Washington D.C. Santosh, thrust into an environment which is entirely alien to any aspect of his life  in Bombay (which is described thoroughly and affectionately at the beginning of the story), Santosh immediately begins to note the reactions that people have to him. He especially notices an â€Å"airline girl†, and notes that â€Å"[she] didn’t like me at all†. The girl then proceeds to ignore Santosh, and this first cultural encounter with Western people who look down upon his somewhat shabby appearance teaches him to question the way he comes across to others. This is reflected throughout the story in Santosh’s various mentions of mirrors, and his own reflection within them. It is later on when Santosh has his first walk through the streets of Washington D.C. that he himself finds himself looking down on other people – the â€Å"hubshi† people, or African Americans, whom he has never encountered in his own life until then. Even though Santosh himself has been looked down upon by many people on his journey west, for example the aforementioned girl on the plane, he still percieves the â€Å"hubshi† people to be below him, an opinion which was held very widely at the time the short story is set. Meanwhile, Santosh seems to constantly fight an internal battle between his old spiritual identity, and the more materialistic, consumerist American way of life. By writing in the first person, the author really outs this point across as the reader is given a deep insight into the inner turmoil that Santosh experiences as a result of his own culture shock. A key incident in the short story which makes Santosh think about the differences in these two cultures is when a wealthy man comes to dinner, and seems to insult his employer by describing an incident in which he paid a servant to cut off a statue’s head within a temple in India. Santosh’s disagreement with this sacreligious, â€Å"illegal† act is heightened by the reader’s existing knowledge of Santosh’s own spirituality, which is derived from a previous incident in which Santosh described praying to ornamental Eastern statues which have been erected in his employer’s apartment. From a political point of view, it could be said that it is somewhat crucial that Santosh arrives in Washington D.C. during the civil rights movement in the US, shortly before the race riots of the 1960’s, which occur sometime into the story, with Santosh describing â€Å"the city on fire†. Even though Santosh is looked down upon by many people he encounters on his journey west, for example the air hostess on the plane there, he still percieves the â€Å"hubshi† people he finds in  Washington D.C. as below him. This is highlighted by many of Santosh’s statements throughout the short story, and indeed when he questions i f his punishment for having sex with the hubshi maid may be being reincarnated as a â€Å"hubshi† himself. It could be argued that the character Santosh’s lack of freedom in his own life is shown by Naipaul by the number of things that happen to him in his life that are out of his control. However, this seems to be altered towards the end of the story with Santosh’s final decision to marry the hubshi woman who has sought him out in order to gain legal US citizenship. This piece of advice is ultimately suggested to Santosh by Priya, who has seen Santosh living with anxiety in the knowledge that he is an illegal immigrant and could be deported. On a purely societal level therefore, Santosh has gained a superficial form of freedom through his marriage to the hubshi maid. The power that the short story has, as a medium, to convey many ideas and concepts within a relatively short narrative space is, it could be said, proven by the many concepts and themes that V.S. Naipaul explores within the story. All of these themes seem to relate back to the concept of freedom. In the first few paragraphs of the story alone, Santosh brings up many of the ideas that are explored throughout his change of setting and his struggles brought on by it. He describes the â€Å"respectabl e people† as opposed to â€Å"riff raff†, and then, while observing â€Å"the workings of fate†, mentions â€Å"the importance of his employer†. This could be seen as a metaphor for the question that the whole story centres around, and that is, how much freedom does the character Santosh have, and how much of his life is ultimately in his own control?

Traveling to Foreign Country Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Traveling to Foreign Country - Essay Example This has given me a different perspective on traveling to a new land. The anxiety that I felt upon moving to America mostly centered on my children. As an adult, I knew that small changes could be dealt with and that time tends to heal most wounds. But my anxiety for my children was immense. I did not want them to be at a disadvantage because they were new in this country. I wanted them to learn the language and social skills they would need to be successful. I needed to find work right away, so that meant finding a good day care for the children. As I approached the first day care center that would grant me an interview, my heart was pounding with nervousness. I had faced much more stressful situations in my homeland, but so much was weighing on this decision. At least that is what I thought at the time. The large brick building was a Christian church that had a day care center on the bottom level. Entering the day care center door, I could smell the strong smells of plastic and dis infectant. Janice, the director greeted me warmly. She shook me by the hand and spoke very loudly and slowly. Too loudly. I immediately felt dumb and wondered if I had made a good choice. As it turns out, Janice was a lovely person. She gave me a walking tour of the day care center, where children of all colors were engaged in play. Everything was neat, clean and child sized. The workers were playing with the children. Janice stopped talking so loudly when I made it clear through my speech that I was OK at understanding English. By the end of my visit, I no longer felt dumb. My children were enrolled in a day care center that was clean and affordable. Janice became the first friend I made in America. My anxiety concerning my children slowly began to slip away. My next task was to purchase transportation for my family. This experience left me confused and not nearly as satisfied as the day care experience. Actually, in many ways the experiences started in a similar way. I entered a b uilding full of conflicting smells. Walking into the dealership, I could smell an odd combination of roasting hotdogs, coffee, motor oil and the unmistakable smell of tires. The food odors came from a lounge area inhabited by noisy children and bored parents waiting to have their cars serviced. The other, more expected smells were from the cars in the showroom. Lawrence, the salesman greeted me and began talking very fast. He wanted to know about my family, my job, my homeland and me. He thought it was wonderful that I had just moved to America, explaining his parents had moved from Belgium when he was a small child. Finally, he started to talk about cars. I told him the amount of money I could spend but he said that was not the most important consideration. He explained that in America, cars were more than transportation. He said cars are a way of telling people about you. I honestly did not understand what he meant. He continued this way for some time, talking fast and showing me one bright, shiny car after another. I began to grow impatient. I had not come to look at cars I could not afford. I just needed to find a car that could get me to work and the kids to day care. Finally, I let Lawrence know that I was running out of time and I needed to see some cars I could afford. He began to talk about how easy the financing was and how low my payments could be each month. Every figure he suggested was more than I could afford. Lawrence grew persistent when I gathered my

Space Age Furniture Company Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Space Age Furniture Company - Assignment Example According to the paper the company incurs a cost of $0.75 per unit per week to hold stock for any subassemblies in stock from one week to another. Hence Space Age Company will incur a total cost of $975 for the six weeks in relation to holding cost. It is clear that due to the high number of subassemblies being produced, there is a demand for part 3079 to be produced in high numbers since it is used to make the subassemblies. However, this can lead to the company incurring overtime costs in order to meet the demand for sub assembles produced in lot sizes of 1000 units. This paper recommends that the lot size of producing the subassemblies should be reduced in order to avoid too much demand for part 3079. This is because it can lead to overtime costs, which in turn can lead to the loss of competent staff. This can be done by reducing the lot size to say 800 units and analysing its effects through Material Requirements Planning. If reducing that number still does not yield better resul ts, the company can consider reducing the number further up to a point where they can sustain the demand for part 3079 that is used to make the subassemblies for the final products. Alternatively, since the machine that makes part 3079 can make as much units as possible, the company can consider employing more staff who can make the part in order to meet the demand for the subassemblies required. This will eliminate overtime costs, stock out costs and motivate the staff who will work the regular 40 hours per week. According to Hanna & Newman, for a company to come up with the best course of action, a cost-benefit analysis must be done in order to choose the one that minimises costs and maximises benefits. In this case, the two recommendations will be analysed. A trade-off is a situation where one gains something at the expense of losing something. That is when one item increases, the other

What are the strengths and weaknesses of dependency theorists Essay - 1

What are the strengths and weaknesses of dependency theorists interoperation of global inequality What are the strengths and weaknesses of modernisation theorists interoperation of global inequality - Essay Example this paper will focus on other factors that are perceived to be of immense significance when it comes to general shortcomings of these theories and their strengths as well. Specifically, this paper is going to evaluate the view of dependency theory in relation to its strengths and weaknesses in relation to interpretation of global inequality. The emergence of dependence theory is based on the questioning of reliability of market-oriented theories like modernization theory. The major issue of concern was to reject the idea that the major reason according to modernization theory, why underdeveloped countries continued to be poor was due to their cultural and institutional faults. Dependency theorist built their argument based on Karl Marx’s capitalism. This is what was highlighted in major areas of concern as to why these countries were underdeveloped. They argued that capitalism was responsible for creation of a class of countries that manipulated other countries (Giddens 2009). This is in relation to what happens to capitalism within a country, where the rich or owners of means of production exploit workers or low class people. In light with this, dependency theorist argues that poverty and underdevelopment of low income countries is as a result of exploitation by the wealthy nations. In their view, dependency theorist believes that this kind of exploitation began with colonialism. This is the spectrum through which wealthy and powerful nations ruled over the weak nations for their greed for profit maximization and domination. For example, powerful nations have colonized poor countries in a bid to acquire raw materials to use in their factories. In addition, they ensure that they control the market from which the poor countries trade on. Unfortunately, the products sold in the controlled market are the end products of the raw materials taken by the wealthy nations. In fact, it is believed that this is well executed by global companies supported by big banks

Assess to Assessing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Assess to Assessing - Essay Example Apparently, there is a huge difference between an individual who is geographically literate and one who is not. For instance, a person who is geographically literate is able to understand the issues surrounding particular communities, their location, the way of life of the members from such communities and how such communities have affected the lives of other communities around them (Backler, 1988). Geographically literate individuals are also more capable of understanding the relationships between complex elements, such as humans and places, and such knowledge about the two allows them to be able to explain the changes and the consistencies in their characteristics. Moreover, a geographically literate individual is more likely to be able to solve more problems than someone who is not, and the ability to be able to do so is one that affects future decisions that would be made. The subject itself is one that is practical for an individual’s everyday use, and it not only adds to our understanding about the world, but also allows us to appreciate the different elements that make up the world (Backler, A. 1988). In the United Kingdom, â€Å"the external examination of school Geography has undergone a dramatic process of bureaucratization since the 1970s, changing from a ‘broad view’ characterized by the exercise of professional judgement and agreement on standards between Chief Examiners and teachers, to a ‘narrow view’ dominated by technical specifications, traditional content and fragmented subject knowledge. The overall outcome is a chasm between examiners and teachers in as much as the former give the latter little scope to develop creative approaches. Curriculum development considerations were cast aside as most public examination awarding bodies, pressurized to comply with new regulations at short notice and dependent on the goodwill of a casual workforce.† (pp. 670-671, Winter, 2009). In a study conducted by Caitling (2004), some

Chicago Bulls Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Chicago Bulls - Case Study Example The law on privacy of medical information requires extreme confidentiality of individual medical information. Individual sensitive medical information should remain with the involved party and confidential. The employment act requires employers to bargain in good faith over any terms that address a mandatory subject such as working conditions. An employer requiring an employee to undergo a DNA test is likely to use the test results as a basis for employment discrimination. As much as the employer is concerned about the wellness of the employee, it is not ethical for him or her to insist on a DNA test for an unwilling employee since it is infringement of his or her privacy. Unless such a requirement was included in the collective bargaining and agreed upon by all parties, it is not ethical. An employer may request an employee to undergo a DNA test if the employee is operating dangerous machinery or piloting a plane due to his concern to identify any genetic illness that may pose the employee and other people in danger. Such request should be made in reasonable grounds since its invasion of individual privacy. The employee’s actions may be unethical to the extent that he does not respect the employee’s privacy and employment law that is against discrimination on genetic basis. Unless there is collective bargaining among all involved parties and consent is given, it is unfair to the employee, but also a good ground to show employer’s concern on employee’s safety in the work place but not the most