Essay on Sufferings of African People in America
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Added on 2020-05-28
Essay on Sufferings of African People in America
Added on 2020-05-28
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Yujing LiuProfessor Melissa PooleEnglish 11122February 2018Maya Angelou’s “Champion of the World” is beyond a chapter in a book. The essay,“Champion of the world” by Maya Angelou tells the story of the happiness and pride gainedby the black people when a black man named Joe Louis wins the boxing worldchampionship. This essay includes the sufferings of African people in the ground of America.For the black community it was not only a sport. It was the most emotional moment to themwhen Joe Louis won world’s heavyweight championship against a white on 22 June, 1937.On the day, with this boxing match, one more parallel fight has been going on. The fight wasabout taking the revenge of all the unjust which was done to black people by Americans. Incriticism, Blues singer and guitarist Bill Gaither composed song, “It was only two minutesand four seconds/ ‘Fore Schmelling was down on his knees/ He looked like he was praying tothe good lord/ To ‘Have mercy on me, please.” The essay ends with a contradictory line “Itwouldn’t be fit for a Black man and his family to be caught on a lonely country road on anight when Joe Louis had proved that we were the strongest people in the world. This lineindicates the plight of the black people in the state of Arkansas where Maya Angelou as achild grew up with her family. The words are contradictory because even though a black manhas won the world championships yet still the black people living in the place is afraid to
celebrate their moment of happiness. The essay taunts society against racism, socio culturaland political inhumanity."Champion of the world. A Black boy. Some Black mother's son." These wordshighlights the struggle of being a coloured person, the boxing match was not just a simplevictory it had bigger implications (Kennedy et al.). The victory of Joe Louis emphasizes onthe fact that the black have the capability of defeating the whites and the system made bythem, they do have that much power. The win gave the African Americans a feeling ofempowerment for the first time. This was a legitimate win against the white people, whichcould not have any repercussions against them as a community. "If Joe lost we were back inslavery and beyond help.""My race groaned. It was our people falling", these lines portray theyears of pain and struggle that the black people had endured (Olney and James). They hadexperienced violence first hand and they knew the feeling. They experienced all these it wasnot a myth or story to them, if Louis was defeated then it would be a defeat for the entireBlack community. The author said that if he lost the match all hopes would be gone for theircommunity they will be again taunted and tortured and for the white people it will be anaccomplishment.This victory inspires the black people to regaining strength for developing theircommunity as one of the strongest communities of the world. Through the boxing match, onthat day, as a representative of black people, Joe Louis answered that they also have theabilities to be the best. On that day, he also let the white people to understand that they wouldnot live more on the grace of white people. The whole black community on the ground ofAmerica cried down against social inequality. Their pain of years after years has been taken
the lime light of media. This was the biggest achievement of African American people. In thelast paragraph of this essay, it spoke about the safety measures for the black people. It wasbecause, this victory might be a great danger for the community of black people in the Whitedominated society. The last paragraph of this chapter criticized that the white people wouldnot admit this defeat easily (Zeitler and Michael). In anger they would try to bring armedattack on black community. It was the reason, black community dared to celebrate their mostawaited victory to fill their heart. It is asserted that racism is one of the social issues, which isagainst global culture. In the 1930, Americans took racism for grant of power (Wagner-Martin and Linda). They don’t leave a single opportunity to deprive the black in achievinghuman rights. Maya Angelou criticized that the White have a mentality that they are superiorto any other ethnic group. Therefore, if White feels disrespect for any reason from minorcommunities, they think that they have a special “right” to reprimand them. In criticismAngelou demonstrated which mentality in her essay was that instead of getting shame, thisdefeat might make them extremists to show violence on her community (Arthami and Prima).From her account of journal, it was clear that black and white racism was the only form ofviolence which would occur in and around 1930 (Wiggins and David).This defeat was a beacon for the black people achieving a great milestone in thehistory as mentioned before although this did not change the scenario for the existence ofracism. Even though the White Contender was defeated by Louis and received the title"Heavy Weight Champion of the World”, the black community faced danger due to thepresence of racism. The whites could never believe that the blacks could defeat them; theybelieved that they had the right to win anything just because of the colour of their skin, and at
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