Having our say and black men and public space (racism) - Essay Example

Racism The novel “Having our say” is one which talks about the bitter experience of Bessie and Sadie two African American sisters. The book is the memoir of the two sisters who faced spiteful experience in childhood but grew up to be a successful people in future. The article “Black Man and Public Space” is about the stereotyping of black men and how American white community was scared of black people. The two writings explicitly talks about the division in the American society where black were seen as less human.

The fear of racism is the theme of both the stories. The African American life is detailed in these stories. The story has a purpose of promoting harmony, courage and equality among American people. The stories talks about the mean ways of human and how they think color of skin decides the quality of a human. The writers alerts us that racism is an obstacle which is not easy to overcome and one need lot of determination and willpower to succeed in life in such a situation.Both the stories tell us that black people are treated in public place with despise and hatred.

These narrations make us realize the hard life of black people in America who had to face racism throughout their life. They feel stolen of their identity, rights and freedom. They had to face racist attack at school, restaurants, public transport and work. This kind of alienation put forward a kind of resentment, revenge and frustration among black population. The black sisters in the novel “Having our say” talk how they handled the racism. One of the sisters responds strongly while the other one was submissive.

This reality as many do not respond to criticism while some may be expressive. Staple understands that such racist view can hurt one immensely but keeps silence as he think it is a better way to face the situation.The racism is unfortunate for a country like America where people are educated and civilized. These readings show that education necessarily does not mean being civilized. The reading “Black men in public space” indicate that black people are often taken as criminals. Black men are often mistaken for being a rapist, mugger or burglar.

People lock their doors or stay away when they see black men at public places. It is as if the black people represent crime and white people are perceived as moral and decent. The author of this tells that he has been mistaken for being a criminal many times which shows the ignorance and racist attitudes of white race. The author claims that white people have a misconception about black people which can be related to the experience of black sisters in the novel. Such an attitude towards black people is a social conditioning which was carried on from Colonization era and modern society need to see things in a different way.

The major character in these reading who are Bessie, Sadie and Staples all are victims of racism from white people. In the novel, the sisters are feeling frustrated about the inequality they face while Staples say that the white people has misconception about African race. It is unfortunate that still the African people face such discrimination after long decades of civilization and globalization under it way. People have knowledge, education and reasoning but they do not want to accept the fact that human is equal despite of the human skin color and race.

The reading gives a notion that subconscious mind of most whites are still against Africans and they consider them inferior.