Ideas of Womanhood

In cultures across the world, girls become women once they have their first menstruation. Womanhood is considered a coming of age for girls, because they gain new responsibilities such as giving birth. For the youngest sister Indigo, she had trouble adjusting to her new “magic” because she had so much “South in her” (2). Indigo’s…

Watermelon Man

http://www.tcm.turner.com/mediaroom/video/335387/Crazed-Fruit-Movie-Clip-Frank-s-Messes.html- Peebles, Melvin Van. Watermelon Man. 1970. In the 1970 movie Watermelon Man, the main character is Jeff Gerber who is a white salesman who has the ideal American lifestlye having two kids, living in a nice neighborhood, and maintaining a stable job. Gerber did not care for black people and tended to make jokes about…

PATU Presentation

I enjoyed being a part of Professor Curseen’s class Just Playin’. I never had the opportunity to speak to people about PATU and the process of making the team, practicing, and its effect on me. My PATU presentation was really reflective on my experience as a freshman joining a team with many of my friends…

Bitch Better Have My Money-RiRi

The song “Bitch Better Have My Money” by Rihanna has a toughness and swag to the song. The hook “Bitch Better Have My Money” catches listeners attention automatically. Listeners can make the assumption that Rihanna is referencing women as a whole when using the word “Bitch”. It is already known that “Bitch” is a degrading…

Black Leadership Part l

From post war to Reconstruction, the voice of the black person has changed. The black voice was silenced and now it has the ability to be heard. With this new voice, it is not easy to express something that has been held captive for so long. Due to this new era of “tongue and lung”…

To Trade Black People, Or Not To Trade Black People

The reading Space Traders places America in a situation where they can solve all the world’s problems by trading black people to the aliens that provided them this offer. The science fiction aspect of having aliens come to Earth and their swift ability to save the United States in an instance only lays out the…

Questioning the skin you’re in

In The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Du Bois, in the first chapter he poses a question that initiates his own reflection of his identity. By his identity, I mean him being an African American and a man in America. The first question Du Bois poses is “How does it feel to be a…

Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown

Who is Henry Box Brown and why isn’t he talked about in the classroom? were my initial reactions to finishing the Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown Written by Himself. Henry Brown has one of the most intriguing escapes from the horrors of slavery. Imagine, a man 5’8 and weighing 200 pounds traveling…

Deformation of Mastery and Beyonce’s Formation

The article “Modernism and The Harlem Renaissance” by Houston A. Baker, Jr. discusses the complexities of deformation of mastery. Simply, the deformation of mastery refers to how the creator, or indigenous person has their specific culture and function of life. Baker states how the indigenous “comprehend the territory”, but once an intruder comes in views…