Advanced English Speech 1953 and Selma There can be no cohesive community, without the balance between opportunity for individuals to be treated the same and yet still have the ability to determine their own lives. This notion is seen and realised through the community of Eurandangee in the verse novel 1953 by Geoff Page. It is also represented in the negro community of Selma, in the film Selma directed by Ava Du Verney, through the use of main character Martin Luther King Jr. A healthy community can only be realised when there is equality with regards to the treatment of all community members. This notion is explored and seen in the film Selma, which discusses the limitations of the law resulting in unjust and imbalanced treatment of …show more content…
The maltreatment of Indigenous Australians in the town of Eurandangee is represented in many poems, but consistently with reference to The Royal. Rourke, the owner of the bar, makes mention of the ‘… darkies … buying Seppelts out the back to drink there in the park’, which alludes to their segregation and the communities lack of acceptance of Aboriginal people at the time. This notion and oblique reference aid the idea that this community, like most of the time in this specific regard, is dysfunctional. The cynical tone of Sharon; ‘Micky Rourke … is not so keen on blacks. No problem with their money though,’ further represents this same issue. So long as the white community members didn’t have to drink with the ‘darkies’, or see them, or share the same areas of the bar with them there was no reason why their money meant any less than white persons. Similarly, the enforced stereotypes and limitations of women within Eurandangee is seen through Stan’s poem. His wife Peggy, is represented as being confined to the prescribed stereotypes of 1950’s women, mothers and wives, as he tells us she is, ‘… in the kitchen … with the casserole … ready when I’m home at seven’. The unequal treatment of both Aborigines and women within this community highlight it’s lack of cohesiveness, with distinct segregations and limitations being put on these groups and …show more content…
In the poem Sandra, the tone of frustration is evident in the first line when she declares, ‘I’ve stuck it out’, implying that she has remained in the town despite her limited opportunities. By listing the different groups and roles fulfilled in the town, she implicitly highlights the rigidity of the social structures and by contrasting the roles of men and women in their ‘twinsets looped with pearls’, Page alludes to the expected dress of women in the 1950’s a symbol of the repressed roles of women and wife and mother. Similarly, the direct statements ‘it’s not enough … to be just indispensable’ and ‘the goal I have is not the one thought up by Mum and Dad’, shows Sandra’s emphasises her discontentment and lack of place in this town. These direct and clear statements represent how she desires to be part of a community in which her right to not to have her life dictated by the learned attitudes and expectations of the community, is possible. Also, the contrast between the attitudes between Janene and Sharon in their respective poems illustrates how even on a familial level Janene’s right to individually determine her own life is disregarded by her mother, Sharon. Sharon, in this way,
White Australians state “shame when [their] kids they die from colds or from sheer neglect. Shame when [they] live on the river banks. While collectin' [they’re] welfare cheques. Shame when [they’re] blind from trachoma. Shame when [they’re] crippled from blights.” The rhyming scheme in the stanza makes poem flow seamlessly constructing a conversational tone as if the narrator is speaking directly to the audience. This feature purposefully lulls the reader into agreeing with the white Australia’s arguments as it constructs an image that the Indigenous people are refusing to integrate themselves with modern society and suffering the consequences of those decisions. The mention of welfare cheques also contribute to the perspective that white Australians are attempting to mend the lives of Indigenous individuals, however this could not be further from the truth and message of this
Our knowledge of the generic conventions used in poetry influences our understanding of the text. “The Firstborn”, a poem by Aboriginal author Jack Davis, enables the reader to determine the poem as a graphic protest about the extinction of and discrimination against the Australian Indigenous people, and the loss of their ethnicity, as their world collides with the Western culture. By focussing on my understanding of both generic conventions and author’s context, I am able to conclude that the poem concerns a tragedy within the Aboriginal community.
Humans in society are like musicians in an orchestra. Solo, their parts sound odd and out of place, lacking the harmonies mindfully composed for the rest of the orchestra. Humans are interdependent, social creatures by nature. We rely on each other to survive. We rely on each other to do jobs that might require a certain skill set or jobs that we might not have time to do ourselves. We even rely on each other to bring a sense of familiarity and security to our communities just by knowing one another. If we all remained anonymous, then we could not rely on each other to satisfy these vital societal needs. Scott Russell Sanders, in his essay “The Common Life”, states that the more people in a community who prefer to live isolated and reclusive lives, the more susceptible the community is to a division that impedes its ability to live together, interact synergistically, and thrive. He correctly believes that this division can lead to a total “breakdown” in society.
We have all sat through multiple history classes and learned about slavery, segregation, and the Civil War. We have all seen brutal movies and presentations based on racial injustices and the lack of equality. So often, we forget that these issues are still so present in our community. Slavery is illegal in the United States but other forms of racial profiling, insensitivity, and racism continue to be a recurring social barrier. Racism is still very much alive. The United States is “equal” yet somehow segregated. There isn’t quite a quick fix to this problem. Clearly, this has been an ongoing issue and requires major progression in our personal global
Gilbert’s poem portrays many Aboriginals plight’s within Australia and conveys notions of despair, anguish and anger for his fellow Aboriginal comrades. Again, Gilbert uses strong visual imagery in “the anguished death you spread” which helps convey the persona’s feeling of horror and anger at the Europeans. This is further emphasised through the poet’s vehement and repetitive use of second person pronouns in “you” which conveys a sense of blame and accumulates into an accusatory tone and generates a strong sense of detachment between the author and the European settlers. Furthermore enjambment enhances the accusatory tone in “you pollute all the rivers and litter every road” because the lack of punctuation and pauses makes the lines sharp and quick, creating a sense of anger in the author. In addition the author’s use of metaphors in “humanity locked in chains” creates a sense of struggle and inability to escape the oppression the Aboriginals are in, whereby the word “chain” is symbolic for trapped and lack of freedom. Kevin Gilbert’s emotional poem brings light to the pain and suffering Aboriginals are going through, which is a stark contrast to the image of Australia, being a free and accepting
The first and most crucial step to solving an issue is to recognize that the issue actually exists. Many people fail to recognize that race has a correlation to the way that a person is treated in their society. In many aspects of American society, a person's race is a major determinant to how they are treated. Race impacts the way a person is treated in the workplace, by police and in the doctor’s office. Race grants privilege to those who it
The election of Barack Obama as the 56th president of the United States raised many hopes that the “Black struggles” was finally over. For conservatives, Obama victory reassured their beliefs that there was no longer such thing as racism and that every American had equal rights and opportunity to pursue the American dream. While many people have come to believe that all races have equal rights in America, Tim Wise argues in his documentary “White Like Me” that not only does racism and unconscious racial bias still exist, but that also White Americans are unable to simply relate to the variety of forms racism and inequality Blacks experience. This is mainly because of the privileges they get as the “default.” While Wise explores the variety forms of racism and inequality today such as unconscious racism, Black poverty, unemployment, inadequate education system, and prison system, the articles by the New York Times Editorial Board, the Human Rights Watch (HRW), and Adam Liptak further explore some the disparities in the criminal justice system. Ana Swanson points out in her article, “The Stubborn Persistence of Black-White Inequality, 50 Years after Selma” that while the “U.S. has made big strides towards equal rights,” significant gaps still remains between the two races. With the Supreme Court striking down a “portion of the Voting Rights Act that stopped discriminatory voting laws from going into effect in areas of the country with histories of disenfranchisement,” civil
When you think of an ideal community there are a few things that must be in line in order for it to be perfect. One of which is equality. Back in 1776 equality meant that all white men that owned land were considered equal, but today that means everyone from blacks to white to men and women and everyone in between are to be treated
Some skeptics such as Audre Lorde: may, argue that the focus of Larsen’s novella focused primarily on the juxtaposition of race and sexual identity of Black feminism in the early twentieth century. However, Larsen makes use of unstable identities that can been seen through the passage via Brian Redfield and John Bellew. The husbands’ envelope the extent of male privilege and contrarily shows their means of working against it. By exploring these men, it offers a more critical view to understanding Clare and Irene
Selma, Lord, Selma is a 1999 American film based on true events that happened in March 1965, known as Bloody Sunday in Selma Alabama. The film tells the story through the eyes of an 11-year-old African-American girl named Sheyann Webb (Jurnee Shomlott). Charles Burnett directed it, one of the pioneers of black American independent cinema. The movie starts off with Dr. Martin Luther King riding in a car through Selma Alabama and someone is pointing out to him where the blacks were not allowed. The movie is about a young girl named Sheyann Webb who skips school and attends the meeting anyway and she was approached by Dr. Martin Luther King and he asked what it was that she wanted, and she replies by saying FREEDOM. While the overall story of Selma is well known, Christburg provides us some new insights!
The following lines of the poem “Cookalingee” shows in the midst of all this privation, hardships bereavement and assimilation, the aboriginals have still retained the aboriginality. Showing the pride in their own race and color is very important for Aborigines and all the people who have been oppressed because of skin color. This reminds of cultural movement started in America around 1960s by African Americans to advocate the concept ‘Black is Beautiful’. It plays an important role in developing positive blackness and
Racial prejudice against minorities who live in America has been here since before America became a whole and it can be worked toward the change of the harsh realities many individuals face. Racial Injustice is something that numerous people confront each day and is likewise delineated through the novels Just Mercy and To Kill A Mockingbird. This world has made many innovative advancements in the last fifty years, but the one thing that hasn’t been conquered is to root out racism, which can be shown to be widespread in many societies. Fear and anger are one of the leading factors that contribute to the opposition of justice and to truly make a commitment to justice one must first overcome that
Picture a dim room where a woman lies in the darkest corner struggling for freedom from an injustice, the injustice that is poisoning the world around her. Throughout history, and even in today’s society, any type of injustice has hindered the ability for justice to thrive. If one is to think about it if there is corruption in any one place by any one person than there is an influence to promote the continuation of this corruption. As long as this continues then these places cannot achieve fairness. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addresses this sentiment when he says, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Injustice, as stated by Martin Luther King, is constantly threatening, contaminating, and oppressing the accounts of
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” While the sad chapter in history has ended where we witnessed "Whites Only" signs of the Jim Crow era, there is still open hostility towards people depending on their lifestyle, race and gender. Even though the legal battles of the civil rights movement provided formal legal equality, too often, it does not ensure substantive equalities. These can only be accomplished if there is change of hearts and a shared sense of responsibility for one another. There is always the opportunity for redemption because we have to break with the historical patterns of
Society and its inherent need to have all of its inhabitants fit together as one