Harlem Renaissance Essay Example for Free

Harlem Renaissance Essay Emerging from the bonds of slavery the African American, for the first time, had the opportunity to identify and express himself as a character in the vast drama that is the United States. â€Å"The Harlem Renaissance began only fifty-six years after slavery had ended. † (Hardy, 16). Finally, an enormous portion of the nation that had been actively oppressed for centuries had the opportunity to articulate itself through art, music, and literature—as well as to define what it was to be black in America. The Harlem Renaissance was limited to Harlem for two reasons: first, the south remained an exceedingly difficult and dangerous place to live, where freedoms were limited and trampled by whites seeking to preserve their place in society; and second, the north, although promising utter equality, remained starkly segregated and economically grueling for African Americans. As a result, most blacks in New York City were quartered off into the worst sections of town; however, they remained free enough to explore themselves intellectually, spiritually, and creatively. The Harlem Renaissance was an important happening in the United States because it reflected the fundamental aspects of a culture that had been deliberately silenced since the first slave ship had arrived in Jamestown. The stream of black Americans crossing into the north from the southern states that had began since the Declaration of Independence exploded into a raging flood of migration between the years of 1920 and 1925. In this brief period alone â€Å"more than two million black people moved from the south to the north. There was a strong feeling of progress and the hope that life in the north would be sweeter. † (Hardy, 17). The north offered something that the south could not—in addition to the tradition of free blacks—black Americans could easily find and secure jobs working in factories and manufacturing plants. This allowed many rural African Americans to escape their ties to southern lands, and inhabit an urban area where their culture could be celebrated—at least locally—and their wages, slightly more substantial. This provided a unique environment to any cultural movement until that time. Specifically, this was because African American players in the Harlem Renaissance no-longer sought to ingratiate themselves into mainstream white American culture, but instead, to stake their own unique claim upon the traditions of this nation. They openly separated themselves, because they were separated. Rather than downplay their differences, they were celebrated. â€Å"Sterling Brown [a Renaissance writer], has identified five themes animating the movement: (1) Africa as a source of pride, (2) black American heroes, (3) racial political propaganda, (4) the black folk tradition, and (5) candid self-revelation. † (Beckman, 7). Taken together, all these themes are consequences of black America’s re-affirmation of itself. Famous editor of the NAACP magazine The Crisis, W. E. B. Du Bois attributed the movement to what he called the â€Å"talented tenth. † This was the elite one-tenth of the percent of the black community in Harlem that excelled in self expression and reflection. The duel-edged foundation of the northern black community—freedom and repression—seeded a reaction in this portion of the population, â€Å"The Talented Tenth of Harlem reacted by seeking to create the image of the ‘New Negro. ’† (Beckman, 8). Importantly, the leaders of the Renaissance recognized that the traditional pathways to social change were blocked by white America—they lacked wealth and political power. Consequently, the image of the â€Å"New Negro† needed to be expressed through the arts and literature. The movement itself took the form of three major phases. The first phase began in about 1920 and stretched into 1923; it drew strongly from white literary and artistic influences that had been sensitive to the black cause. â€Å"The second phase, from about 1924 to 1926, began when more blacks began to express their creativity and philosophy themselves. † (Beckman, 9). The third and final phase was dominated by what Zora Neale Hurston would later call the â€Å"Niggerati,† who were extremely prolific black writers and artists who stressed the importance of art for the sake of art. Partially, the last phase can be thought of as a negative reaction to the reliance of the second phase upon propaganda. Essentially, the Harlem Renaissance cannot be understood as an event, but a process—a vast progression of thought and expression from the black community. The creation of the New Negro, therefore, was a subject of constant debate. â€Å"What aspects of black culture should be celebrated was the subject of great argument during the Harlem Renaissance. † (Haskins, 14). This question is what spurred the progression of the movement into and out of each of its stages. But overall, â€Å"The art and literature of the Harlem Renaissance focus on proving the humanity and equality of African Americans. † (Hardy, 18). Despite the debates within the Renaissance, the elemental myths they aimed to dispel remained the same. The idea that blacks were naturally inferior to whites needed to be explicitly proven wrong for the framework of inequality and racism to be demolished. The Harlem Renaissance was truly the launch pad for the equal rights movements and American artistic movements that were to follow. Not only were the notions of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X formed by the members of the Renaissance, but jazz and the blues came out of it as well. Its influence cannot only be felt in the intellectual conceptions of America, but in realms of art and entertainment as well. For this reason it is rather difficult to pinpoint when the movement ended. The convenient ending is to place it at the stock market crash of 1929. However, although it could be argued that the works to emerge out of the black community were fundamentally different after this time, it would be impossible to claim that everything since the Harlem Renaissance has not, in some way, drawn from or been a reaction to its core notions. Bibliography: 1. Beckman, Wendy Hart. (2002). Artists and Writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Berkeley Heights: Enslow Publishers. 2. Hardy, P. Stephen and Sheila Jackson Hardy. (2000). Extraordinary People of the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Grolier Publishing. 3. Haskins, Jim. (1996). The Harlem Renaissance. Brookfield: Millbrook Press.

Creationism Vs Evolution: Through The Eyes Of Jay Gould :: essays research papers

Creationism vs Evolution: Through The Eyes of Jay Gould It has been over 100 years since English naturalist Charles Darwin first told the world his revolutionary concept about how livings things develop. Evolution through natural selection and adaptation was the basis of his argument as it remains to this day a debated subject by many. Across this nation, a "return" to "traditional" values has also brought the return of age old debated topics. One issue that truly separates Americans is the issue of creation versus evolution. Since the 19th century, this divisive topic has been debated in school boards and state capitols across America. In many instances religious fundamentalists won the day by having banned the instruction or even the mention of "ungodly" evolutionary thinking in schools. With today’s social and political climate, this question is back with greater force than ever. This is why this subject is more important now than ever. In Jay Gould’s book The Panda’s Thumb, an overview of and an argument for Charles Darwin’s evolutionary thinking is conducted with flowing thoughts and ideas. This essay titled "Natural Selection and the Human Brain: Darwin vs. Wallace" takes a look directly at two hard fought battles between evolutionists and creationists. Using sexual selection and the origins of human intellect as his proponents, Gould argues his opinion in the favor of evolutionary thought. In this essay titled "Natural Selection and The Human Brain: Darwin vs. Wallace," Gould tells about the contest between Darwin and another prominent scientist named Alfred Wallace over two important subjects. These topics, one being sexual selection and the other about the origins of the human brain and intellect were debated by men who generally held the same views on evolution. However on these two subjects, Wallace chose to differ as he described it as his "special heresy" (53). The first of these two areas of debate between the two men was the question of "sexual selection." Darwin theorized that there laid two types of sexual selection. First a competition between males for access to females and second the choice "exercised by females themselves" (51). In this, Darwin attributed racial differences among modern human beings to sexual selection "based upon different criteria of beauty that arose among various peoples" (51). Wallace, however, disputed the suggestion of female choice. He believed that animals were highly evolved and beautiful works of art, not allowing the suggestion of male competition to enter his mind. The debate of sexual selection was but a mere precursor to a much more famous and important question . . . the question of the origins of the human mind.

Save-A-Lot Case Analysis

In 1977, Bill Moran, was the Vice President of Sales for a food wholesaler in St. Louis. After recognizing how the weak economy had affected his customers during the most competitive time, Bill Moran decided to become a hero. He invested his times and finally developed a retail strategy that would generate an extreme value for his customers by providing limited assortments of SKUs of the most popular items and not every brands out there in the larger traditional supermarket chains.. By doing this over the years, Save-A-Lot has expanded to over 1,300 stores across the United States and are continuing to grow. Save-A-Lot is operates in a foodservice industry that serves as retailers within a niche marketing segmentation. Save-A-Lot target market consists mainly of value seeking and convenience oriented psychographic segment. These consumers usually seek quality products at lower prices. They want valuable low prices like Costco but without the bulk, and a convenience of a mama and papa stores but much bigger, meaning that it is small enough and convenience enough that consumers don’t need to park and walk as far. For this mean, Save-A-Lot’s retailing concept meets the shoppers’ needs and expectation with smaller grocery stores. Within a year, through word-of-mouth advertising, Save-A-Lot spread to 29 locations. — (Save-A-Lot ) The constraints of Save-A-Lot in the foodservice industry comparing to its competitive retailer is that they lack the wide assortment of products to choose from. Another is the friendly customer services that helped customers around the stores or bagged the things the buy. The necessary cut-back is because they aim to offer values to their customers by saving them 40 percent from traditional grocery shopping. Save-A-Lots’ consumers may choose to go elsewhere, but they most likely not find a better saving as they will with Save-A-Lot. Save-A-Lot Food Stores, the nation's leading extreme value, edited assortment grocery chain and the nation's fifth largest grocery banner, operates more than 1,150 value-oriented stores in all types of neighborhoods: urban, rural and suburban, and delivers up to 40 percent of savings compared to conventional grocery stores†Ã¢â‚¬â€(Fintland ) The issue here as mentioned before, they stock much less inventories than other retailers. Comparing to other traditional supermarket chain stores stock approximately 30,000 SKUs vs. Save-A-Lot inventory of only 1,250 SKUs. As a part of the retail format, they carry less items with the same or similar high quality but at a more affordable price. The stocking and pricing are just some of the many things in their retailing format strategy. Aside from that, their main focus is affordability, not some pretty organizing shelves that is why their inventory remains in cardboard boxes that are cut off and stacked onto the shelves. Due to not having to sort-out the inventory, Save-A-Lot are able to cut-back on shelves costs, and creating a relationship with their vendors. With the vendor relation , Save-A-Lot benefits from low prices in returns for free advertisement and shelves spaces. Save-A-Lot does in fact saves a lot since they don’t have the typical numbers of employees compared to traditional stores. Customers pay to bag their own items, or they can just carry out their items with empty cardboard boxes laying around. The last biggest factor that contributes to Save-A-Lot profitability is the location. With their tightly controlled operation expenses, they are able to find inexpensive property to open business.

Sexual Exploitation on the Rise Essay - 1883 Words

Sexual exploitation, which includes but is not limited to prostitution and sex trafficking, has escalated throughout the 20th and 21st century. This increase in objectifying and degrading women is creating a world where there will never be true equality between men and women because it ensures that men will refuse to quit viewing women as objects of sexual pleasure rather than beings, unless sexploitation comes to an end. There are many false beliefs about prostitution in today’s world. Many people consider prostitution to be the world’s oldest profession, but contrary to popular belief â€Å"prostitution is not the world’s oldest profession...although it is probably one of the world’s oldest forms of men’s violence against women and girls.†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦show more content†¦They essentially create slave-like conditions for their prostitutes and make it so it’s impossible for them to leave them unless they choose to get rid of them. And when they do get rid of them their torturous ways ensure that they’ll be worse off than they were when they first entered. A former prostitute, who goes by the name of Felicia, spoke out about her owner, Corey Davis, and stated, â€Å"He called me a stupid bitch...a worthless piece of shit...I had to tell people I fell off a stage because I had so many bruises on my ribs face and legs...I have a permanent twitch in m y eye from him hitting me in my face so much. I have none of my irreplaceable things from my youth.† This shows that the owners truly are ruthless and don’t treat their prostitutes as if they’re even humans. Moreover, there is no dignity in choosing and partaking in prostitution. There is no â€Å"Mom, when I grow up I want to be a prostitute.† followed by a hug and kiss. Almost every single act of prostitution, including porn, is intended to humiliate, degrade, and express domination over women. 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