In the book Bone Black, Bell Hooks gives a vivid look into her childhood. ... They liked the dolls that they played with and the food that they ate. ... Instead she feels more like an outcast she says, "Her soul is black like the inner would of a cave-bone black. ... She wants to form her own identity that is not like her other family members. ... I know that when I was reading this I thought about the stories that my mom told me about her childhood. ...

• Word Count: 959
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

I quietly snuck down the stairs, and out the door with what felt like a thousand kilograms of luggage on me, I stood outside the front door staring at the long illuminated road ahead of me and myself am I doing the right thing? ... I felt someones presence behind me, I made a slow turn as I saw an old man who had an torn robe and a black hat which had seen better days. He looked at me with his dead eye sand asked me with a very narrow damp and weak hissing voice and demanded give me some change you don't know what its like over here I cant spare you some change he looked at me with disa...

• Word Count: 990
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

There were 3 brown puppies, and 2 black puppies. ... On the day before I picked my puppy to keep, one of the little black ones let me hold them. ... I picked the little black puppy. ... She brought me to an animal hospital. ... She might not have been if she hadn't come home like she did after she got hit. ...

• Word Count: 570
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

"Everyday use" - by Alice Walker Identity is something that concerns everyone of us whether we like it or not. ... Alice walker is a famous black -American writer who is concerned about the identity of black Americans, and especially the black female experience. ... "I couldn't bear it longer, being named after the people who oppress me." ... Dee (Wangero) looked at me with hatred. ... "Who can ever imagine me looking a strange white man in the eye? ...

• Word Count: 1135
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

I can't imagine that a man would treat his wife like that. I am married and if my husband treated me like that I would leave him, but times are different now. ... When she got older, she dated a black man named Peter. ... All of them are very well educated black people. ... This book gave me a great understanding of racism. ...

• Word Count: 693
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

A pile of black ash was all that was left of the room I had grown up in. ... There they were, three piles of black ashes. ... When I opened my front door the amount of black ash astonished me. ... Again everything was gone but countless piles of black ash. ... Something about him drew me in like there was an invisible force field pulling me closer with every second that past. ...

• Word Count: 702
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

If a soldier throws their shield down it is to run away from battle like a coward.. ... Athens was much like the rest of Greece, but Sparta was truly the black sheep. As far as my studies reach, I could not find any research or evidence that would lead me to believe that there were any similarities between Athens and Sparta in this respect. ...

• Word Count: 1087
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Eventually, I scraped enough backbone together to ask my father why he and the others all hated black people so much. ... Just by telling me this story, he was getting very angry. ... He went on to explain that all blacks were lazy and undeserving of good things and I could see that he truly believed what he was telling me. ... I can't honestly say that my family tried to train me to be a racially discriminatory but I do believe they expected me to be just like them. ... He cursed black people, using every racial slur he could think of. ...

• Word Count: 976
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

His smile greeted me. ... When I arrived at his house, he met me at the door and asked me to come in and have a seat on the couch, I was a little worried at this time. ... So, since I have said that, "I want to ask you a question." And he reached over to the dark brown oak end table beside him and picked up what looked to me like a small black box. He looked back at me and said 'Will you marry me,' as he opened the black box to reveal an elegantly lavishing looking solitaire diamond ring engagement set. ... When we finally broke apart and I sat back down on the couch, he took the...

• Word Count: 808
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Black slacks, a white collared shirt with a black tie, he seemed professional. ... It was only years later when I realized that I shouldn't mope over these situations because they only keep me from happiness, they mold me as a person, and there's a future that awaits me. ... This was a new beginning for us, for me. ... Sometimes I feel like I've used up all my tears in the past, and that's why it's hard for me to crack a tear. ... I feel like a robot, sometimes even a zombie. ...

• Word Count: 861
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

In the film, a 17-year old girl's dreams are deferred but, her dreams do not dry up like a raisin in the sun. ... The strength of this black family, immediate and now extended, is the foundation for positive images within the black community and thus the culture. ... This advice from Shantell's parents is interpreted by me, as negative. ... Like most black woman, Shantell realizes that she has made a mistake and wants to rectify it with very little help. ... In short, I would definitely recommend this movie to all black families. ...

• Word Count: 740
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

That picture was taken over sixty years ago, but it seems that painful memories are like forgotten thorns that prick us with their wicked barbs when we least expect it. ... I am no longer that young, frightened child watching her world drift from her sight in a black 1940's Studebaker. ... I remember my father's strong hands as he would pick me up and kiss my checks calling me his "beautiful princess" as he lavished warmth and affection on me. ... I turn the faded, black and white photo over with my shaking, wrinkled hands that reflect the ravages of time. I smile at the handwritin...

• Word Count: 890
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

I had to go through training just like each of you. ... She had a black eye, but what stuck out the most was the scar on her leg. Later we found out the black eye came from her dad punching her because she was watching television, and her mom was drunk one night and pushed her into a window. ... She looked up and me and asked, "Why do you care so much about to what happens to me?" I replied, "I was once in a similar situation like you are in, and I wish I had someone to fight for me like Gracie's Choice fights for you because you deserve so much more" However, I am a...

• Word Count: 1079
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Getting assigned this topic really made me think, "What song or movie is truly most meaningful to me"? ... The first verse is about a father-son campout when he was only seven feeling like he was in seventh heaven. ... My dad found an awesome, 2006, black, lifted, Jeep Wrangler. ... The son has been dreaming about being like his dad. ... Starting a new chapter in my life, heading off to college, I pray I'll be like him. ...

• Word Count: 706
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

She lived on one of the top floors and had the most putrid looking furniture and served me Tomato juice. ... I was kind of like a state side military brat, but without the benefits. We were in fact, more like Gypsy's. ... I grew up learning that black people were no good, that they have no rights and that they have nothing to offer the world. ... Color was never an issue for me, just people's behaviors and actions that would leave me with certain notions that sometimes others, black or white, were not the best people to be around. ...

• Word Count: 1220
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

When the daily stresses of life start to wear me down, I have this one particular dream. ... To me, this is the most beautiful place on earth. ... I will share a day's journey of my grandmother's youth when she still lived at home and perhaps this will give some insight as to why I like to return here, if only in my dreams. ... The rusty pulley made a ghastly whine as we hoisted the bucket up from the deep, dark seemingly endless black hole, where as a child, I was certain lived a troll. ... Like a well-polished gymnast, I would walk along the edge of the rock fence that extended...

• Word Count: 1180
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

She complains about Maggie's "brown skin as it makes her look like a mulatter"(13). and her hair that will not hold a curl. Maggie sits, "tossing her head to keep the dark, heavy locks out of her gleaming black eyes"(13), while her mother complains to her father stating that Maggie is "a straight black-eyed wench"(13). Throughout the novel, words like "black" and "dark" are common in Maggies descriptions. These words are uncommon when used to describe characters like, Lucy, and even Maggie's brother Tom. ... [] Folk'ull think ...

• Word Count: 820
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

She was 17-years-old when she had me. ... Looking at pictures of her as a teenager, I see a woman who dealt with the pressures of a child at 17 and carried herself like a mature woman. ... She put the fear of God in me. ... She uses derogative names towards black people and is very closed minded against gays and lesbians. ... However, she loves to have lunch with me and my 24-year-old friends. ...

• Word Count: 454
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Like Father, Like Son The Play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Vivian Hansberry covers the hardship and the sacrifices that a small black family must make in order to survive through the segregation struggles. ... Therefore, he doesn't see himself as a role model to his son and not the strong black man of the family. "I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy Mama," (Hansberry 254). ... Rather than acting like a man he has turned into a money hungry drunk who has Ruth, his wife, saying "He makes me sick to my stomach" (Hansberry 253), and even his mom seeing her ow...

• Word Count: 947
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

As the family leaves for their vacation the grandmother remembers to dress like a lady in case something were to happen to her. ... Though he may be male, he is just like the other leading characters. ... My mother raised me to do it if you didn't. ... Across the hall, a young black couple moves in. ... The black actor teaches Tanner. ...

• Word Count: 1220
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Walker suffers from a blinding injury to her right eye that causes her to become shy and withdrawn, much like the character of Maggie in this story. ... There are no real windows just some holes cut in the sides, like the portholes in a ship," (Walker 299). ... Movements such as Black Power emerge in addition to groups such as the Black Panthers. ... Almost lifeless and lacking confidence, Maggie walks like a, "lame animalchin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle," (298). ... " Dee replies, "She's dead, I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after th...

• Word Count: 1247
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Uncle Willie was a severely crippled, black man, who was "unexposed to the worlds of great ideas. ... From what I know, my grandfather, (my dad's dad, ) is exactly like my dad in those same ways. I do not necessarily like this legacy, but hey, it's all I have. ... I will be the first person in my family to go to college so it means a lot to me and a lot to my parents. ... I want people to take in me for me and feel that they can do the best they can and succeed. ...

• Word Count: 823
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

That's me. ... Society regards Antoinette and her family from a binary point of view, as she is neither European nor black. ... They tell her she is mad, they act like she is mad. ... In this story, binary thinking refers to thoughts coming from two very separate societies - white and black. These contrasting societies both disregarded Antoinette and her family because of their tendency to group and label people who werent like themselves. ...

• Word Count: 1121
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

I was color struck; I thought because my father was white that it made me special, but I was no better than anyone else. ... I ran around like I was someone special, someone who actually mattered. ... It shames me that I passed this on to Philomene. ... Philomene had two little girls by another black man, Clement. ... As I lay on my deathbed I realize that a life as a black woman wasn't bad. ...

• Word Count: 627
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Although her instinct told her to stay home and stay close to everything she was used to it was overcome by her intense desire to become an independent and successful young black writer. This battle of opposing forces showed me why teenagers wish to leave their parents as soon as they possibly can. ... I suppose everyone is born with an instinct entwined in his or her hearts to be free and to start a life of their own and to break out of their parent's molds and their expectations of what your life should be like. ...

• Word Count: 324
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School