Donnell starts the essay with an immediate fishhook, "I"m cool like this:" (367) in order to firstly grab the reader's attention and secondly to make the initial point about just how cool he is. ... After the first sentence he starts all sentences with, "I" and then the next few sentences start with, "cooler" or "cool" (367). ... Because he put this sentence after all of these self-proclaiming "cool" comments, he is giving the reader something to think about with the irony. ... This helps the reader understand now what cool is actually meant to be because the black community has been...

• Word Count: 1153
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Lynchings by local mobs started to become a common ritual on blacks that didn't abide by the Jim Crow laws. This practice was performed mainly in the south with authorities and politicians "looking the other way." ... I caught myself in shock wondering where he got his information because it was so hard to conceive. ... Then we started to see how the judicial system was no different than being out there in the communities with lynch mobs. ... They were sentenced to death in the first trial, but got retried several times over 6 years. ...

• Word Count: 432
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

In the text of the speech, we can see many times throughout that Obama relies and imposes his ethos to create his arguments, but the cornerstone of his response lies in his past, which can be observed right after he begins giving details of his life as an American, starting with the phrase: "I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas" (239). ... Both of these phrases stand out in the text because Obama used a rhetorical device known as antithesis, which means that within each phrase they contain ideas that are opposite to each other, seen in black man and wh...

• Word Count: 787
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

After a couple of hours they were let go with an explanation from police that they fit the description of some robbery suspects. ... Suffocated by 5 Pittsburgh police evidently because he was black. ... The history behind what is known as racial profiling started back in the mid to early 1980's as a tool to fight drug trafficking. ... The DEA was so impressed with Mr. ... "African-Americans are 13% of drug users, 37% of arrests, 55% of the convicted and 77% of those sentenced for drug related crimes". ...

• Word Count: 854
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography

This shift came about because of the many talented African-American writers, actors, speakers and activists who worked so hard to gain respect for themselves and their culture. ... These themes had to be dealt with tenderly in an intolerant, white-culture society. ... Janie realized that her strength was in herself and her pride, with or without Tea Cake. And Invisible Man realized that "My problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own" (pg. 573), and so took to hibernation, to "shake off the old skin" and start living a life he could be proud o...

• Word Count: 835
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

In the beginning, he starts off by saying, "if I sought to answer all of my criticismsI would have no time for constructive work.... Martin states that the reason he is in Birmingham is because of the injustice there. ... Afterwards, Martin Luther King Jr. starts to explain the difference between when a law is either just or unjust. ... Therefore, he will strive to reach this goal because his destiny is tied up with the destiny of America. ... In his concluding sentences, Martin asks himself what else he would do in that jail cell other than to write long letters, pray long pray and think...

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

The very title of his speech "I Have a Dream" was probably taken from his use of anaphora (using the same word at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences) which was present throughout his speech. ... This hope was that they would one day be treated as equals and walk side by side with the all other races. ... King's use of alluding to other historic documents, which also deal with equality issues, helped his speech reach the listener. ... King does not want the equality-seeking listeners to go out and use force or start a battle to get their freedom because then it would give the...

• Word Count: 1011
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Under other circumstances, she would have probably given up her seat with no complaints. ... Parks' act started a citywide boycott of the bus system by African-Americans that lasted for more than a year. ... Harriet was known as a black "Moses" because she believed that God selected her to lead her people out of slavery. ... She died on March 10, 1913, and was buried with military honors in Auburn, New York. ... During his seven-year prison sentence Malcolm studied the teachings of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad and was converted to the Black Muslim faith. ...

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

The conflict is supported by Bigger's difficulty to be happy with who he is. ... Sara had a hard time trying to fit her own definition of being an American because she started her journey in another country. ... Bigger struggled to fit into the society around him because the society around him refused to accept him. ... Between jobs, Bigger spent most of his time hanging out with his friends getting into trouble until he went to work for the Daltons in his mid-20's. ... At the end of Bigger's journey, Bigger was captured by the police and sentenced to death. ...

• Word Count: 1142
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School