The Constant Struggle for Black Equality Essay Example

his tribe against the colonists to gain equality for his people. While it sounds like a lot of the equality issues come from the white people the struggle also comes from us. This is known as colors, meaning despite our race being the same one of us will always get through life a little easier than the other due to one of our skin tones being lighter. I wanted to tell you about the author Richard Rodriguez, who actually wrote about two of the things I wanted to talk to you about, that being affirmative action (which I’ll develop on) and colorism.

The concept of affirmative action comes about in Rodriguez’s book as he realizes the way the white people treated him due to skin and his background and the colors that he experienced within his own family. Rodriguez addresses these issues yet never speaks on how to avoid this or how to go against this; instead he writes as he has given into that way of life and has drifted from his culture and family.

Generationally minorities are treated poorly and taken advantage of. There is no doubt that while our equality is suppressed by many of the white population, it's not all of them and that is important to remember as the poor treatment can come from our own people. A lot of us are belittled or treated differently by other minorities because of their darker skin or more enhanced. I know it sounds unfair, but it's the way our life is now while we work towards the goal that many minorities fight for.

The author I mentioned before, Richard Rodriguez, I find funny that he

has the same last name as us. He writes a lot about his own family dynamic with immigrant parents and his own cultural struggle with his family. I didn’t learn Spanish when I was younger, but you did and in this case this is where you resemble Rodriguez, in the sense that while you grew up knowing Spanish you’ve fallen out of touch with it, the only difference is that you didn’t forget your language or where you’ve come from.

In the colorist sense I have the downfall which coincidentally enough I have in common with Rodriguez and his siblings, Rodriguez wrote something like that in his book “I had the language, the dark skin, and the lower-caste status of the Mexican, but I also spoke fluent English and had the strange power of an Anglo name-though my Anglo grand- father was the only white person I knew as a child- and I quickly moved away from my 'roots' into the world of the university” (Staten 114) When it comes to affirmative action we’ve experienced it where our aunt received a job offer because she is bilingual and it would bring more “culture” to their place of business, we also have family who are living where they are because of the benefits brought to their buildings management which gives them the ability to live to open up their range to make an increase in tenants.

As a matter of fact, there’s also another author I wanted to tell you about, his name is Ta- Nehisi Coates, an African American author who wrote about the unfair advantages the black lives are given. To support that an article I

read about the book says “For most, it seems perfectly reasonable to expect this from Coates, a writer undeniably preoccupied with the unyielding color line, and from a book so brazenly consumed with race in America” (“Everybody’s Protest Narrative: ‘Between the World and Me’ and the Limits of Genre.”). The author of the article understands Coates' book as she is an African American woman. Although his book is mainly directed towards the black audience to a certain degree, we can relate Hispanic minorities.

Although we don’t experience the same treatment that African Americans or those of a darker complexion have, we are unable to completely relate to their struggles, which kinda goes back to the whole color thing I mentioned to you before. To bring in the topic of what I’m writing to you about, these authors help us realize what a long way from equality, we are as well as the struggles we are going through to get there. I understand that while I’m writing this you’re very young and this may be hard to understand, but it’s better for you to learn about the struggles that we, as minorities face in our current situation we’re facing in today’s society with government corruption, police brutality, generational poverty, and that's to name a few which Coates actually mentions in his book, or at least most of it anyways.

Earlier I mentioned that Rodriguez didn’t really address his struggle with colors and affirmative action, Rodriguez instead just never addressed any of the issues he had with his family, like his feelings towards his parents for his ability to learn or try to speak English. This is what Rodriguez

had to say about a personal experience with his father “because his father, though 'white' and bourgeois-identified, speaks English poorly, has hands, worn by labor, and has been humbled by the life of the subaltern (Hunger 119-20) -like the dark-skinned Mexicans that Richard resembles. Richard's identity splits in relation to this faith” (Staten 111). Rodriguez also doesn’t help when he uses affirmative action to get where he wants to be like the college and scholarships he wanted.

He also doesn’t do anything about the people who associate with him due to his skin color, his background, and his ability to speak some Spanish. In my personal opinion, I believe that affirmative action hurts more than it helps as I feel like it strays us more from equality than brings us closer as it gives us minorities the benefits that are given to the whites.

To a certain respect it is understandable why Rodrigeuz took advantage of the affirmative action that he did and it stemmed from the pressure of going to college and becoming someone in his family to do something with their lives and branch out “I was the first in my family who asked to leave home when it came time to go to college.”(Rodriguez 61)

This is the type of pressure I’m talking about, because he is the first in his family to do something like that. He had to make sure to leave a mark and do it well. We also have to understand that although we may not agree with something everyone has their reasons and story, Rodriguez possibly took advantage of the affirmative action in his life because of his childhood lifestyle

and the struggle he witnessed his family go through “In our house each school year would begin with my mother's careful instruction: 'Don't write in your books so we can sell them at the end of the year.”(Rodriguez 63) Rodriguez had to express the struggle of not having enough money and witnessing his parents struggle to provide for them, though he wasn’t exactly approving of their life choices. Fortunately for us this was never the case, we had and still have the things we need/needed for school.

In terms of Rodriguez’s issues with colors and his family looking through his perspective, it is understandable why he never addressed any of his feelings directly towards them as he already had a struggling relationship with his parents as he strayed farther and farther from his culture and who he was. “... that Rodriguez's critics have not sufficiently noted the irony in his view of him- self when he describes his remade mode of being. He is a detached, isolated individual,” (Staten 104). Staten claims that this is a form of irony that Rodriguez perceives himself to seem this way.