Comparing Racism And Segregation In Graduation And The Library Card
1371 Words6 Pages
Graduation is the best day of ever young kids’ life, it’s almost as important as learning to read and write. But in reference to both being very important, racism and segregation have played the biggest factor of them all in both “Graduation” and “The Library Card.” “Graduation,” by Maya Angelou describes the anger from the racism and pride of graduation day at her segregated school. Similarly, in his article, “The Library Card,” Richard Wright describes his struggle and frustration that he faces in the process for borrowing books due to the Jim Crow laws and his reaction towards the unfair treatment of Negros in the South. I believe that most students in the world have experienced some form of racism during their school years, either from teachers, from their peers, or through an overt or covert curriculum. But in contrast to racism and segregation in these two essays, they both show that, in order for African Americans to survive, they have to overcome far more situations than just whites., they had to show pride, self-respect, and courage to keep fighting through hard times. Both Maya Angelou and Richard Wright utilized various…show more content… After being enlightened about how others rebelled against southern whites, Wright denies living a life of a slave and writes “I would hate myself as much as … those who submitted” (Wright 434) to show the increment in self-respect .Wright desires to rebel against southern whites. By reading H. L. Mencken books, Wright realized how Mencken was rebelling against southern whites through his writing (Wright 428-429). Thus, by admitting that he wants to be a good writer, Wright hints of his desire to rebel against southern whites through writing. Even though Wright knows southern whites hate people who speak against them, his decision to rebel against southern whites shows his high degree of