Negotiating Racism and Sexism through Spaciotemporal Lens in Toni Morrison’s Paradise (Published)
Racism and sexism occupy a central space in the psyche of the African American in a nation where the culture of the dominant class determines the American way of life. In order to assess the place of African Americans in the larger nation space, their negotiating of racism and sexism must be placed in spacio-temporal matrix. For this purpose Lefebvre’s notion of “double illusion”, Homi K Bhabha’s concept of “hybridity”, and Edward Soja’s idea of “Thirdspace” have been applied to analyze Toni Morrison’s novel Paradise. The paper is an attempt to understand how Toni Morrison represents the community life of African Americans within the larger space of the American nation in the backdrop of their negotiation of racism and sexism in both national and community levels.
Keywords: Community, Negotiation., Racism, Sexism, nation, spacio-temporal
The Hate U Give: As You Are Black, You Have No Rights (Published)
Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give is a polemical novel because of its strong condemnation of the racism that has targeted African-Americans. The Hate U Give revolves around racism against people coming from black background in the USA. Race has been always a sensitive aspect in America due to its often ugly history of slavery. Racism has always been associated with power dominance and enforcement of oppression which is still in the hands of Whites in America. The Hate U Give is a perfect showcase of the hatred that African Americans have received from the American society.
Keywords: Racism, USA, black background, hate, whites
Under The Spell of Amazon: Exploring the Structures of Race and Class in John Updike’s Novel Brazil (Published)
This paper is an attempt to examine how John Updike (1932-2009) a prominent American novelist, constructs in Brazil (1994) scenarios that reveal to his readers, moment by moment, the rich complexity of Brazilian race relations. I also seek to point out how Updike sets forth the complicated racial issues in modern-day Brazil through the hardships his two main characters, Tristão and Isabel, undergo. In a way, Updike seeks to identify parallel selves in individuals of other nations; individuals whom one would typically categorize as “Others”. The paper also discusses how Updike attempts to de-emphasize racial differences and suggests that humans are all connected to one another as mixed combinations of color. I argue that in a society where racial identities are not clearly definable and where miscegenation is commonplace, interracial unions are more easily accepted. Updike, however, sees that behind this admixture there is a bias linked to skin color and social class. Meanwhile, I argue that Updike’s text is stronger in his sense of place than his sense of people. In other words, though Updike poses the problems of race and identity, he falls short of that, because the main ideas of the novel—the questions of race and class—are never deeply explored or illuminated.
Keywords: Brazil, Classism, Corruption, Identity, Miscegenation, Racism, Updike
Discriminatory policy Among the Undergraduate Students to the Nature and scope to The Guide for College Teaching Approach (Review Completed - Accepted)
This paper addresses racism and white privilege in America. Racism is generally discriminatory policy and behavior aimed at oppressing nonwhites whereas white privilege is the advantage gained by whites that is not due to ability or merit. It is argued that white privilege is largely invisible and that this allows the current unacceptable status quo to continue. A survey of items is offered as a tool to be used by college teachers to sensitize students to the nature and effects of white privilege.
Keywords: Discriminate, Racial Code Words, Racism