Racism

= = =Rampant Racism in America= "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou Written in 1978

You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? 'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops. Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you? Don't you take it awful hard 'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I've got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame I rise Up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.

"... there is no true American music but the sweet melodies of the Negro slave..." (W.E.B. Dubois, __The Souls of Black Folk__, p. 15)



"... the permeating and victimizing fact of human degradation, [is] symbolized by the southern struggle against racial bigotry..." (Tom Hayden, __The Port Huron Statement__, p. 45)



"...slavery recedes but the prejudice to which it has given birth remains stationary." (Alexis deTocqueville, __Democrac____y in__ __America__, p. 416)



[|Click on this link to learn more about Aaron Douglas and other artists of the Harlem Renaissance]

"...all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink skinned doll was what every girl child treasured." (Toni Morrison, __The Bluest Eye__, p. 20)

The Tyranny of the Majority Robyn's Reflection on Racism