Lesson 2CapozziWhy, you reckon?

Directions:Choose the most interesting or powerful quote. Then, turn to the back and fill out Checklists #1 and #2.

Quote #1

‘Oh, be respectable. Write about nice people. Show how good we are,’ said the Negroes. ‘Be stereotyped. Don’t go too far. Don’t shatter our illusions about you. Don’t amuse us too seriously. We will pay you,’ said the Whites. We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If White people are pleased, we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful and ugly, too. The tom-tom cries; and the tom-tom laughs. If Colored people are pleased, we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, as strong as we know how. And we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.

Quote #2

Slaves often pandered to racist assumptions by using the word "nigger" to their advantage in the self-deprecatory artifice of Tomming.Implicit was an unspoken reminder that a presumably inferior person or subhuman could not reasonably be held responsible for work performed incorrectly, a fire in the kitchen, or any similar offense. It was a means of deflecting responsibility in the hope of escaping the wrath of an overseer or master. Its use as a self-referential term was also a way to avoid suspicion and put whites at ease. A slave who referred to himself or another black as a "nigger" presumably accepted his subordinate role and posed no threat to white authority.

Quote #3

I tend to believe that Black people use White folks as a benchmark entirely too much in our social, political, and cultural lives. Are Black kids learning? Do too many Black people have AIDS? Are too many Black men unemployed? Are Black features beautiful? Our answers to these and a host of other questions informing our quality of life too often turn, first, on an assessment of how we compare to White folks. That is debilitating to our sense of esteem, as it implies the inability to generate, and hold ourselves accountable against, self-directed standards of behavior and performance. I have two children, and I want them to do nothing less (and nothing more) than to achieve absolutely everything they're capable of achieving. […]. I fear that too often folks of color seem on a permanentrace to catch White folks—irrespective of whether White folks, in any particular circumstance,are worth catching in the first place.

Checklist #1—Your Perspective

Words or phrases from the quote that interest you most

Connections to your life experiences, questions, interests, challenges

What topic might you discuss with this author?

Checklist #2—Author’s Perspective

Predict: Who or what group is the intended audience for this quote?

Summarize or Re-tell: Main message?

Interpret: Author’s reason for message?

Classify: Who might agree with this message? Who might disagree?

Quote #1: From “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” by Langston Hughes (1926).

Quote #2:

Quote #3: Shavar Jeffries. Blackprof.com. February 27, 2007.