African American Hate Crimes in Gwendolyn Brook’s Poetry Essay

The murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri , the murder of a coloured teen for playing loud music in Florida, the Little Rock integration and all other forms of abuse or detest crimes done against African Americans will always be engraved in our hi narrative and in the hearts of all African Americans as a period of injustice. It was a ballpark tragedy to lose a family member to one of the many riots assembled by the Ku Klux Klan or simply by a group of Caucasians determined to exterminate niggers. some(prenominal) were able to see how detrimental hate crimes were by media. African Americans who owned magazines, newspapers and so forth were finally able to voice their opinions and tell their side of the story to balance out the usually biased media run by Caucasians. As a resoluteness of the exposed cruelty towards African Americans, blacks felt justified, some whites became enraged, and however other whites began to feel guilty for devaluing the lives of African America ns. Brookss ballad A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Mean season, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon illuminates the hate crime committed against a young African American boy and the guilt that consumes the speaker after she realizes her involvement caused his death. Brookss poem acts as a metaphor to convey how America (during the period of injustice) attempted to overlook the truth of the immoral crimes committed against African Americas, but as a result of publicized brutality, realized they were wrong. Background information regarding the death of Emmett Till will allow the reader to better understand how Brooks uses the ballad as a metaphor to represent Americas attempt to overlook the immoral acts committed against African Americans. According to The Murder of Emmett Till, an article addressing Emmett Tills death and the media coverage on it, Tills death was a prank gone wrong. After picking cotton with his cousins all day, Till and his cousins took a joy ride with t he family simple machine to Bryants Grocery store where his cousins dared him to talk Carolyn Bryant (Brian). What happened as he was leaving is fiercely debated. Some white witnesses claimed he either said, Bye, baby, or whistled at her, while others say that she became enraged after he simply put his change in the womans hand. Emmett Tills alleged fresh behavior spread ilk wildf... ...acism seen in closed-minded individuals through Brookss use of fairy tale language and the depiction of the husband. Likewise, America is made up of both types of individuals, and through the use of publicized media, we can only believe to increase the knowledge of the senseless violence we known as hate crimes. After reading Brooks ballad one can only hope that Emmett Till and other victims of hate crimes will act as a reminder and provide an inclining of hope that another tragic death will not follow. Works Cited Brooks, Gwendolyn. A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. While Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon. Selected Poems. New York harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Print. Favat, F. Andr.. Child and Tale The origins of Interest. Urbana, Ill. National Council of Teachers of English, c1977. Print. Mootry, Maria K. Brooks a bronzeville mother loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi mother fire bacon. Explicator 42.4 (1984) p51, 2p Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 July 2011. Thorton, Brian. The Murder of Emmett Till. Journalism History 36.2 (2010) p396-104, 9p Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 July 2011.