Assata Shakur Response Paper - 664 Words

Assata Shakur has the most direct commentary out of all of the activists that we have discussed. One can sense her urgency for the unity of black people and how her past experiences shaped her into the person she is today. In Assata: An Autobiography, some of her most intriguing comments were the comments about self-hatred in the black community. She is adamant about addressing and fixing the self hate among black people. However, though attempts have been made by organizations such as the BPP, activists like Malcolm X, and an array of others to spread African American pride, the self-hate and jokes continue even today. Shakur discusses and describes the hatred that blacks have within by mentioning the†¦show more content†¦For instance, her involvement with the Republic of New Afrika, and her violent mentality was a bit too extreme for me. However, analyzing Shakur made me realize that there was a difference among the activists from the 19th and early 20th century and the ones from the mid-20th century. Compared to the older activists we have discussed, there seems to be a push for self-worth, not just how to achieve equal rights or make whites accept black people. Malcolm X pushes for this belief in self-worth and unity among black people as well.3 This becomes important in my opinion because black people have struggled for centuries attempting to gain equality and during its duration have naturally endured identity issues. I feel that W.E.B Du Bois’ idea of double consciousness comes into play here. His idea that African Americans have basically two identities or thought processes, one being Black and the other being American or through the eyes of white people could have possibly created divisions among blacks, causing some to despise themselves. 4 What intrigues me most about not only Assata Shakur, but even Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, is that there seems to be a move from just equality, but to equality and love. While each of the three activists expresses their ideas of what love meansShow MoreRelatedEssay about Gender Politics in the US Criminal Justice System1736 Words   |  7 Pagesviolent crimes, it is often for fundamentally different reasons than men. Many women are much more likely to kill a male partner than to kill anyone else. A majority of the women incarcerated for homicide kill out of self defense and is often in response to years of male abuse. This then leads into the role gender plays in sentencing and the courtroom, which is a rather complicated one. In the early 20th century many women were incarcerated for public order offenses, also known as moral offensesRead More Bigger Thomas, of Native Son and Tupac Shakur Essay6110 Words   |  25 PagesRichard Wright In 1996, famed rapper and entertainer Tupac Shakur[1] was gunned down in Las Vegas. Journalistic sentiment at the time suggested he deserved the brutal death. The New York Times headline, Rap Performer Who Personified Violence, Dies, suggested Shakur, who was twenty five when he died, deserved his untimely death. - (Pareles, 1996) A product of a fatherless home, raised poor in the ghettos of San Francisco, Shakur, notes Ernest Harding of the L.A. Weekly, lived in a society that