Seeking roots of discrimination 14+

📓 Intermediate Examination Paper from the year 2002 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,7, Humboldt-University of Berlin (Department of English and American Studies), course: Introduction to US Cultural Science II: "The Thirties", 10 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Although much of Langston Hughes's and Richard Wright's writing expressed social protest, there is one genre -the essay- that has gone largely unnoticed.In the eyes of Hughes and Wright, custom, tradition and religion may be seen as some of the root causes of racism because they are largely interiorized, but they by far cannot serve alone as satisfying explanations for it. Important in the creation of racism is e.g. the negative projection of colored people in the media. Consequently, this forms a fatal preconception of blacks that is constantly being reproduced. Langston Hughes and Richard Wright, among the most prolific of American writers,gained international attention and acclaim in nearly every genre of writing, includingpoetry, the short story, the novel, drama, the libretto, the autobiography, journalisticprose, children's and adolescent literature and song lyrics. Although much of theirwriting, often expressing social protest, was easily accessible to scholars and generalreaders, there is one genre -the essay- that has gone largely unnoticed. Yet suchessays and short, non-fiction passages contribute significantly to Hughes'...