Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Black Poetry and Black Folk Narratives
    Black Poetry and Black Folk Narratives
    Black Poetry and Black Folk Narratives
    Ebook136 pages1 hour

    Black Poetry and Black Folk Narratives

    By Dr. James Oliver Richardson

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Perhaps the greatest human understanding lies within the hearts and souls of Black people. The old Negro folk songs entered the African American church and became prayer songs and sorrow songs that still trouble our souls. These songs were spirituals groans and mournful meanings that are ever present in the old Negro spirituals; they were narratives and expressions of hope and of tragedy. The songs we hear were a prophecy of pride and self-respect. Through all of the unhappiness of the sorrow songs, there breathes a hope and a faith in the final justice of things.
    The minor cadences of despair change often to victory and calm confidence. Sometimes it is faith in life, sometimes a faith in death, and sometimes reassurance of boundless justice in some unknown world beyond. But whichever it is, the meaning is always clear: that sometime, somewhere, all men will be judge by their souls and not by the color of their skins. Perhaps, in America, many Black men cannot endure their life-world of Blackness. Nevertheless, there will come a time when individuals will be required to accept full accountability for their cruelty, hypocrisy, exploitation, and for empowering a reality of Whiteness. It will be a time when secrets of the hearts will be known.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTrafford Publishing
    Release dateNov 11, 2013
    ISBN9781490713045
    Black Poetry and Black Folk Narratives

    Related to Black Poetry and Black Folk Narratives

    Related ebooks

    Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for Black Poetry and Black Folk Narratives

    4/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Black Poetry and Black Folk Narratives - Dr. James Oliver Richardson

      Copyright 2013 Dr. James Oliver Richardson.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

      ISBN: 978-1-4907-1305-2 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4907-1306-9 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4907-1304-5 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2013917258

      Trafford rev. 09/20/2013

      21097.png www.trafford.com

      North America & international

      toll-free: 1 888 232 4444 (USA & Canada)

      fax: 812 355 4082

      CONTENTS

      SECTION I. INTRODUCTION

      A. Poetry

      Back Then

      We Hide

      Our Mother

      A Dream Deferred

      A White Man’s Nostalgic

      The Burdened

      Caring

      It Ain’t Easy

      Words

      Am I

      Life

      Thoughts

      Observing

      My Eyes

      Beautiful People

      Free

      Dreams

      Life

      Like A Prisoner

      Small As You Are

      SECTION II . BLACK FOLK NARRATIVES

      Bye And Bye

      Why Black People Hate Each Other

      Worldviews

      Insanity

      They Crossed On The Other Side Of The Road

      Deceived And Being Deceived

      Similarity

      The Package

      Street Lights

      The Telephone

      The Outcast

      Who’s The Daddy?

      Murmuring

      Where Are The Real Men?

      The Property Of Jesus

      The Banquet

      Meaningfulness

      America: The Land Of White Privilege

      Three Things White Women Hate

      What Is In Your Hand?

      Can He Prepare A Table Also?

      INTRODUCTION

      Perhaps the greatest human understanding lies within the hearts and souls of Black people. The old Negro folk songs entered the African American church and became prayer songs and sorrow songs that still trouble our souls. These songs were Spirituals groans and mournful meanings that are ever present in the old Negro Spirituals; they were narratives and expressions of hope and of tragedy. The songs we hear were a prophecy of pride and self-respect. Through all of the unhappiness of the sorrow songs there breathes a hope, and a faith in the final justice of things.

      The minor cadences of despair change often to victory and calm confidence. Sometimes it is faith in life, sometimes a faith in death, and sometimes reassurance of boundless justice in some unknown world beyond. But whichever it is, the meaning is always clear, that sometime, somewhere, all men will be judge by their souls and not by the color of their skins. Perhaps, in American many Black men cannot endure their life-world of Blackness. Nevertheless, there will come a time when individuals will be required to accept full accountability for their cruelty, hypocrisy, exploitation and for empowering a reality of Whiteness. It will be a time when secrets of the hearts will be known.

      Possibly, mainstream America is achieving some understanding of the humiliation slavery and caste system that were heaped upon African American men for generations. Today many Black men are still facing racial discrimination, but it is of another sort, it is what I called hidden racism, which is a most unpleasant to experience. Black men always know and feel that they are not authentically received; they are to remain outsiders, strangers and foreigners in their own country; and yet, they are expected to act friendly under all circumstances. Perhaps they may be required to smile and grin like their parents and grandparents (Citron, 1969).

      This growing psychopath life-world has not received the kinds of attention that destroys Black communities, relationships, closeness and trust. Many African-American males are without feelings and cognizant of right and wrong; their survival skills consist merely of looking out for themselves. Furthermore, many African-American men are highly manipulative, deceitful and direct their resentment toward the weak and prey on women. Their psychopathic personalities are cultivated in early childhood. Their relationship with parents is shocking, insulting, shameful and sickening (Weiner, 1992).

      African-American segregated schools confirmed that they did not survive to keep African-American males in their place, but to raise them out of their places where slavery and oppression had left them. By 1902, it was established that African-American males could advance in knowledge by the fact that more than four hundred African-American males received their bachelor’s degree from Harvard, Yale, Oberlin, and seventy other top universities (Du Bois, 1902). African-American teachers sought to caste off their servitude mind-set and select historical facts about African-American men, but those facts were predestined to forgetfulness.

      Today, our school curriculum is now controlled by white superintendents, principals and interest groups who see no valued or place for African-American history. It appears that historical facts about African-American men have no place in our school curriculum (Johnston, 1928). White historians have committed the crime of exclusion; they have written completely for white children and painstakingly left out the many commendable actions of African-American men. The African-American male is deprived of this motivation. The African-American male is ascribed no legacy of courage; he is refer to only as a slave while recorded history establish that he has been among the bravest soldiers and the most dedicated fellow citizens.

      The present era is observing a struggle between knowledge and tragedy. Our nation cannot survive except it produces a well informed and intellectual people who can solve this nation’s racial problems (Bruce, 1937). Today, breaking the African-American student’s succession of failure is to begin changing his motivation and achievement in school. Too many African-American students have become caught in an inexhaustible series of school disappointment and suffer a descending spiral of self-worth, producing harmful inner-feelings and lack of incentive. Currently, the atmosphere in inner-city schools discourages learning that leads to more dissatisfaction; this strengthens African-American students’ feelings that they cannot learn. Such destructive way of thinking can only produce more disillusionment (Heacox, 1991).

      Furthermore, myth is that which transfers beliefs into facts, historical events into natural ones and assumptions about truth. The dilemma of myths is a window White people look through without realizing they are still looking through a window. Sambo depicted as being without a mind or will of his own, waiting to be filled by the commands of master. Sambo was also a body without a mind, or a pair of hands. Sambo was a fantasy, but whites mistook him for real living Black men because they needed

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1