A time to break silence

 

Jamyl Bey

Engw_1101

Prof. Young

Essay 2

4/9/15

A Time to Break Silence

The speech given by Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4 in 1967, entitled “Beyond Vietnam a Time to Break Silence” in New York City peacefully protests America’s involvement in the Vietnam War and the way that America was going about it.  One point that King makes in his speech is that it is time for Americans to protest their government’s wrongdoing in Vietnam and break the silence. Another American who urges fellow countrymen to break their silence about an American civil issue is the character John Brown from James McBride’s novel The Good Lord Bird. He speaks out on ending slavery, which, in his eyes, is a sin against the Lord. Both, King and Brown, are examples of men who decided to break their silence because of the fact that innocent lives were being taken without a justified cause while the American government stayed silent and allowed it to happen.

Martin Luther King protested against the loss of innocent lives when he delivered his speech on April 4, 1967. In it he said, “I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path” (Martin Luther king Jr.). Here, King shows it is time to break his silence about the war in Vietnam and his country’s wrongdoing. He wants America to find a new path than the one it is currently on since this one only brings destruction. His point is also that since he is an American, it is his duty to speak out when something urges him to even though some might question why he is doing it. King holds himself to a high moral code when he breaks his silence on Vietnam.

Brown is another man who holds himself to high morals and ethics due to his religion, which he shows when he openly rejects slavery even at the risk of having to kill those who support it and attack him.  Early on in the novel, he makes his stance against slavery in the tavern. “Free the slave from the tyranny of sin! And scatter the sinners as stubble so that the slave shall forever be free” (McBride 12). Brown means the white man when he refers to “the tyranny of sin” (12). In his view, the white man has sinned by enslaving others since all are free who liver under the Lord. He believes in abolishing slavery so that all slaves can live free forever and the white men can start his path to redemption and finding the Lord.

King believes that America’s path to redemption starts by addressing the American government and the American people when he says to them.  “Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war” (King Jr.).  King indirectly criticizes his government for ignoring the war and not showing concern for American soldiers who are losing their lives in Vietnam. He also speaks out when saying that America’s character is being questioned by the decision to continue on with the fighting in Vietnam. He is also saying that those in America who care about this country should be addressing the war and the fact that it needs to stop.

Unlike King, Brown takes more of a any means necessary approach to accomplish what he intends to do, which is freeing the slaves even if it means creating a makeshift government. “In the name of the Provisional Government of the United States, I, President John Brown emeritus elected, E pluribus unum, with all rights and privileges hereto, selected by a Congress of your brethren, I hearby pronounces you is all free. Go in peace, my brother Negroes!”(McBride 382).  Brown takes action since he believes if the government will not abolish slavery, then he will assume the role as President and do it for this failed government.  Whereas King calls on the government to correct itself, Brown attempts to correct it himself.   

In conclusion, when is it a good time to break silence it is good to break silence when something goes against your moral and ethical or religious code. Then you should speak against it like King and Brown did.  Of course there are different ways to go about you can chose the peaceful way like Martin Luther King Jr. Or you can chose the any means necessary way like John Brown did. No matter which way pick time to break silence in today’s society.  Break your silence against innocent people being killed.  Break the silence of the injustice of the American legal system.  Also the fact that even in today’s society racism is still relevant.  So as a country it is time for us to stand up together and break our silence.

Freedom

Freedom

            What is freedom?  Is it the ability to say what you want or be who you are?  People’s freedom is like their identity; it is defined by how they act, what they say and them being who they really are.  Is your freedom really free? It all depends on what you do and how you act.  If someone is always following what other people are doing and saying what other people want him or her to say, how is that free?  That person is basically society’s puppet.  In James McBride’s The Good Lord Bird, readers see difference in freedom through Sibonia and Pie.  Sibonia was a darker skinned slave who lives in something like a barn.  She sleeps on dirt and wears rags, has messy hair and has no power.  She tries to plan a rebellion and gets hanged for it.  Pie, on the other hand, is a light skinned person. She is a beautiful prostitute.  She is able to stay in the house, and she has her own room.  She wears the finest clothes and has her hair done.  And she has power.  On the outside, obviously Pie looks to be the freer person, but really  She is able to be and believe what she wants.  Sibonia is freer because Sibonia doesn’t have to hide how she feels about slavery or snitch on others just to maintain her status, like Pie did.

            Although Pie seems like she has everything, does she really?  She is so worried about maintaining her status, that she would do anything to keep her spot as the main prostitute.  She would snitch on friends and family; it didn’t matter.  As soon as she found out about Sibonia’s planned rebellion, the first thing she did was tell on Sibonia.  From the account of Onion he said “Someone from the pen must’ve told Pie that Sibonia was planning a breakout, and Pie told it to the judge for some kind of favor” (McBride 186).  Her telling on Sibonia ultimately led to the death of Sibonia and others.  How are free when you have to sell out your own people?  The answer to that is you aren’t. 

            Unlike Pie, Sibonia isn’t a snitch.  She is up front and honest.  When the judge came to her and asked her if she was planning a rebellion without hesitation she “I am the woman, and I am not ashamed or afraid to admit it” (McBride 175).  She knew that it would lead to her death but she took the punishment and said nothing about anyone else. “We all got to die," she said, "But dying as your true self is always better. God will take you however you come to Him. But it's easier on a soul to come to Him clean. You're forever free that way. From top to bottom.”  Unlike Pie, Sibonia is true to herself who makes her free, because Sibonia doesn’t have to hide that she doesn’t like what’s going on, she openly admits it.  She also doesn’t have a lie like Pie.    

            Also Pie also has to in a way, hide who she is and how she feels.  Like when it comes to the treatment of the other slaves, it bothers Pie that because they are treated poorly.  “They’ll pull the trigger and tell the hammer to hurry”.  The quote means the slaves will pull the trigger on the rebellion, so the court needs to hurry and arrest them and on sentencing them to death.  They’ll that Pie is referring to is the Sibonia and the rest of the slave planning the rebellion. But she doesn’t want to risk being thrown outside with them and losing what she has. She takes her feelings and bottles them up inside.  Like she does not like how the slaves are treated but instead saying something in fear of losing her status she keeps her mouth shut.  If you can’t express your feelings you are not free.             

In conclusion, McBride’s The Good Lord Bird tells an amazing story.  The book makes readers start to really question what freedom is.  What are the characteristics of freedom?  Is your freedom really free? You look at the characters in the book like Pie and Sibonia realize though each character is free in their own right, one is freer than the other.  Yes, Pie had freedoms; they are materialistic such as her clothes, her room, and status. Those materialistic freedoms are small for pie but they are freedoms.  Those freedoms come with the cost of her selling her body as a prostitute. That also led to pie being raped.  Sibonia has her freedoms in a way. Unlike Pie, Sibonia didn’t have to sell her body to get the mental and physical freedoms she had.  But the free thoughts and plans that Sibonia had led to her death, after being told on by Pie.  So, they both have their own different freedoms but everyone’s freedom comes with certain costs whether we realize it or not.  Overall even though Sibonia died she is still freer compared to Pie.      

Works Cited

McBride, James. The Good Lord Bird. New York: Riverhead Books, 2013. Print.

Essay 2 My Community

Jamyl Bey

4 November, 2014

Engw_1100

Prof. Young

Essay #2

My Community

            Although I live in Pine Hill I consider my community to be Camden.  Because I spend more time there then I do my own house. So therefore in my community there is problems that have existed for a while, the problems are violence, and drugs. Now that has always been a problem. But it has gotten worse over the last couple of years.  It’s so bad now that Camden is ranked one of the most violent cities in America.  I know firsthand the danger that could happen, my friends and I were shot at one walking down the street for no reason.  Furthermore the issue with drugs is and has always been a problem, and I think it will continue to be a problem in not just my community but in the world. So the problems of violence and drugs needs to be fixed and the people that can help decrease the problem is the police by being more present and cracking down. 

            Violence and crime in my community is a major problem.  That needs to change, to make the community a better place.  More efforts need to be taken to make things from the people in a community, and from the law enforcement.  Law enforcement needs to be more present, and show people that they are present.  Also they need to stop being so corrupt, stop taking bribes from the criminals and start doing their damn job.  There is not enough honest people left in the world.  We as a community to can help this problem by not being scared of the people with guns making it a bad place and stand up to them.  Maybe form a neighborhood watch to police the community ourselves if the cops don’t want to do it.  Also all unnecessary shootings need to stop.  I’m tired of seeing the news that a innocent child was murdered by a stray bullet.  Because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Too many parents are having to bury their kids because of the senseless violence.  My sophomore year in high school I lost one of my friends he was shot in the head at point blank range all because the person wanted his bike.  That truly affected the community as a whole. 

            Drugs where do I even began to talk about this problem.    Dugs they are everywhere and I know it is hard to really pin point the source of it. But the fact of the matter is it’s a problem in my community and something needs to be done about it.  Some people I graduated with who had bright futures threw it all away because they started using and got addicted to different types of drugs.  People start using drugs for various reasons some use it to fit in, others feel like they look cool.  Which it doesn’t make you cool it makes you look dumb.  Drugs not only affect you but they affect the people around them.  A way we can start to fix this problem is by cracking down on drug traffic.  Drugs need to stopped and our community needs to be saved.

            In conclusion my community all though it is not the best place in the world it is my community.  I stand by it and support it.  We can’t change the world unless we change ourselves.  So the community can’t change until the people in it change, and stop doing the same old thing.               

Essay 1 What is Identity?

Jamyl Bey

4 November, 2014

Engw_1100

Prof. Young

Identity

What is Identity?

             What is identity?  Is it what people make of themselves or what the world makes them into?  Before one can truly know what identity is they must have one. Some people find their identity as a child, while some others spend their entire lives trying to figure out the person they see in the mirror.  One thing is for sure.  No one is given an identity. It is one journey every person must take for themselves.  Even when one is given a situation to which they are bound by others, those people cannot form an identity for that person.  An identity is something one forms themselves, how one defines oneself.  This does not mean that the world, its experiences and trials do not influence an identity or how one views oneself.  It is merely the combination of natural-born traits, the struggle and the circumstances that the universe offers to us.

In the text, How to Tame a Wild Tongue, Anzaldua explains her troubles with learning English in the United States.  She explains that as a child, she was often disciplined for talking back to her teachers, who were trying to take away her identity and enslave her to a culture that would not allow her to be herself.  “I remember being sent to the corner of the classroom for “talking back” To the Anglo teacher when all I was trying to do was tell her how to pronounce my name.  “If you want to be ‘American’, speak ‘American’. If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong.”... Their purpose: to get rid of our accents.”  (Anzaldua 2947) Anzaldua was forced to speak a language that was given to her, but she knew that being ‘American’ was not meant to be her identity.  Although she was placed in a system that was designed to steal away her true self, she would not allow herself to be robbed of her personality or character.  What is built solidly into a person can never be taken away.

Anzaldua also describes the struggle of being pulled by the different kinds of Spanish speaking people.  From Chicano Spanish to Pachuco, she realizes that her identity may not sit well with everyone.  Also, making the people speaking the Chicano language feel insecure about who they are and what they speak.  “Chicanas grew up speaking Chicano Spanish have internalized the belief that we speak poor Spanish.  It is illegitimate, a bastard language...We are afraid of what we’ll see there.  Pena. Shame. Low estimation of self.  In childhood we were told that our language is wrong.  Repeated attacks on our native tongue diminish our sense of self.” (Anzaldua 2950-2951) The world has a way of twisting one’s thoughts, wearing away at one’s pride, stripping people of their uniqueness, and altogether causing people to conform to monotony.  Some people with authority do this intentionally to make people feel ashamed enough of who they are that they desperately try to become something that no one is, normal.  Anzaldua explains the pain of being told that speaking her language was a disgrace and as people continued degrading her native tongue, they were taking a little piece of herself with them.

Identity is not only who one is. It is also what one is, how one is, why one is, what one becomes, what one speaks and how one speaks it.  People can take away the right of having any of those things, but they can never take away one’s identity.  The only way a person identity can be destroyed is if it is unclaimed and devalued by its creator.  Anzaldua declares that her ethnic identity is her twin skin to her linguistic identity and that the realest way to hurt her is to talk badly about her language.  She is her language as she is her soul or her mind.  She states “until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself”. Until one can claim and embrace the essence of one’s true self, one can never have peace within themselves.  The importance of an identity equates to the importance of having a good self-esteem. Identity cannot exist without the self-esteem.  One must accept who they are, what they are made of, and what they deserve to live a satisfying life.  Anzaldua understands that her identity will never change, not for anyone.  Many people must learn this and take the steps to accepting and defending who they really are.