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Oratory Speeches-Chapters 18-Prologue

IM repeats Clifton’s Name. This speech is a major shift for IM as he independently decides to honor Clifton instead of following the brotherhood’s rules. This speech is significant because of its parallels to Marc Anthony’s speech after Julius Ceasar has been stabbed. Marc Anthony focuses on Ceasar’s heroic efforts and achievements to aid the commoners during his lifetime versus at the time of death. Likewise, IM ensures that Clifton is known for his accomplishments with Harlem’s youth and not for selling the sambo dolls (symbolizes the selling of his own people literally and metaphorically when he was a part of the brotherhood).

http://www.troup.org/userfiles/929/My%20Files/ELA/HS%20ELA/10th%20ELA/10th%20Unit%204/Antony%20funeral%20speech.pdf?id=26363

Similar to IM’s speech on saying Clifton’s name, there are movements present to raise awareness of the African Americans who have been killed by police brutality. The three prominent movements created by the AAPF (African American Policy Forum) to raise awareness and create protective policies for African Americans, such as #SayTheirNames, #SayHerName, and #SayHisName. These movements create awareness by allowing their stories to live on. The hashtag #SayHerName has been present since 2015 because police brutality disproportionately affects African females. Often, African American women are shot by the police even when they are not the main targets. The most recent story many of us are familiar with is the one of Brennona Taylor. On April 12th, 2015, India Kager and her 4-month-old baby were wrongfully killed by Virginia Beach police. The police were searching for Angelo Perry who was in the car with India. Perry was a suspect for many crimes and when the police SWAT found them he shot one bullet which pierced one officer’s jacket (the officer was not injured). The officers returned with a fire of 30 shots killing all three people in the car. Saying these victims’ names are important but a consistent theme in Invisible Man is the rejection of names. Ellison utilizes this ironic diction to warn the audience that one should go deeper than one’s name. The story and life behind a name are the most important.

https://www.joincake.com/blog/say-their-names/

https://www.aapf.org/sayhername

https://www.pilotonline.com/news/crime/article_3e3719fa-aa2d-11e8-8ba0-27cf6a43763b.html

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By Invisible Man’s second speech, he has accepted his southern black identity and has undergone a rebirth after enduring the factory hospital. The invisible man no longer believes in appeasing white people and doing what is expected of him. In chapter 13 when the Invisible Man sees an old couple being evicted from their apartment by white officials, Invisible Man is empowered to speak and help the couple instead of remaining silent.

The eviction conflict that the African American coupled faced is a highly prevelant and pressing issue today. The eviction crisis in United States mainly affects African Americans in the south - majority occurring in states with a 30% African American population. In June 2020, a rise in evictions was predicted as federal moratoriums and unemployment benefits were to end in July. Residents became concerned about becoming homeless due to their inability to afford rent.

The eviction issue is especially prevalent in Virginia, where African Americans are twice as likely to be evicted from their homes. For instance, as stated in the Washington Post article, “ For every 10 percent increase in African American share of the population, the eviction rate increases by 1.2 percent. But if the white population increases at the same rate, the eviction rate shrinks by 0.9 percent.” Househunting is dispprotorionately more difficult for African Americans due to redlining policies (the denial of certain services to residents in a certain area on the basis of race or ethnicity), zoning laws(prevents the innermixing of lower-, middle-, and upper-class neighborhoods and the right of property owners to sell to whomever they wished to) and discriminatory lending practices (makes buying a house much more difficult for African Americans)

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/12/mass-evictions-314699

https://medium.com/@ABetterCAF/why-we-keep-saying-us-zoning-laws-are-the-legacy-of-racism-eee64e58e337

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2019/01/18/black-southerners-are-bearing-the-brunt-of-americas-eviction-epidemic

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/eviction-isnt-just-about-poverty-its-also-about-race--and-virginia-proves-it/2018/11/10/475be8ae-d7bd-11e8-aeb7-ddcad4a0a54e_story.html

Oratory / Speeches in Invisible Man Chapter 8 - 17

In The Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison inserts subtle racist remarks as throwaway lines to show how racism is in the roots of American culture. In chapter 11, when the narrator was unconscious and the nurses used defibrillators to shock him up, the white nurses joked,  ‘"They really do have rhythm, don’t they? Get hot, boy! Get hot!“ it said with a laugh.’ This is a reference to the black stereotype of how they like to dance. Also, although it has already been used multiple times, white people casually call fully grown black men “boy”. Their remarks show that these nurses don’t really think of the narrator’s life as a human. Unlike the previous examples where there were long speeches that were meant to discuss racism, this is a simple exclamation by a normal white person. While those speeches were the cause, this phrase is the effect, exploring the deeply embedded yet loosely addressed racism.

    The racial stereotype of black people dancing is shown in movies and shows. Because they were meant to be entertainment, white people believed that it was fine, which is why they said “with a laugh” in the text. That remark was meant to be funny. The entertainment works of the time shows what people thought were okay. The cartoonish portrayal of black people naturally shaped white people to view them as subhuman, incapable of thinking clearly. This was why the term “boy” was used to address them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_swtbIi2F0&ab_channel=ikachina

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Speeches/Oratory Blog for Invisible Man Prologue -7

Through each speech the Invisible Man delivers, he seeks to understand his identity and situation. As he delivers his graduation speech, quoting Brooker T Washington and urging his black peers to accept social responsibility without social equality, the Invisible Man does not believe his speech. He feels he must say the words in his speech to appease the white crowd. While he repeats his speech to the white crowd after Battle Royal, the Invisible Man slips up and says “social equality” instead of “responsibility.” During the time the Invisible Man was in high school, segregation was present. America followed under the law Separate but Equal, where blacks had political and civil rights but no social equality. This meant they had the right to vote and jury, but could not attend the same schools or use the same facilities. (https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/plessy-v-ferguson)

Although today desegregation was implemented and southern states were required to integrate their schools, many schools in the south look the exact same today as they did centuries ago. Initially, when southern schools were required by the federal government to integrate, they were very successful. All the students’ standardized test scores were higher, grades were higher, and more African Americans were able to attend colleges. In contrast, today’s test scores and graduation rates have decreased. This drastic change occurred from states requesting that the federal government stop overseeing the integration of schools and the states instead could  manage the integration. States such as Alabama began rezoning their communities for political reasons, reallocation resources and funding, and fear of white flight. Many black and Latino majority schools are also high poverty schools with low funding and 77 percent graduation rates. Unlike low-poverty schools where the graduation rates are 95.2 percent, high poverty schools have less access to opportunities and a lower chance of attending college.

https://www.propublica.org/article/segregation-now-full-text

https://www.newsweek.com/2018/03/30/school-segregation-america-today-bad-1960-855256.html