The topic that spoke out to me out of all of the material that we covered would have to be the idea of the African Americans image or how most people are perceived a certain way and are put into a certain category. In "The Danger of a Single Story" Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explains to us how she was depicted to act or be a certain way just because of where she came from. I found it amazing that people would be so narrow minded or oblivious to believe that a group of people had to act a certain way based off of history or the actions of others. Then I remembered that growing up I experienced something similar but on a lesser scale. I was always seen as ghetto and/or poor because of the color of my skin. Usually I wasn't even able to open my mouth before I was judged not only by individuals that weren't of color but by other African Americans as well. After hearing the way that I talked I was usually swamped by questions such as "Why do you talk so white?" or "You think that you better than us or sum?" As a child I didn't really realize what I had did wrong or why it was looked down upon but as I aged I began to understand. My peers had believed that I was suppose to behave a certain way because that was how the majority of people that raised us where and they believed that that's the way we where suppose to be. As I look back, I am glad that I grew out of the thought process that I could have been indulged in. Yes, I am black but that doesn't come with restraints.
http://urbanintellectuals.com/2014/09/15/educated-black-women-vs-oppressive-eurocentric-relationship-standards/
Another topic that also grasped my attention was that individuals of a lighter skin tone are what society accepts as beautiful. Society and our ancestors have brain washed people today to believe that the lighter the better. People with darker skin tones have been pushed to the background and are only acknowledge when their beauty is undeniable or they are needed in certain positions in movies and commercials. For someone with a darker skin tone to be perceived as beautiful they have to be flawless or almost immaculate. The reasoning behind this is because "light" is the closest thing to being Caucasian as possible. In history African Americans where separated by the color of their skin so that they could be controlled. Now, even today individuals of color separate themselves as light skin, brown skin, and dark skin when we should all be seen as one uniformed race.
The only way that individuals of color can be broken from this mindset is to actually believe that they are deserving and just as important as any race. African Americans shouldn't just accept what they are given or conform to fit into society. Black people where once seen as 3/5's of a person under the same laws that they still live under today.
