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Name- Sakina S Mahableshwarwala

Roll No- SBA254

Class- SYBA

Title of the Course- SYBA American Literature (Paper 3)

Name of the Course Instructor- Professor Kavita Peter

Semester- 3

Date of Submission- 16th September, 2023

Contact No- 8879490111

Email ID- sakmahableshwar@gmail.com

The Impact of Racism on America’s Culture and Literary Ethos

African Americans are one of the largest of the many ethnic groups in the United States. African

Americans are mainly of African ancestry, but many have non-Black ancestors as well. African

Americans are largely the descendants of enslaved people who were brought from their African

homelands by force to work in the New World. Their rights were severely limited, and they were

long denied a rightful share in the economic, social, and political progress of the United States.

Africans assisted the Spanish and the Portuguese during their early exploration of the Americas.

In the 16th century some Black explorers settled in the Mississippi valley and in the areas that

became South Carolina and New Mexico. The history of Blacks in the United States began in
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1619, when 20 Africans were landed in the English colony of Virginia. These individuals were

not enslaved people but indentured servants that is- persons bound to an employer for a limited

number of years. By the 1660s large numbers of Africans were being brought to the English

colonies. In 1790 Blacks numbered to almost 760,000 and had made up nearly one-fifth of the

population of the United States.

Attempts to hold Black servants beyond the normal term of indenture peaked in the legal

establishment of Black Chattel Slavery in Virginia in 1661 and in all the English colonies by

1750. Black people were easily distinguished by their skin color from the rest of the population,

making them highly visible targets for enslavement and torture. Moreover, the development of

the belief that they were an “inferior” race with a “heathen” culture made it easier for Whites to

rationalize Black slavery. Enslaved Blacks were put to work clearing and cultivating the

farmlands of the New World.

With the increasing profitability of slavery and the trade of enslaved peoples, some Africans

themselves sold captives to the European traders. The captured Africans were generally chains

and crowded into the holds of slave ships for the dreaded Middle Passage across the Atlantic

Ocean, usually to the West Indies. Shock, disease, and suicide were responsible for the deaths of

at least one-sixth during the crossing. In the West Indies the survivors were taught the rudiments

of the English and drilled in the routines and discipline of plantation life.

Their long and heavy history is filled with stories of oppression, slavery and suffering and the

need for us to talk about it today is essential. As human beings we have emotions and feelings

and that also means we have the need to express those freely and for those reasons I picked this
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topic so that I can research this topic and share what I have learnt and understood while studying

through this topic.

The literary work I have picked for this assignment is a poem called ‘I Know Why the Caged

Bird Sings’, written by an American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist Maya Angelou.

She published seven autobiographies which focus on her childhood and adulthood, three books

of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television

shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary

degrees. Maya became a poet and writer after a string of odd jobs during her young adulthood.

These included fry cook, sex worker, nightclub performer, a cast member for a play, Southern

Christian Leadership Conference coordinator, and correspondent in Egypt and Ghana during

the decolonization of Africa. She has worked with Martin Luther King Jr. Maya Angelou was

also an actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs.

Maya Angelou, with the metaphor of birds in this poem represents the inequality of justice seen

in the society of her time which differentiates between the African-American community and its

White American counterpart. She narrates how the future of the bird that is caged looks weak in

comparison to that which is free but, it still sings in the hopes of a brighter one where it will get

its freedom. The poem was first published in the collection ‘Shaker, who don’t you sing?’ in

1983. It is a long poem dealing with the inherent need for freedom in human beings.

This poem of six stanzas represents the hopes and dreams of all caged birds that are the African

Americans and how they want to free themselves from the shackles of racism and live freely, in
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contrast to that of the free bird that are the White Americans. Terms like clipped wings and he

opens his throat to sing portray the need of expressing their thoughts that are seldom oppressed

and violently quieted down. The words ‘his wings are clipped’ mean that its freedom is forcibly

taken away. He cannot fly even if he desires to because its feet are tied. The caged bird sings and

sings of freedom even behind from prison bars.

The free bird on the other hand feels the wind in its feathers while he flies in the open sky. The

free bird ‘names the sky his own’ and by that the poet’s wishes to express that the bird knows

himself to be the proprietor of this whole universe. While the caged bird is trapped in a

nightmare where his movement is restricted and has to live with clipped wings. The caged bird

chooses to sing as this is the only freedom available to him, that he can enjoy without any

restriction. Maya Angelou perfectly narrates the plight of her race by drawing the picture of the

caged bird in the readers mind.

Angelou's goal, beginning with her first autobiographical work, was to "tell the truth about the

lives of black women" but her goal evolved, in her later volumes, to document the ups and

downs of her own life. Angelou's autobiographies have the same structure: they give a historical

overview of the places she was living in at the time, how she coped within the context of a larger

white society, and the ways that her story played out within that context.

From the Civil Rights Moment to the American Civil War to the assassination of Martin Luther

King Jr. to the Black Lives Matter movement we have come a long way but the justice that needs

to be served is still missing. Movies, Television Shows, Music to Print Media all cover the
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importance of the heritage of the African Americans yet it makes the world a tough place for

them to live in. It is up to our generation to help this world be a better place to live in.

I would like to thank my Professor Kavita Ma’am for giving me this opportunity to research on

this topic and broaden my knowledge and view point for the same. By doing so I have gained

enough knowledge to know how to contribute in helping this world becoming a safe place for

everyone without any color or race distinction.

Citations-

Caged Bird by Maya Angelou | Poetry Foundation

Maya Angelou - Wikipedia

African Americans | History, Facts, & Culture | Britannica