essay hooks about prejudice

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Writing about Bias, Prejudice, and Stereotypes

Academic writing

Essay paper writing

Essay writing on prejudice and discrimination: Before you start

You might have heard that before you start writing a paper, it is best to spend some time trying to concentrate. Well, it is true. Moreover, there is a bunch of things that you have to do before you start working on your essay. With the help of this article, you will not only get a high grade for your essay but also develop some useful skills. So, what are the most important things that you want to know before writing any kind of text? Let’s consider some important points.

As you may know, first of all, you have to create a calm and cozy atmosphere for yourself to work in. Doing so, you will be able to fully concentrate on your essay on prejudice. Just pick the way which works the best for you, and then the writing process will be comfortable.

Anything else to do before starting the essay about stereotypes?

Actually, there is another thing that you have to do before you start writing, and that is the research.

Looking for the information for essays on stereotyping is actually harder than it seems if you do it for the first time. What you need to understand is that the quality of information you use in your paper is very important for your mark. So, where to look for factual data? You may go to the local library or search for some credible scientific journals on the Internet. Anyway, if you want to have the best essay among all of the essays on prejudice, you should go online and check whether the information is real and credible or not.

Starting the prejudice and discrimination essay

You might have heard a statement that the first paragraph is the easiest among all parts. Well, that is definitely not true. This part is designed to attract the attention of your readers, so you have to do your best to make this part really engaging. Moreover, the topic of discrimination and prejudice has been one of the most popular ones, and that is the reason why many novice writers struggle to create a really authentic and interesting paper. For example, if you search for a few sample essays about stereotypes in society, you will likely notice that they look very similar. However, with some advice, you will be able to write a really high-quality and unique text!

As you know, you need to choose among various stereotype topics for essays. Just pick the one that is the most interesting for you. For example, you may choose to write a cultural stereotypes essay or a paper on gender discrimination depending on the issue that speaks to you more. After that, you have to compile the plan of your writing. It’s quite an easy task because you just need to list the things that you want to write about.

How to write a stereotyping essay introduction?

Here are some good tips on writing a stereotype essay thesis and intro:

• Be consistent. Make sure that everything that you mention in the introduction will be discussed in the main paragraph.
• Almost in any stereotype essay example, you may find some kind of statistics or curious fact that makes you interested in reading the following text. That thing is called a ‘hook,’ and it is used in all types of text, not just essays. It is one of the most important parts of the introduction, so you have to pay attention what facts or figures to choose.
• Remember that your intro should not be too extended. Also, try to avoid long and vague sentences.   

What is a hook, and how to use it properly in essays about prejudice?

There are many types of hooks, and their usage depends on the type of text you are writing. Still, statistics and interesting facts are the greatest hooks that you can include in your stereotype paper. To find the best hook, you might just need to use one of the facts that you have found while you were looking for information. Once again, do not forget to check whether they are real or not. Since there are many pieces of research, interviews, scientific articles, and essays about stereotypes, you can always look for them online and then check whether they include factual information. So actually, there is just one rule that you have to know about the usage of hooks in the introduction – there should be only one hook in a text. To make life easier for you, here are some examples of good hooks that you might use in your essay or research paper on stereotypes:

• Colombia is not the biggest exporter and user of drugs. Moreover, Americans produce and use more drugs than Colombians.
• Irish people do not drink more than most of the Europeans. For example, an average Luxembourger drinks more alcohol than an average Irish.
• Spanish hate bullfights. The bullfights have been prohibited in many regions of Spain, so it is clear that Spanish people were not too fond of spending their time looking at the fights.

Of course, you do not have to use these examples, but if you want to, you are welcome to do so. Also, it would be great to provide some graphical examples of information.

After you have written the stereotype thesis and the intro, do not think that your work is over. There is one more thing that you have to do before moving on, and that is grammar and spell-check. There is a variety of services where you can check your text for mistakes, so just choose the one that you like the most.

Before moving on to the main part of your research papers on stereotypes, consider one more thing that will help you a lot in case you have a big assignment. Let’s imagine that you have found a lot of information, and you started writing the text but realized that the word count is still less than it was required. In this case, transition words may come in handy. It is vital to use them not only because it will make your text longer but also because it will provide you with the opportunity to write a cohesive text that is interesting to read.

Writing the body of the essay

Many people think that all you need to do in the main part is just write down all of the information that you have. Well, that is true to some point. However, you will have to think about a special way of presenting all of the info that you have. There are many ways to do it. For example, you may compare and contrast two opposite viewpoints.

The next way is to briefly describe the ideas and concepts without going too much into the details. For example, in an essay on the difference between racism and prejudice discrimination, you can just describe both sides, and in conclusion, you will need to state your own opinion briefly.

How to write a media bias essay?

If you read and watch the news at least a little, you might have noticed that some media can be quite biased concerning different issues. Currently, essays on stereotypes in media are extremely topical, so make sure you know how to approach this theme properly. Be ready that some people are not going to agree with your ideas and beliefs. So make sure that you provided really strong arguments that the certain media source is biased. In this case, you may even use some screenshots, links, and videos as evidence. As you can see, an essay on media bias might become one of the toughest tasks that you have ever got. Therefore, make sure that you are prepared to take this fight and be able to give out a lot of information about this topic to your reader. There are many ways to let the reader know what you think of the topic without being too involved and biased. But the most important tip to remember is that you shouldn’t try to convince somebody that your opinion is the only right one. Instead, try to put it like it is one of the options which the reader might or might not accept.

Tips for writing a media bias research paper

Writing a research paper is not an easy task because this kind of assignment is totally different from the essays. Sometimes students think that writing the research is easy because all they have to do is just go online, look for some information, and simply put out all of the info in the paper. That would work out for a essays on media bias. However, in the case of research papers, you have to be especially careful with the information you use. Here are some good tips on how to write a high-quality research paper:

• First thing first, not all data would be appropriate for the text. Every quote that you pick will have to be rigorously checked. Moreover, you will need to think twice whether it fits the context. You are writing an essay about bias, so do your best not to be biased yourself.
• Also, make sure that you are staying impartial because you definitely do not want to get a bad grade on your text, especially if you have an awesome thesis statement about stereotypes.
• When you are writing about media being biased, be ready to provide some proof. For example, you may show how certain networks manipulate their viewers by using hate speech.
• Finally, make sure that you know all the requirements for the research that you have. You should not miss a thing because that will put your grade down by a lot. A nice tip for writing this type of text would be to create a checklist not to miss anything.
• Another tip to remember is that you have to be brief and concise with the information you want to provide to your reader.

Writing a racial stereotype essay: useful tips

The topic of race discrimination has always been a burning issue to discuss in the media. Therefore, there is a lot of information that people should know before making any conclusions about this problem. By the way, an essay on interracial prejudice is considered one of the most difficult papers to write. So, start working on it right after you are given this assignment.

So what to write in your racial stereotype essay? For example, you can write an African American stereotypes essay and focus on stereotypes about drugs. The stereotype is that almost half of African Americans in the world, or at least in the USA, are consuming drugs. However, this is not the case. If you look at the statistics, you will be surprised to find out that less than 15% of drug addicts are African American. However, there is a statistical fact that almost 40% of those arrested for the drugs in the USA are African Americans, so to some extent, the old stereotype is true, except black people usually do not do drugs, but are related to selling them. This example will be great to use in any kind of an essay on prejudice and discrimination, as it shows how the stereotypes might become false in just a second if you look them up on the Web. But, at the same time, it sometimes amazes people that some stereotypes appear to be truthful. Any example like the one above will make the reader really interested in your essay on racial prejudice, and that is your chance to present them all the info that you have been gathering for so long.

How to write a gender stereotype essay?

As we all know, nowadays, the problem of gender inequality is among the most burning social issues. It might seem like it has emerged in the last decade. However, the history of this problem started at the beginning of the 20 th century, when women realized that they have fewer chances to live a happy and full life than an average man, just because they were women. That was a push for them to start fighting for their rights; men did not approve this fight and even stood against it. However, right now, we realize that there was nothing to oppose at that time, and women were fighting to have the same rights as men. There are many points to consider in your women stereotypes essay: you may tell your readers about the history of feminism or describe modern movements. Moreover, you can also write how modern men suffer from stereotypes attributed to them as well as mention the concept of toxic masculinity.

But let’s look at the possible topics for your essay on gender prejudice in more detail. Let us start with the first option that a lot of students opt for – problems women have to face today. For example, in some countries, women are still prohibited from working on some jobs that are considered dangerous. Another huge problem is child marriage, which affects more girls than boys. Most likely, the reader will be interested in topics like this, but you will need to be really precise with the info that you pick as examples. You probably do not want to lose half of your readers by just listing one-sided examples, do you?

But if you are interested in digging down and getting more factual information to create a decent women stereotypes essay, there are plenty of things to discuss. Unfortunately, society has determined specific gender roles both for males and females, and in the past, those who didn’t follow them were thought to be rebellious people and outcasts. Even though the situation has improved, women are still expected to dress, speak, and live according to common stereotypes.

Indeed, gender stereotypes affect people drastically. Women are often told to be emotional and nice to everybody, spend their lives in the kitchen cooking meals for their children and husband, choose only ‘female’ occupations like a teacher or nurse, be thin, graceful, always smiling, and wear makeup. Moreover, women are always expected to be feminine and naïve, soft and flirtatious, even if it’s uncomfortable for them. Stereotypes are sometimes so absurd that there are specific colors assigned to both genders: pink for girls and blue for boys. All of these facts should be included in all sorts of essays about female stereotypes — it’s time to forget about these ridiculous lies about women!  

Let’s move on to the next option to consider in any of your essays about stereotypes in society. This option may seem quite challenging because you have to touch upon one spread belief and prove that many people are wrong.  

If you write a research paper on discrimination in the workplace, you can find various pieces of evidence on the Web. There are various types of workplace discrimination such as age, sex, race, religion, national origin discrimination etc. Include this fact in your essay on prejudice and social processing. Moreover, you may learn more about what types of conduct might qualify as discrimination and how you can develop a strategy to help reduce your risk.

Some interesting facts to include in an essay on stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination

Of course, if you have to write an essay about cognitive bias, you have to conduct more profound research and look for more interesting arguments and facts to reinforce your position. But for a simple essay on stereotypes, we will make life easier for you and provide you with a couple of statistical facts and interesting things for your paper. Use them wisely, and pick only the best fitting ones!

• All Russians love vodka. Does it have any merit? Actually, yes. It is said that most Russian households do keep vodka, and it is likely to be the liquor of choice at events.
• French waiters are rude. Parisians do not have the best reputation, and waiters are often to blame. Even ex-French foreign minister Laurent Fabius admitted that the country was often perceived as unfriendly. Is there any truth to it? Yes and no. The French can be less chatty and cheery than some other nations, but they are not ‘rude’ per se.
• Britain has terrible food. The rumor that British food is not any good is a strong one. Maybe it was true in the past, but it certainly is not anymore! In addition to some of the world’s most popular chefs being from Britain (Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, etc.), the country offers a lot of food variety.

There are plenty of other facts that you can find online. Just use the tips on how to look for the info! And finally, let’s move to the last part of your essay – conclusion. Trust me, after you read this part, there will be no questions on how to write an essay on discrimination and prejudice!

Writing a stereotypes essay conclusion

So you are almost done with your paper. How to finish it properly? Well, the conclusion is not going to be a very easy part of your essay about stereotypes and discrimination — it has to be a summary with an interesting twist and not only a brief list of everything you wrote.

First of all, in your stereotypes essay conclusion, restate the main idea presented in the paper in different words. You don’t need to have any arguments or explanations in your conclusion because they should have been mentioned in your main part. The restated stereotype essay thesis statement should be only one sentence long. Then summarize the main points of your essay. It’s also fine to remind your readers about the key points, but make sure you won’t go too far. Don’t provide any support for each of your points, only an overview of main ideas. Also, remember not to present any new ideas in conclusion because it’s going to confuse your readers.

By the way, you are free to make a call to action to address any social issue you were discussing in your essay about stereotypes and prejudice.

Finally, one more thing that you could do is to discuss the future perspective of a topic or an issue that you are writing about. It’s not a necessary step to do, and you can skip it if you’d like. But if you are writing something like a problem solution essay about gender stereotyping, your final thoughts and ideas could be really useful. Just keep them short and don’t add any extra information!

As a writer, you are able to change the world with the help of your words, writing on such burning topics as psychology of stereotyping. But remember that you have to master your skills and train daily. If you choose to write about any social issue, you have to do a lot of research, and it’s not going to be an easy path.

There are lots of different essay topics about gender stereotypes, discrimination, and bias that you can choose from. Different groups of people are stereotyped on the basis of various characteristics such as age, gender, race, etc. We suggest that you focus on one of the characteristics when writing an essay about stereotypes and discrimination. Otherwise, you will very likely go over the word limit set by your professor without covering any of the issues you have chosen thoroughly.

Just remember to stay impartial and give as many different opinions and perspectives as possible. Even if you are writing an opinion essay on prejudice, you may still compare your opinion to that of others or the factual information that you find. However, don’t rely on facts only — provide some recommendations and ideas on what can be done to make the world a better place. Do your best to write your stereotypes paper, and your work will be paid off! 

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Killing Rage: Ending Racism Metaphors and Similes

By bell hooks.

These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.

Written by H D

Metaphor for Racism

In her essays, bell hooks creates a metaphor for racism and being complicit in racism by arguing that people who are silent and passive when they see or face the effects of discrimination in their society, whether it be white people or minorities, are helping the continuance of racism. This metaphor can clearly be seen in her quote where she says "All our silences in the face of racist assault are acts of complicity.” We can also see her metaphor in use when she is sitting in the airport next to the white man reading the newspaper. Although he himself has not committed any act of racism towards bell hooks or other minorities, as far as she can tell, bell hooks argues that he is still racist and helps the advent of racism by doing nothing when he sees it occurring all around him.

Metaphor for Subordination

In addition to fighting against prevailing notions of people who advocate for discrimination in society, bell hooks also fights against people who simply state that people should ignore race entirely. She creates a metaphor between giving up race and the cultural attitudes that go with race and between subordination to a society that will oppress people who do not fit the idealized notion already in place. One of her quotes perfectly sums it up, and she says, "The notion that we should all forsake attachment to race and/or cultural identity and be 'just humans' within the framework of white supremacy has usually meant that subordinate groups must surrender their identities, beliefs, values, and assimilate by adopting the values and beliefs of privileged-class whites, rather than promoting racial harmony." If people give up their race and other characteristics that make them unique individuals, then they have fallen under the trap of subordination and have won no equality for themselves.

Metaphor for Defiance

bell hooks is especially adamant about changing the status quo of society, one very important reason being that she as a black woman does not have the same rights and respect in society. Another part of society she is trying to change is the idea that our conversations about class and our financial standings should be private. She wants black people to overcome the fear about opening up about their class and financial standings, especially because it is usually white supremacists who insisted that these topics remain private. bell hooks connected the dots between opening up about class divisions and defiance. We can see her state this metaphor in the book; "None of us should be ashamed to speak of our class power or lack of it. Overcoming fear, even the fear of being immodest, and acting courageously to bring issues of class- especially radical standpoints – into the discourse of blackness is a gesture of militant defiance." By connecting this idea of defiance with speaking up about class divisions, bell hooks is able to create a powerful metaphor that persuades other black members of society fighting for civil rights to speak up.

Metaphor for Hidden Class Cruelty

Another interesting metaphor bell hooks presents in her text is the metaphor for hidden class cruelty. She states that the growing voice of well-to-do black people is a metaphor for the hidden class cruelty that is taking place. As these black people become more and more well-of, they start to forget about the plight of their race and the discrimination that their race faces, instead supporting their white counterparts and putting down black youth who are from more underprivileged backgrounds. The voices of these well-off blacks are really just a false image that hides what is truly taking place. We can explicitly see this metaphor in a quote from one of bell hooks' essays: "Concurrently, the growing class power and public voice of conservative and liberal well-to-do black folks easily obscures the class cruelty these individuals enact both in the way they talk about underprivileged blacks and the way they represent them. The existence of that class cruelty and its fascist dimensions have been somewhat highlighted by the efforts of privileged-class blacks to censor the voices of black youth."

Metaphor for Identity Change

A final metaphor that can be found in the anthology written by bell hooks is the metaphor presented to the reader between fluidity and adaptation to new circumstances and between identity change. bell hooks presents the idea that minorities are often very fluid in terms of their character as they are forced to change to their environment and circumstances they live in, which more often than not was less stabilized than white people. She talks about how this fluidity is like identity change for the people. She presents this metaphor in one of her essays, which is showcased by this quote where she says, "Fluidity means that our black identities are constantly changing as we respond to circumstances in our families and communities of origin, and as we interact with a wider world." Fluidity is really a metaphor for the fact that the lives of people in the black community changed so much that it was like they became new people. Not only was this metaphor used in a negative light, it was highlighted in a positive stance to show that minorities can change their identities from those of oppressed individuals to those of free and equal individuals.

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Killing Rage: Ending Racism Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Killing Rage: Ending Racism is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Study Guide for Killing Rage: Ending Racism

Killing Rage: Ending Racism study guide contains a biography of bell hooks, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Killing Rage: Ending Racism
• Killing Rage: Ending Racism Summary
• Character List

Essays for Killing Rage: Ending Racism

Killing Rage: Ending Racism essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Killing Rage: Ending Racism by bell hooks.

• Ending Prejudice through Literacy and Communication: The Social Project of Bell Hooks

Black Lives Matter Library Guide: On Being Anti-Racist

• On Being Anti-Racist
• Black Lives Matter
• Race & Racism
• Historical Context
• White Privilege & Racism
• Prison Industrial Complex
• Memoir/Biography/Prose
• Intersectional Approaches
• Trayvon Martin, et al
• Works of Fiction
• Films//Documentaries
• Films/Features
• Podcasts/Videos
• #SayHerName Campaign
• #BlackLivesMatter Official Web Site

Useful Subject Headings

• Anti-racism.
• Anti-racism > United States.
• United States > Race relations.
• Intercultural communication.

Websites & Reading List

“In a racist society, it is not enough to not be non-racist, we must be anti-racist” -- Angela Davis .

• 21-day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge
• Racial Equity Challenge Resources

• White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
• A Resource Guide For Anti-Racism + Being An Educated Ally For BIPOC
• 10 Habits of Someone Who Doesn't Know They're Anti-Black
• This Is Your Nation on White Privilege
• Talking About Race
• Racial Equity Tools
• << Previous: Home Page
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• Last Updated: Feb 20, 2024 12:19 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.cornell.edu/blacklivesmatter

14 influential essays from Black writers on America's problems with race

• Business leaders are calling for people to reflect on civil rights this Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
• Black literary experts shared their top nonfiction essay and article picks on race. 
• The list includes "A Report from Occupied Territory" by James Baldwin.

For many, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a time of reflection on the life of one of the nation's most prominent civil rights leaders. It's also an important time for people who support racial justice to educate themselves on the experiences of Black people in America. 

Business leaders like TIAA CEO Thasunda Duckett Brown and others are encouraging people to reflect on King's life's work, and one way to do that is to read his essays and the work of others dedicated to the same mission he had: racial equity. 

Insider asked Black literary and historical experts to share their favorite works of journalism on race by Black authors. Here are the top pieces they recommended everyone read to better understand the quest for Black liberation in America:

An earlier version of this article was published on June 14, 2020.

"Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases" and "The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States" by Ida B. Wells

In 1892, investigative journalist, activist, and NAACP founding member Ida B. Wells began to publish her research on lynching in a pamphlet titled "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases." Three years later, she followed up with more research and detail in "The Red Record." 

Shirley Moody-Turner, associate Professor of English and African American Studies at Penn State University recommended everyone read these two texts, saying they hold "many parallels to our own moment."  

"In these two pamphlets, Wells exposes the pervasive use of lynching and white mob violence against African American men and women. She discredits the myths used by white mobs to justify the killing of African Americans and exposes Northern and international audiences to the growing racial violence and terror perpetrated against Black people in the South in the years following the Civil War," Moody-Turner told Business Insider. 

Read  "Southern Horrors" here and "The Red Record" here >>

"On Juneteenth" by Annette Gordon-Reed

In this collection of essays, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annette Gordon-Reed combines memoir and history to help readers understand the complexities out of which Juneteenth was born. She also argues how racial and ethnic hierarchies remain in society today, said Moody-Turner. 

"Gordon-Reed invites readers to see Juneteenth as a time to grapple with the complexities of race and enslavement in the US, to re-think our origin stories about race and slavery's central role in the formation of both Texas and the US, and to consider how, as Gordon-Reed so eloquently puts it, 'echoes of the past remain, leaving their traces in the people and events of the present and future.'"

Purchase "On Juneteenth" here>>

"The Case for Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates, best-selling author and national correspondent for The Atlantic, made waves when he published his 2014 article "The Case for Reparations," in which he called for "collective introspection" on reparations for Black Americans subjected to centuries of racism and violence. 

"In his now famed essay for The Atlantic, journalist, author, and essayist, Ta-Nehisi Coates traces how slavery, segregation, and discriminatory racial policies underpin ongoing and systemic economic and racial disparities," Moody-Turner said. 

"Coates provides deep historical context punctuated by individual and collective stories that compel us to reconsider the case for reparations," she added.  

Read it here>>

"The Idea of America" by Nikole Hannah-Jones and the "1619 Project" by The New York Times

In "The Idea of America," Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones traces America's history from 1619 onward, the year slavery began in the US. She explores how the history of slavery is inseparable from the rise of America's democracy in her essay that's part of The New York Times' larger "1619 Project," which is the outlet's ongoing project created in 2019 to re-examine the impact of slavery in the US. 

"In her unflinching look at the legacy of slavery and the underside of American democracy and capitalism, Hannah-Jones asks, 'what if America understood, finally, in this 400th year, that we [Black Americans] have never been the problem but the solution,'" said Moody-Turner, who recommended readers read the whole "1619 Project" as well. 

Read "The Idea of America" here and the rest of the "1619 Project here>>

"Many Thousands Gone" by James Baldwin

In "Many Thousands Gone," James Arthur Baldwin, American novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist lays out how white America is not ready to fully recognize Black people as people. It's a must read, according to Jimmy Worthy II, assistant professor of English at The University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

"Baldwin's essay reminds us that in America, the very idea of Black persons conjures an amalgamation of specters, fears, threats, anxieties, guilts, and memories that must be extinguished as part of the labor to forget histories deemed too uncomfortable to remember," Worthy said.

"Letter from a Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr.

On April 13 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. and other Civil Rights activists were arrested after peaceful protest in Birmingham, Alabama. In jail, King penned an open letter about how people have a moral obligation to break unjust laws rather than waiting patiently for legal change. In his essay, he expresses criticism and disappointment in white moderates and white churches, something that's not often focused on in history textbooks, Worthy said.

"King revises the perception of white racists devoted to a vehement status quo to include white moderates whose theories of inevitable racial equality and silence pertaining to racial injustice prolong discriminatory practices," Worthy said. 

"The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action" by Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde, African American writer, feminist, womanist, librarian, and civil rights activist asks readers to not be silent on important issues. This short, rousing read is crucial for everyone according to Thomonique Moore, a 2016 graduate of Howard University, founder of Books&Shit book club, and an incoming Masters' candidate at Columbia University's Teacher's College. 

"In this essay, Lorde explains to readers the importance of overcoming our fears and speaking out about the injustices that are plaguing us and the people around us. She challenges us to not live our lives in silence, or we risk never changing the things around us," Moore said.  Read it here>>

"The First White President" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

This essay from the award-winning journalist's book " We Were Eight Years in Power ," details how Trump, during his presidency, employed the notion of whiteness and white supremacy to pick apart the legacy of the nation's first Black president, Barack Obama.

Moore said it was crucial reading to understand the current political environment we're in. 

"Just Walk on By" by Brent Staples

In this essay, Brent Staples, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer for The New York Times, hones in on the experience of racism against Black people in public spaces, especially on the role of white women in contributing to the view that Black men are threatening figures.  

For Crystal M. Fleming, associate professor of sociology and Africana Studies at SUNY Stony Brook, his essay is especially relevant right now. 

"We see the relevance of his critique in the recent incident in New York City, wherein a white woman named Amy Cooper infamously called the police and lied, claiming that a Black man — Christian Cooper — threatened her life in Central Park. Although the experience that Staples describes took place decades ago, the social dynamics have largely remained the same," Fleming told Insider. 

"I Was Pregnant and in Crisis. All the Doctors and Nurses Saw Was an Incompetent Black Woman" by Tressie McMillan Cottom

Tressie McMillan Cottom is an author, associate professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University and a faculty affiliate at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. In this essay, Cottom shares her gut-wrenching experience of racism within the healthcare system. 

Fleming called this piece an "excellent primer on intersectionality" between racism and sexism, calling Cottom one of the most influential sociologists and writers in the US today.  Read it here>>

"A Report from Occupied Territory" by James Baldwin

Baldwin's "A Report from Occupied Territory" was originally published in The Nation in 1966. It takes a hard look at violence against Black people in the US, specifically police brutality. 

"Baldwin's work remains essential to understanding the depth and breadth of anti-black racism in our society. This essay — which touches on issues of racialized violence, policing and the role of the law in reproducing inequality — is an absolute must-read for anyone who wants to understand just how much has not changed with regard to police violence and anti-Black racism in our country," Fleming told Insider.  Read it here>>

"I'm From Philly. 30 Years Later, I'm Still Trying To Make Sense Of The MOVE Bombing" by Gene Demby

On May 13, 1985, a police helicopter dropped a bomb on the MOVE compound in Philadelphia, which housed members of the MOVE, a black liberation group founded in 1972 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Eleven people, including five children, died in the airstrike. In this essay, Gene Demby, co-host and correspondent for NPR's Code Switch team, tries to wrap his head around the shocking instance of police violence against Black people. 

"I would argue that the fact that police were authorized to literally bomb Black citizens in their own homes, in their own country, is directly relevant to current conversations about militarized police and the growing movement to defund and abolish policing," Fleming said.  Read it here>>

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Enjoy tips on academic writing and free sample research papers, essays, speeches, book reviews and much more than that. All tips are prepared by the seasoned academic writers, and you can always count on their reliability and practical efficiency. Our well-thought-out sample papers can be used as illustrative examples for your own academic writing. No matter which type of academic assistance you need right now, you can always rely on our professionalism and experience.

Perfect Hook for a Racism Essay

What do you know about the historical roots of racism? How can we solve this problem once for all? These are the kinds of questions students wrestle with in producing college essays about racism each and every day. Obviously, racism is a widespread and relevant problem all over the globe. Racism is defined as a negative attitude towards a person or group of individuals whose color of skin or ethnicity differs from yours. This topic is both controversial and thought-provoking. No wonder, when students are asked to write a persuasive essay about racism at school, college, and university, they are expected to share their opinion on this issue but sometimes have difficulty expressing it. Moreover, they should think about the solution of this shameful problem, though it is a challenge to expect students to be able to find a solution that has escaped leaders around the world.

Below you will find a few tricks that will help you to put together a good hook for a racism essay:

Provide the Reader with an Example of a Real-Life Situation

When you want to hook the reader at the start of an essay about racism, you ought to begin your essay with the real-life case study or situation. This demonstrates the consequences of racism to the victims of racists. You might also try to find an article from a newspaper and write a summary of an incident connected with racism. Also, you can rely on statistics and write about the average annual number of cases related to racism at school or in the workplace. It will help you describe the problem in a broad social context. Finally, you might choose to mention the countries which are “famous” for having the most frequent cases of ethnic abuse and racism. Whichever choice you make, remember that the purpose of a hook is to interest the audience in what you have to say and to make them want to hear more from you. If you keep the reader in mind, you’ll be in a good position to make develop a strong hook that will draw the audience in.

Develop a Sound Thesis Statement and Introduce the Topic Well

It is of vital importance to brainstorm the best thesis statement in order to help you attract the reader’s attention. A good thesis statement summarizes the main argument of the paper and indicates the major lines of evidence that you plan to use to develop your paper. Moreover, it should reflect the relevance and importance of the chosen topic. When you write about racism, you can for example say, “100 million people suffer from racism in the world, and 40 million children among them.” This statement will surely hook your readers, and they will turn to you to find out what you believe to be the cause of racism and its consequences for a target.

Observe the Cause

After you have developed a thesis statement, you can use it to begin developing your essay. First, write about the roots of racism. Look at this issue from the perspective of history. Make mention of slavery and colonialism. Pay attention to the examples of racism all over the world. In general, explain how racism emerged from colonialist and imperialist ideologies during the age of exploration, and how it persisted as part of the power structure that empowered European and American cultural dominance. Depending on the scope your paper, you might explain that other cultures have also engaged in racism for a variety of reasons.

Write about the Effects

It is important to describe the evils of racism if you want to persuade the reader of the seriousness of this problem. Write about the physical, psychological, sexual and financial abuses to observe this issue from all possible sides. Racism is not just neglect and ill-treatment. The purpose is to treat a group in a negative way at the official and domestic levels so that their rights and freedoms are limited. Write about how racism leads to conflicts with other social groups who belong to another ethnicity. Mention that the police are not always able to help a victim in the case of attack.

Write about the Depiction of Racism in Popular Culture

If you want to make your essay interesting, you can talk about racism in the context of modern culture. You can write that the problem of racism as depicted in particular movies, cartoons, TV shows, etc. The audience will read your essay eagerly if they can make a connection between your paper and their favorite movie.

Develop a Few Effective Solutions to This Problem

You can impress the reader if you manage to brainstorm several useful and practical methods that will help people defeat the issue of racism. It often helps to avoid being too radical and fierce in your methods. Try to invent a sophisticated and smart way that will illustrate your sharp mind and creativity.

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10 Quotes on Racial Injustice

What is racial injustice? It’s racism in action. Racism is the belief that certain people are superior based solely on their race. Historically, white supremacy has been a dominant form of racism. When racist beliefs dictate political actions and systems, racial injustice becomes widespread. Those belonging to the “superior” race are granted more privileges, freedoms, and opportunities than others. Racial segregation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansings are all forms of racial injustice. Here are ten quotes that describe and challenge racial injustice:

“Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible.” – Maya Angelou

Writer and activist Maya Angelou experienced racial injustice and prejudice firsthand throughout her career. She was a prolific creator, writing autobiographies, essays, poetry , plays, and more. Her work frequently addressed race and gender. In this quote, she describes prejudice as a burden that affects every space in time – the past, present, and future. It’s disorienting and dangerous.

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin

James Baldwin didn’t finish his manuscript he called Remember This House , but it gave us this quote. It was also the basis of the documentary “ I Am Not Your Negro .” Remember This House was going to be an account of the lives and assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. While many apply this quote to a variety of difficulties, Baldwin was specifically talking about racial injustice and America . America has a long history of racism and has not truly reckoned with its past. To move forward, that past must be faced.

“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” – Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde described herself as “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.” She wrote frequently about the intersection of race, class, and sexuality. As someone with many different identities, she understood how differences can be twisted to justify discrimination. In this quote, she emphasizes how it’s not the differences themselves that are divisive, but that society fails to celebrate them.

“The very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.” – Toni Morrison

Celebrated author and speaker Toni Morrison wrote at least twelve books in her career. In 1993, she became the first Black woman to win a Nobel Prize. In this quote, she describes a major consequence of racism for those who experience it.

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word”. – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

In this quote from his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Dr. King expresses his belief that people will one day leave racial injustice behind. He aligns racism with war, and peace with brotherhood. In line with his adherence to nonviolent protests and civil disobedience , he states that truth and love will ultimately win.

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” – Desmond Tutu

Desmond Tutu is a South African Angelical cleric, theologian, and human rights activist. In the 1970s and 80s, he spoke out against apartheid and drew international attention to the racial injustice of the system . In 1984, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. This quote expresses the importance of being vocal about injustice and taking a side.

“As long as there is racial privilege, racism will never end.” – Wayne Gerard Trotman

Wayne Gerard Trotman is an award-winning British author. He’s written in a variety of genres, including children’s literature, horror, fantasy, sci-fiction, screenplays, and more. In this quote, he hits upon the fact that privilege based on race and racism can’t be disconnected from one another. As long as certain races get more opportunities and freedom than others, there will always be racism.

“Defeating racism, tribalism, intolerance and all forms of discrimination will liberate us all, victim and perpetrator alike.” –Ban Ki-moon

Former Secretary-General of the UN from 2007-2016, Ban Ki-moon’s tenure included making sustainable development a priority and increasing the number of women in senior management. In this quote, Ki-moon lists racial injustice in its different forms, saying that ending it benefits everyone.

“The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it’s the only way forward.” – Ijoema Oluo

Ijoema Oluo is an American editor and best-selling writer. Her work includes the book So You Want To Talk About Race. This quote makes it clear that to be anti-racist, we must all be willing to take a hard look at ourselves. To fight racial injustice, we must all take responsibility for how and where we hold racist beliefs.

“Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.” – John Lewis

John Lewis was an American politician, civil rights leader, and Medal of Freedom awardee who served in the House of Representatives from 1987 until his death in 2020. In this quote, Lewis emphasizes how the struggle against racial injustice is persistent. Every generation must participate in the dismantling of racism and racist systems.

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About the author, emmaline soken-huberty.

Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog.

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Hear Something, Say Something: Navigating The World Of Racial Awkwardness

Listen to this week's episode.

We've all been there — having fun relaxing with friends and family, when someone says something a little racially off. Sometimes it's subtle, like the friend who calls Thai food "exotic." Other times it's more overt, like that in-law who's always going on about "the illegals."

In any case, it can be hard to know how to respond. Even the most level-headed among us have faltered trying to navigate the fraught world of racial awkwardness.

So what exactly do you do? We delve into the issue on this week's episode of the Code Switch podcast, featuring writer Nicole Chung and Code Switch's Shereen Marisol Meraji, Gene Demby and Karen Grigsby Bates.

We also asked some folks to write about what runs through their minds during these tense moments, and how they've responded (or not). Their reactions ran the gamut from righteous indignation to total passivity, but in the wake of these uncomfortable comments, everyone seemed to walk away wishing they'd done something else.

Aaron E. Sanchez

It was the first time my dad visited me at college, and he had just dropped me off at my dorm. My suitemate walked in and sneered.

"Was that your dad?" he asked. "He looks sooo Mexican."

Aaron E. Sanchez is a Texas-based writer who focuses on issues of race, politics and popular culture from a Latino perspective. Courtesy of Aaron Sanchez hide caption

He kept laughing about it as he left my room.

I was caught off-guard. Instantly, I grew self-conscious, not because I was ashamed of my father, but because my respectability politics ran deep. My appearance was supposed to be impeccable and my manners unimpeachable to protect against stereotypes and slights. I felt exposed.

To be sure, when my dad walked into restaurants and stores, people almost always spoke to him in Spanish. He didn't mind. The fluidity of his bilingualism rarely failed him. He was unassuming. He wore his working-class past on his frame and in his actions. He enjoyed hard work and appreciated it in others. Yet others mistook him for something altogether different.

People regularly confused his humility for servility. He was mistaken for a landscape worker, a janitor, and once he sat next to a gentleman on a plane who kept referring to him as a "wetback." He was a poor Mexican-American kid who grew up in the Segundo Barrio of El Paso, Texas, for certain. But he was also an Air Force veteran who had served for 20 years. He was an electrical engineer, a proud father, an admirable storyteller, and a pretty decent fisherman.

I didn't respond to my suitemate. To him, my father was a funny caricature, a curio he could pick up, purchase and discard. And as much as it was hidden beneath my elite, liberal arts education, I was a novelty to him too, an even rarer one at that. Instead of a serape, I came wrapped in the trappings of middle-classness, a costume I was trying desperately to wear convincingly.

That night, I realized that no clothing or ill-fitting costume could cover us. Our bodies were incongruous to our surroundings. No matter how comfortable we were in our skins, our presence would make others uncomfortable.

Karen Good Marable

When the Q train pulled into the Cortelyou Road station, it was dark and I was tired. Another nine hours in New York City, working in the madness that is Midtown as a fact-checker at a fashion magazine. All day long, I researched and confirmed information relating to beauty, fashion and celebrity, and, at least once a day, suffered an editor who was openly annoyed that I'd discovered an error. Then, the crush of the rush-hour subway, and a dinner obligation I had to fulfill before heading home to my cat.

Karen Good Marable is a writer living in New York City. Her work has been featured in publications like The Undefeated and The New Yorker. Courtesy of Karen Good Marable hide caption

The train doors opened and I turned the corner to walk up the stairs. Coming down were two girls — free, white and in their 20s . They were dancing as they descended, complete with necks rolling, mouths pursed — a poor affectation of black girls — and rapping as they passed me:

Now I ain't sayin she a golddigger/But she ain't messin' with no broke niggas!

That last part — broke niggas — was actually less rap, more squeals that dissolved into giggles. These white girls were thrilled to say the word publicly — joyously, even — with the permission of Kanye West.

I stopped, turned around and stared at them. I envisioned kicking them both squarely in their backs. God didn't give me telekinetic powers for just this reason. I willed them to turn around and face me, but they did not dare. They bopped on down the stairs and onto the platform, not evening knowing the rest of the rhyme.

Listen: I'm a black woman from the South. I was born in the '70s and raised by parents — both educators — who marched for their civil rights. I never could get used to nigga being bandied about — not by the black kids and certainly not by white folks. I blamed the girls' parents for not taking over where common sense had clearly failed. Hell, even radio didn't play the nigga part.

I especially blamed Kanye West for not only making the damn song, but for having the nerve to make nigga a part of the damn hook.

Life in NYC is full of moments like this, where something happens and you wonder if you should speak up or stay silent (which can also feel like complicity). I am the type who will speak up . Boys (or men) cussing incessantly in my presence? Girls on the train cussing around my 70-year-old mama? C'mon, y'all. Do you see me? Do you hear yourselves? Please. Stop.

But on this day, I just didn't feel like running down the stairs to tap those girls on the shoulder and school them on what they damn well already knew. On this day, I just sighed a great sigh, walked up the stairs, past the turnstiles and into the night.

Robyn Henderson-Espinoza

When I was 5 or 6, my mother asked me a question: "Does anyone ever make fun of you for the color of your skin?"

This surprised me. I was born to a Mexican woman who had married an Anglo man, and I was fairly light-skinned compared to the earth-brown hue of my mother. When she asked me that question, I began to understand that I was different.

Robyn Henderson-Espinoza is a visiting assistant professor of ethics at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif. Courtesy of Robyn Henderson-Espinoza hide caption

Following my parents' divorce in the early 1980s, I spent a considerable amount of time with my father and my paternal grandparents. One day in May of 1989, I was sitting at my grandparents' dinner table in West Texas. I was 12. The adults were talking about the need for more laborers on my grandfather's farm, and my dad said this:

"Mexicans are lazy."

He called the undocumented workers he employed on his 40 acres "wetbacks." Again and again, I heard from him that Mexicans always had to be told what to do. He and friends would say this when I was within earshot. I felt uncomfortable. Why would my father say these things about people like me?

But I remained silent.

It haunts me that I didn't speak up. Not then. Not ever. I still hear his words, 10 years since he passed away, and wonder whether he thought I was a lazy Mexican, too. I wish I could have found the courage to tell him that Mexicans are some of the hardest-working people I know; that those brown bodies who worked on his property made his lifestyle possible.

As I grew in experience and understanding, I was able to find language that described what he was doing: stereotyping, undermining, demonizing. I found my voice in the academy and in the movement for black and brown lives.

Still, the silence haunts me.

Channing Kennedy

My 20s were defined in no small part by a friendship with a guy I never met. For years, over email and chat, we shared everything with each other, and we made great jokes. Those jokes — made for each other only — were a foundational part of our relationship and our identities. No matter what happened, we could make each other laugh.

Channing Kennedy is an Oakland-based writer, performer, media producer and racial equity trainer. Courtesy of Channing Kennedy hide caption

It helped, also, that we were slackers with spare time, but eventually we both found callings. I started working in the social justice sector, and he gained recognition in the field of indie comics. I was proud of my new job and approached it seriously, if not gracefully. Before I took the job, I was the type of white dude who'd make casually racist comments in front of people I considered friends. Now, I had laid a new foundation for myself and was ready to undo the harm I'd done pre-wokeness.

And I was proud of him, too, if cautious. The indie comics scene is full of bravely offensive work: the power fantasies of straight white men with grievances against their nonexistent censors, put on defiant display. But he was my friend, and he wouldn't fall for that.

One day he emailed me a rough script to get my feedback. At my desk, on a break from deleting racist, threatening Facebook comments directed at my co-workers, I opened it up for a change of pace.

I got none. His script was a top-tier, irredeemable power fantasy — sex trafficking, disability jokes, gendered violence, every scene's background packed with commentary-devoid, racist caricatures. It also had a pop culture gag on top, to guarantee clicks.

I asked him why he'd written it. He said it felt "important." I suggested he shelve it. He suggested that that would be a form of censorship. And I realized this: My dear friend had created a racist power fantasy about dismembering women, and he considered it bravely offensive.

I could have said that there was nothing brave about catering to the established tastes of other straight white comics dudes. I could have dropped any number of half-understood factoids about structural racism, the finishing move of the recently woke. I could have just said the jokes were weak.

Instead, I became cruel to him, with a dedication I'd previously reserved for myself.

Over months, I redirected every bit of our old creativity. I goaded him into arguments I knew would leave him shaken and unable to work. I positioned myself as a surrogate parent (so I could tell myself I was still a concerned ally) then laughed at him. I got him to escalate. And, privately, I told myself it was me who was under attack, the one with the grievance, and I cried about how my friend was betraying me.

I wanted to erase him (I realized years later) not because his script offended me, but because it made me laugh. It was full of the sense of humor we'd spent years on — not the jokes verbatim, but the pacing, structure, reveals, go-to gags. It had my DNA and it was funny. I thought I had become a monster-slayer, but this comic was a monster with my hands and mouth.

After years as the best of friends and as the bitterest of exes, we finally had a chance to meet in person. We were little more than acquaintances with sunk costs at that point, but we met anyway. Maybe we both wanted forgiveness, or an apology, or to see if we still had some jokes. Instead, I lectured him about electoral politics and race in a bar and never smiled.

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Characters' First Impressions in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: Elizabeth's First Impression of Darcy

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The Satirization of Society's Flaws in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

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1813, Jane Austen

Romantic Novel; Satire, Historical Fiction

Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Mr. Bennet, Mrs. Bennet, Jane Bennet, Mary Bennet, Catherine "Kitty" Bennet, Lydia Bennet, Charles Bingley, Caroline Bingley, George Wickham, Mr. William Collins, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, Georgiana Darcy, Charlotte Lucas, Colonel Witzwilliam

According to numerous sources, the book is not based on a true story and has been entirely composed by Jane Austen.

Justice, prejudice, misconceptions, love, romance, misjudgement, reputation, class relations, overcoming obstacles, true love.

As one of the most beautiful literary works and the happy ever after tales, it is one of the best romance novels that will be relevant through every decade. The book is teaching us an important lesson about making snap judgments of not judging the book by its cover. Although this book is often read by college students, it is also an important read for educators as well since college professors should not judge their learners too soon.

It revolves around the Bennet sisters called Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia. Their mother wants to see them married in a good, successful way because they won't inherit their family house since only a son can do so. So once Me. Bingle comes down, their mother does her best to help Mr. Bigley fall in love.

Jane Austen has also been rejected for not being rich enough in the past. Mr. Darcy is often made as an equivalent to a Rockefeller. The Gretna Green mentioned in the book by Lydia is the modern-day Las Vegas, which has nearly ruined the Bennet family. Jane Austen has also been very close to her sister, which has influenced her to describe the closeness of Elizabeth to Jane. The publisher has rejected "The Pride and Prejudice" even without taking a closer look or reading it at all. The title originally came from a novel called "Cecilia" by Fanny Burney. Jane Austen always worried that her novel was too frivolous and modern for her times.

“A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.” “There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.” “Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.” “I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.” “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?”

The love and marriage through the class relations is the central theme of this romantic story. It focuses on how a person can judge and break down the romantic relations. Jane Austen constantly uses good satire, detalization of her characters, and narration that helps to analyze the vocational nature of being married in the English society. One can also explore an attitude to matrimony.

This novel is an example of pride and prejudice, social relations, class challenges, and the freedom of women to do exactly what they want. It is also used as the analysis of judging something by its cover with the different examples. This romance story can be explored through the lens of any modern situation where the pride and misconception of the first impressions are coming first before a clear judgment is being made.

1. McKeon, R. (1979). " Pride and Prejudice": Thought, Character, Argument, and Plot. Critical Inquiry, 5(3), 511-527. (https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/448004?journalCode=ci) 2. Lacour, C. B. (1992). Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Hegel's" Truth in Art": Concept, Reference, and History. ELH, 59(3), 597-623. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2873444) 3. Austen, J. (1993). Pride and Prejudice (1813). New York. (https://link.springer.com/book/9780333801338#page=36) 4. Morrison, R. (2009). Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: A Routledge Study Guide and Sourcebook. Routledge. (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203868492/jane-austen-pride-prejudice-robert-morrison) 5. Fischer-Starcke, B. (2009). Keywords and frequent phrases of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: A corpus-stylistic analysis. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 14(4), 492-523. (https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/ijcl.14.4.03fis) 6. Lau, B. (2017). Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice. A Companion to Romanticism, 237-244. (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781405165396.ch21) 7. Appel, P. A. (2012). A Funhouse Mirror of Law: The Entailment in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Ga. J. Int'l & Comp. L., 41, 609. (https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/gjicl41&div=25&id=&page=) 8. Wootton, S. (2007). The Byronic in Jane Austen's" Persuasion" and" Pride and Prejudice". Modern Language Review, 102(1), 26-39. (https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/427/article/825032/summary)

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Pride and Prejudice

164 pages • 5 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Volume 1, Chapters 1-3

Volume 1, Chapters 4-6

Volume 1, Chapters 7-10

Volume 1, Chapters 11-15

Volume 1, Chapters 16-18

Volume 1, Chapters 19-23

Volume 2, Chapters 1-6

Volume 2, Chapters 7-11

Volume 2, Chapters 12-15

Volume 2, Chapters 16-19

Volume 3, Chapters 1-3

Volume 3, Chapters 4-10

Volume 3, Chapters 11-14

Volume 3, Chapters 15-19

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

What is Charlotte Lucas’s approach to marriage, and how does it explain why she marries Mr. Collins? How does her decision to marry Mr. Collins reflect women’s roles in Austen’s day?

What is it about Elizabeth that attracts Darcy, and how does she continue to draw him in as the novel progresses? Describe how the qualities criticized by Lady Catherine—and the qualities that make Elizabeth reject Darcy’s first proposal—are the very qualities that make Darcy fall in love with her. Describe Mr. Collins’s opinions of these same qualities.

Compare and contrast the marriages in Pride and Prejudice . Consider Mr. and Mrs. Bennet , Lydia and Wickham, Charlotte and Mr. Collins , Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, Jane and Bingley, or Elizabeth and Darcy. Which marriages are unhappy, and why? What, according, to the novel, is necessary for a happy marriage? Why does Mr. Bennet warn Elizabeth against choosing a husband she is “unable to respect” (350)?

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Essay on Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

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This Pride and Prejudice essay summarizes the novel and discusses its main characters and themes.

Introduction

The summary of the novel, the main characters and theme of the novel, personal opinion.

Pride and Prejudice is a world-known novel written by an English author Jane Austen in 1813. The story revolves around the importance of education, marriage, financial viability, and traditions in the United Kingdom during the Regency era. Humor is used as the primary artistic means of the narrative, which attracted many readers and ensured the popularity of the book. This essay contains the analysis of the novel, including the summary, description of the main characters and themes, personal opinion about the narrative, and conclusion that summarizes the main points of the essay.

The story begins with the conversation of two characters, Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet, who are talking about the visit of a young bachelor, Mr. Bingley, to their neighborhood. The Bennet family has five daughters, and Mrs. Bennet thinks that they should be friends with Mr. Bingley as he can marry one of her girls. Therefore, since the time of Mr. Bingley’s arrival, spouses Bennet try to use the opportunities to communicate with him.

One day the Bennet family meets Mr. Bingley at the ball, where his friend, Mr. Darcy, accompanies him. Even though initially Mr. Darcy made a positive impression on people, soon everyone found him to be arrogant, because he did not want to dance with anyone except for Mr. Bingley’s sisters. Mr. Bingley advises Mr. Darcy to pay his attention to Elizabeth, one of the daughters of the Bennet, but he did not express any interest to her. Elizabeth witnessed this conversation and felt antipathy toward Mr. Darcy.

Soon, Mr. Bingley realized that he felt in love with the sister of Elizabeth, Jane, while Mr. Darcy started having feelings for Elizabeth. Elizabeth talks to her new friend, Mr. Wickham, who tells her the story about the immoral behavior of Mr. Darcy. This only supports Elizabeth’s negative opinion about Mr. Darcy as she is sure that he despises her. Mr. Darcy, in his turn, thinks that the Bennets are out of his social circle because they demonstrate bad manners. He encourages Mr. Bingley to return to London and give up the idea to marry Elizabeth’s sister Jane.

Later, Mr. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, but she rejects him, saying that he is guilty of destroying the happiness of her sister. Months later, the younger sister of Elizabeth, Lydia, runs away with Mr. Wickham. Mr. Darcy, trying to save the Bennets from shame, forces Mr. Wickham to marry Lydia. Being thankful, Elizabeth realizes that she likes Mr. Darcy, and accepts his proposal when he asks her to marry him the second time. Thus, the story has a happy end, where the pride of Mr. Darcy and the prejudice of Ms. Bennet were overcome.

Jane Austin created personalities in a way that made them unforgettable for readers (Wilhelm 2014, 30). Elizabeth Bennet, the second eldest daughter of the Bennets, is one of the main protagonists of the story. She is young but intelligent and witty, well-educated and, in contrast to the other members of her family, has good manners. She is a strong woman with principles, who is not ready for a marriage on a financial basis, even though she understands that money is necessary for a respectable life (Awan and Ali Nasir 2018, 673). However, Elizabeth tends to have a prejudiced opinion about people even if she does not know them well. Unfortunately, it does not allow her to be objective in evaluating people’s actions.

Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy is the second protagonist of the story. He is a tall, rich, and handsome man who is twenty -eight years old. At first sight, it seems that he does not have any drawbacks, but his pride spoils people’s impression of him. At the ball, where he meets Elizabeth first time, he proves his arrogance, saying that he does not see any beautiful women dance with. In his conversation with Mr. Bingley, he says: “Your sisters are engaged, and there is not another woman in the room whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with” (Austen 2017, 11). Thus, the prejudice of Elizabeth and pride of Mr. Darcy became a stumbling point for their relationships. Eventually, they could overcome these negative traits that ensured the happy end of the story.

Even though the personages of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy create the most exciting line of the story, the other characters contribute to the humorous narrative. Thus, Mrs. Bennet is shown as a woman whose primary goal of life is to marry her daughters to wealthy men, even if it happens against their will. She says: “If I can but see one of my daughters happily settled at Netherfield, and all the others equally well-married, I shall have nothing to wish for” (Austen 2017, 9). Also, sometimes, she can behave in an indelicate way that creates comic situations and makes her eldest daughters Elizabeth and Jane blush.

Another personage that is worth to pay attention to is the youngest daughter of Bennet, Lydia. She is shown as a silly little girl who tends to do foolish actions without taking responsibility for that. Even though the Bennets cannot serve as the best example of a well-mannered family of the Regency era, these characters help the author to use humor as the primary artistic means of the narrative.

The main idea of the novel conveyed by the author is the importance of being unbiased and modest. Also, Jane Austen unfolds the concepts of marriage, true love, and the role of fortune in people’s lives (Wan 2019, 349). It does not matter how many years have passed since the first publication of the novel because these ideas remain significant for people, even nowadays, in the modern world.

The novel Pride and Prejudice can be recommended to read for both youth and adults because it raises topical questions for people of all generations. It narrates love, morals, family relationships, and the social status of people. Moreover, it is especially interesting to read nowadays, because it tells the story about traditions, entertainments, and way of life of people who lived two hundred years ago.

Therefore, the novel can serve as an excellent educational tool that not only entertains readers but also provides historical information. In my point of view, the author skillfully shows the influence of the social environment on people’s personalities in her novel. The story teaches readers to always stay true to themselves. For instance, even though society encourages women to marry wealthy men, the character of Elizabeth shows that one can still act in accordance with his or her opinion.

Pride and Prejudice: Conclusion

Jane Austen created a romantic story that became popular because of the author’s sense of humor and skillful way of storytelling. She created strong, ambitious, intelligent, and independent characters that attracted readers around the world and made the story unforgettable. Moreover, the narrative contains a lot of historical information that shows people’s life in England in the 19th century. Therefore, it is highly recommended for reading to everyone who wants to have a good time and receive some historical knowledge about the society of Great Britain in an entertaining way.

Austen, Jane. 2017. Pride and Prejudiced. Seattle: Amazon Classics.

Awan, Abdul, and Ambreen Ali Nasir. 2018. “Matrimonial Issues and Marxist Approach in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.” Global Journal of Management, Social Sciences and Humanities 673 (4): 651-676.

Wan, Yongkun. 2019. “Study on Jane Austin’s Original Views toward Marriage in Pride and Prejudice .” Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Education and Social Science , Yunnan Province, China, Francis Academic Press, 349-351.

Wilhelm, Julia. 2014. The Austen Formula: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century. Hamburg: Anchor Academic Publishing.

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IvyPanda. (2019, December 3). Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. https://ivypanda.com/essays/pride-and-prejudice-by-jane-austen/

"Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen." IvyPanda , 3 Dec. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/pride-and-prejudice-by-jane-austen/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen'. 3 December.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen." December 3, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/pride-and-prejudice-by-jane-austen/.

1. IvyPanda . "Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen." December 3, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/pride-and-prejudice-by-jane-austen/.

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Kamala Harris Was ‘Confident, Principled — Presidential’: The Best and Worst Moments From Night 4 of the Democratic Convention

By New York Times Opinion

Did the night help Harris?

Welcome to Opinion’s commentary for Night 4 of the Democratic National Convention. In this special feature, Times Opinion writers rate the evening on a scale of 0 to 10: 0 means the night was a disaster for Kamala Harris; 10 means it could lead to a big polling bump. Here’s what our columnists and contributors thought of the event, which included speeches by Gretchen Whitmer, Gabby Giffords and Kamala Harris.

Best Moment

Binyamin Appelbaum, member of the editorial board Kamala Harris’s great-nieces, teaching America how to pronounce her name. And Harris herself, meeting the moment with a performance that was confident, principled — presidential.

Josh Barro, author of the newsletter Very Serious Harris’s speech, especially its beginning about her upbringing and her mother. In past campaigns, Harris has sometimes seemed like an empty vessel. Now she’s reintroducing herself in a way that is specific, warm and uniquely American, and that provides a framework to explain the broadly popular values of freedom and justice she’s espousing.

Charles M. Blow, Times columnist Women ruled the night. There were so many impressive, effective women presenting — culminating with Harris, of course — that the remarkable almost became unremarkable. I had to force myself to pause and absorb the fact that I was witnessing a revolution.

Jamelle Bouie, Times columnist The first three nights of this convention were easily the most successful since 2008, but they would have been for naught had Harris missed the landing with an awkward or underwhelming acceptance speech. She succeeded. But other than a moving introduction, where she told the story of her life and family to the viewing public, this wasn’t a speech about the meaning of her candidacy. It was something closer to a State of the Union — a statement of policies and priorities and an indictment of her opponents. It was as if the campaign had offloaded talk of symbolism to other speakers so that Harris could present herself as ready to be president on Day 1.

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