12-6-12
English 131

The Minority vs. the Minority

A minority is an inferior group of people whose members have less authority over their lives than members of a dominant group, they are involuntarily the minority they (we) have no say over our status. Whether your African and from Africa or your African American and your from America one thing that you have to realize is that whether your one or the other you have one thing in common, you are both the minority the least majority of any other person of color and it’s just as simple as that. No American knows their roots so you could be African American but with roots from Africa.
We as the minority are set out and stereotyped in history to be belligerent and ignorant but how can the majority of “us” deny that when ninety five percent of “us” are the naïve and belligerent. For years we as a people, a race, have been summarized as the minority. Blacks cover about thirteen percent of the population, and what do we as the title of an ethnicity have to show for our history and backgrounds besides being servile, primitive, and simpleminded.
Because of the majority of us who are the stereotyped all thirteen percent of black Americans are labeled good for nothing until proven otherwise. Blacks are stereotyped as lazy, illiterate, weed smokers, not having a car, don’t want to work, high school drop outs, multiple baby mamas and baby daddy’s, no vehicle, all on welfare, don’t have their own place, don’t want to look for a job, thieves, late all the time, loves fried chicken and Kool-Aid, comedians, athletes, always think they deserve something without putting in the work.
“I am an African American Woman surrounded by ants, I am the giant in my backyard, I am a hero amongst many of my people, and I stand tall when the divided of “us” fall.” I am one of many black Americans and African Americans who are categorized as the minority sure enough I did not self-inflict “minority” as a title to describe my status as one of the people of my race, but I could bicker and tell you bittersweet blabber but in the end I am a minority but I won’t let the fact that since the minority is such a small group define me as one of the people who experiences narrowing opportunities in success, education, wealth, and living conditions because of a title I did not self-inflict upon myself.
You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies, you may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise. Does my haughtiness offend you? Don’t you take it awful hard ‘Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines Diggin' in my own back yard. Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise that I dance like I've got diamonds at the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise.
I rise.
I rise. (STILL I RISE by Maya Angelou
I won’t depict my person as a crystal clean portrait because I cannot see my present I live life knowing I am going places and no title will be my life, I work toward what I want and I have the drive to get there. I am now at the point where I don’t like a lot of words that have been words since way before I was born, for instance African American I try and try to find a title that suits me but I can’t seem to find one so I settle for African American and settling for me is just a notion to get through the waves but until then I am Tradezsha Trenay Bibbs.
There are many nationalities for people of color. This is why some 'black' people living in America do not like being called African American. One, person of color in America usually includes a mixture of many races due to the plight of our heritage, so we become a created race of