How does Geoffrey Canada learn about violence, and how does violence evolve in his life? But more importantly, is that violence born out of anger, hatred, or necessity? How has his environment shaped his outlook?
Geoffrey Canada learns about violence through his father, events, like bullying, that happened in his life, and his mother. When he witnesses his mother tell his brothers, Dan and John that “She would not tolerate our becoming victims” (pg. 5). She told them that they had to fight back against the boy that stole John’s jacket. Canada isn’t necessarily taught to be violent to other people for no reason, but taught to use violence so he is not a “victim”. His mother insists that John and Dan get the jacket back. Their mother’s persistence on getting the jacket back is astonishing to the boys. They don’t understand why their mother needs them to get the jacket back. They later find out that without this jacket John will have no protection from wind, rain, snow, and the family will not be able to afford a new one. The boys don’t understand why the boy took Johns jacket. I believe that this type of violence is born out of necessity. People take pride in what they have, how much they have, and what they wear. The boy that stole the jacket didn’t know John and didn’t know how much he needed that jacket. To me it seems that the boy thought it was more important to have the jacket, instead of John, because he wanted it even though he might not have needed it. His wants for the jacket are vastly different than John’s needs for the jacket. Necessity is an issue that the boy struggles with. He wants the jacket and his mentality is that he is going to get it. He isn’t scared of Dan and John because he doesn’t think that they are going to fight back. When Dan and John go back to retrieve the jacket the boy gives it back because he is surprised and scared of their retaliation. Most young children are taught not to fight or act violent towards other kids. The boy that stole the jacket knows this and feels comfortable stealing the jacket. His wants for necessity are so strong that when he sees kids like Dan and John, who he knows aren’t going to fight back; he is going to take what he thinks he can. These acts of violence shape Canada’s life for future problems that he will have. It teaches him to stand up for himself and to never be a “victim” (pg. 5). When people give into being a victim it allows the other person to get away with what he/she was doing. It doesn’t show them that what they were doing was wrong. It encourages them to do it again because you let them do it. I believe that this moment allowed Canada to take a step back and look at the problem and learn something for his life in the future. It showed him to stand up for what is right and to discourage him from doing wrong. Through him witnessing this Canada is taught about not giving in and being a “victim” (pg. 50) to other people.
Canada learns violence not because it is part of him but because it is a part of the society he is in. His inner self knows violence is wrong but over all self preservation comes first. Survival is more important to him then following his personal morals. When your protector and moral leader (In this case Canada’s mother) tells them not only that violence is okay but tells them to commit an act of violence, they learn from there own mother that it is okay to hurt someone else to better your own life. This is not the way it should be, but nonetheless it is the way it is. You cannot blame Canada’s mother for this because it is out of necessity, not out of greed, that this violence is born. In order to find the source of this violence you must not look inside the ghetto’s that these poverty stricken individuals come from, but rather the ones that put them there.
I think the selfishness of those who run our country has gotten in the way of real progress being made. I think in order to better the overall standing of our country; the ones on top must sacrifice something. But the sad fact is that most of those who run our country are the ones on top. These that are on top are the ones who make the decisions that steer which direction our country is heading. But the sad fact is that most of those who are on top didn’t get there through kindness, empathy, or compassion. They got there because they had the arrogance and the aggressiveness to shove those below them lower. By climbing to the top of the latter they used those below them to support them. All the while as they do this they constantly say to them selves, “I’m only doing this so I can help people once I’m in.” But once they have taken there rightful place in society as the high class decision makers, they forget where they came from. They forget what morals drove them to succeed or what there dreams were of a better world. Now they dream of more money to fill there already drooping pockets with. The sad fact is that progress isn’t really being made, and those who realize it can’t or will not do anything to change it.
Geoffrey Canada learns about violence through his mother and his brothers. Violence and the victims all change though his life. First starting with his brothers and ending with his daughter being attacked. It starts when his brother’s jacket is stolen by another kid, Geoffrey isn’t even the victim he’s just a witness. He changes from the event on this day just as much as his brothers do. Their mother can’t let them think that their world, which is really just Harlem, is a harmless safe place. Geoffrey is just an onlooker but at the age of six is just as vulnerable as his older brothers in the park. The mother is put in the position of having to tell two of her sons that they need to stand up to the bully, and possibly use violence because she can’t afford to buy another jacket. She has to tell her innocent children that they can’t let people walk all over them and that they can’t be victims. She is endorsing violence, and as hard as that is for her she has to because she can’t afford for them to be the victims. Not only because she doesn’t have a lot of money, but because no mother would want her children coming home beaten up because they can’t stand up for themselves. She isn’t telling them to beat up the bully, but she’s telling them they need to get that jacket back and take the beating from the bully or else she’d beat them even worse when they come home. She even has to scare them into standing up to the bully because they’re too scared. This violence isn’t born out of anger or hatred. It is born out of necessity. They need the jacket because of the lack of money, but they also need to learn that they’re vulnerable and they have to fight to live. They need to learn about the violence of their community to survive. This shapes the way they look at the world. They don’t see the world as a friend, they see it as a place where violence is the key to survival.
At a young age Canada was forced to face the violence of society and use self defense to protect himself. As seen in a short excerpt from his life in his book on the other America, his brothers were taught to fight back and stand up for what was theirs. Canada was taught in a traumatizing conversation with his mother that it is ok to use violence and beat down someone. As Canada says “When asked about their violent behavior they’d often say their parents told them to” (p 6). This hatred is taught as a self defense to the children so that the parents will not have to worry about their children. On the day that the boy from the park took John’s jacket his mother finally found it necessary to educate her children on violence. Teaching of using violence is something that if it can be put off it should be put off. Violence in the ghetto is a vicious cycle that is never ending; violence is first taught to children as a self defense and eventually it turns to a weapon that is used against innocent others. Just as it is necessary for the whites to step up to stop the prejudice in society, the people of the ghetto have to rise up and stop this cycle of violence.
This relates back to the War in Iraq. The three religious branches can’t find a peace and are acting out in a violence that leads to deaths of people and the call to arms of young children. This brings us to the question of, was it the right thing to invade Iraq? This can be closely related to the question of, Should whites step in and interfere with the vicious violence that has plagued the ghetto? I will not go into an answer for these questions, but let you decide for I feel it will differ from person to person. Violence in the ghetto is born out of necessity, but it matures into hatred. After living in the ghetto for all of his childhood Canada sees violence as a part of his culture, a part of himself. Canada looks at life as a fight, one in which he is always losing. In the ghetto when Canada was a child, African Americans took out the hate they received from the whites on other blacks. This only contributed to the degrading life of the African Americans and for Canada it taught him that the only way things were to get done would be if he used force. This outlook is one that most African Americans have in common and it is a barrier we have to break down before we have a true racial equality.
Geoffrey Canada learns about violence at a young age when he witnesses his mother demanding that his brothers use violence to get back what is rightfully theirs. At the time, Canada doesn’t think it is fair to be encouraging violence in his brothers. Being only four years old, he doesn’t understand why his mother would demand that. Soon, however Canada is put into a position in which his own daughter is the one being bullied. When put into this situation he does the same thing his mother did. Like his mother Canada tells his daughter to fight back, and to not let people treat her like that. Like his mother, he does not want his child to become a victim. I believe that between these times Canada learned an important lesson about violence. That lesson being that violence has no rules. There is no right or wrong time to use violence, and the only way to protect yourself from it is if you use it as well. I believe that violence is a cycle, and the only way to not become a victim of violence is to teach it. By teaching it to his daughter he is furthering the cycle. Yet by doing this he is ultimately saving his daughter from becoming a victim. I believe that because of this cycle, it is a necessity for him to teach his daughter to use violence. He wants her to survive, so therefore she has to become part of the cycle. It is especially necessary because he resides in the ghetto, where violence is a huge part of everyday life. He has been surrounded by violence his whole life, encountering it first with the incident between his brothers and his mom, and then throughout his life. Because he, and everyone else who lives in the ghetto, have been surrounded by violence their whole lives, that is all they know. If it is all they know, it is all they know to teach. Therefore this just continues the cycle that appears to be unbreakable.
Geoffrey Canada was introduced to the dark ways of violence as such a young child and this has drastically influenced his life and career. This dark path has lead him to be a counselor in order to reduce the violence that has so changed his childhood. He was four years old when his brother’s jacket was stolen for a neighborhood kid in the park. His mother was a single mother and had to attend to 4 kids. After one day of play in the park Daniel and John, John came home without his jacket and his mother made him return to the park and get back his jacket no matter what it took. She wanted them to know that from that point on that they will never be victims again. Therefore this demonstrates that these children were “force-fed” violence behavior by their parents. Canada later on in his life at a last resort, taught his little girl not to be a victim to school-yard bullying. Thus, the chain of violence is spread through the mouth of the parents. I believe that the violence demonstrated in both of these examples was caused by parents telling their children not to take anymore from anybody. Canada’s first experience was caused by anger, not by the anger of his brothers but the anger of their mother and she struck fear into their hearts and made them loose their childhood innocence. Also their violence was a necessity, she couldn’t afford to buy another coat and needed to teach them how to stick up for themselves to avoid future problems. Canada noticed as a young child that this lesson being taught to his older brothers was wrong, but still he taught his very own daughter the same lesson. She was being brutally bullied by a girl on her bus with extremely long fingernails. This lesson, I believe , was born out of a last resort. He wanted more supervision on the buses but the school couldn’t afford it. So he made her not become a victim and therefore she lost her childhood innocence.
Young children are greatly influenced by their older siblings, which is how Canada learns about violence at an early age. Although I don't have any siblings to look up to, I've seen from my friends and family how large of an impact siblings make on a child. I've seen my cousin, who was my best friend as a child, evolve from an innocent little boy who joined in activites with me and his little sister to a quiet teenager who barely talks to me and plays video games with his older brothers. He even got an earring and dresses in baggy, sporty clothing, just like his college-age brother. Similar to this scenerio, Geoffrey Canada follows his older brothers lead. They introduce him to violence by beating up a child on the playground for stealing a jacket, and of course, Canada learns that violence is a way to get through in life. Canada and his brothers' violence definetely evolves in life, to the point where one of his brothers murder someone. However, this evolution can either get worse, or slowly fade in time. Now, Geoffrey is successful and most likely is not faced with vilence in his everyday life. This evolution is depended on your mindset and determination. If you are determined to break the circle of violence, you must make sacrifices. By not choosing violence as a way to survive, you will look weak and defenseless, but in the end it will pay off. I believe that violence is created out of a combination of hatred, anger, and necessity. It all depends on where you live, how you think, and if you act based on your emotions. Some people find it difficult to control their emotions, and express anger through physical behavior. Their hatred or anger is so strong that they must find another way to maintain it, and do this by fighting. It is usually in a dangerous enviornment where people learn about violence through necessity. Violence is a way to survive in places such as the ghetto or a crime-filled, populated city. By being physically strong and able, one can defend themselves in a dangerous situation. Personally, I have never been forced to survive using violence. I have never been angry enough to beat someone up. Even if I had wanted to beat someone up, I would fail because of my physical shape. I was never taught to use violence by my teachers, friends, or parents. This proves that violence is not omnipresent if you are living in a small and safe community.
Geoffery Canada learns about violence through events that happen to him growing up in the ghetto. He witnesses his family going to strife in pain when he realizes his family can not even afford a new jacket, but he learns about violence when he sees his mother demand that Dan and John stick up for themselves when a bigger boy takes a jacket of theirs. The mother says that they need to stick up for themselves in order to gain respect and to even survive in the ghetto. When his brother return with the jacket Canada gets a good look at the truth of what his mother said, he now thinks that when you use violence, you get what you want.
I believe that violence can be born out of anger, hatred and necessity because depending on your enviroment that surrounds you and the people that shape your experiences. Violence can be born out of anger and hatred if you are miss treated as a youth and are neglected by your parents and other family members in any sort of society suburbs or inner city. Violence is a necessity if you are living in any sort of ghetto or city, because you have to be able to defend yourself if needed.
His enviroment and his experiences has shaped his outlook on violence to be that if you are in need of respect or someone has pushed you around and taken advantage of you, you can't let them. He thinks that if you let someone push you around once, and you do not do anything about it then they will do it again and again until you decide to stand up for what you believe is right.
My comment isn't specifically for the question, it's just about racism in general.
Racism surrounds us. The color of our skin has played a ridiculously large part in determining whether or not we get the job we want, what areas of town we can live in, how much we get paid, whether or not we are secretly looked down upon, and in the past, which water fountains we could drink from. Yes, whites can all be sympathetic, but they will never fully understand the pain of being punished for racial differences or having to suffer the consequences of being born with a unique ethnicity. The African-American struggle for equality has minimally progressed, and the fence between white people and colored people has barely begun to break down. Troy, being an African-American, has faced the reality of being rejected by the white society. His incredible baseball playing and his inopportune lifestyle do not coincide, which destroys his dream, his persistence, and willingness to pass on the thrill of the game to his sons. His baseball career being one example of his inability to measure up to the whites in his society, he has grown to consider the white man his enemy. Troy associates “Death,” something he’s already defeated, with a fastball on the outside corner, which seems like just another one of Troy’s bragging moments. However, Death represents the white society that he has had to deal with for his whole life, but more importantly, the burden that his skin color has created for him and his family. His imaginary correlation between Death and a perfect pitch has been his vision for as long as he can remember, and what the African-American society still strives for today. A fastball on the outside corner is the best pitch a batter can get to “kiss it goodbye,” and Wilson’s simile between the pitch and the unjust racism towards colored people represents Troy’s everlasting hope for the black society. An end to racism and a final solution that would stop its interference and erase its influence on every last detail of history. Simply kissing the baseball goodbye and watching it fly off into the outfield, where a home run can be made carelessly. Troy’s inability to accept the fact that this pitch may not ever be made brings the point to another question; whether or not whites will allow the pitch to be followed through with. The white population has enjoyed the benefits of freedom, basked in the sunlight of equality, and has recently suffered from the life-changing determination on how to preserve our solid amount of national resources. Laws have been passed, state commissions have been established, and from the outside, the issue of equality looks like it’s been solved. And yet whites still steer away from colored people when they can. Whites continually say that they are for equality and they accept the African-American community members as equals, but when the opportunity is right in front of someone, they will go out of their way to avoid a person of color. Through the stubbornness, unwillingness, and unacceptability of the white society, the pitch to the colored society that would allow them to banish racism from the world is almost impossible.
15 comments:
Canada...nothing good ever happens in Canada
=P
its from King of queens...kinda i know its a misquote
I got in.
The blog should be used for serious commentary...please no quips, gripes, or attempts at humor.
does this work. yes it does.
ok, good, it works!
I got in
Geoffrey Canada learns about violence through his father, events, like bullying, that happened in his life, and his mother. When he witnesses his mother tell his brothers, Dan and John that “She would not tolerate our becoming victims” (pg. 5). She told them that they had to fight back against the boy that stole John’s jacket. Canada isn’t necessarily taught to be violent to other people for no reason, but taught to use violence so he is not a “victim”. His mother insists that John and Dan get the jacket back. Their mother’s persistence on getting the jacket back is astonishing to the boys. They don’t understand why their mother needs them to get the jacket back. They later find out that without this jacket John will have no protection from wind, rain, snow, and the family will not be able to afford a new one. The boys don’t understand why the boy took Johns jacket.
I believe that this type of violence is born out of necessity. People take pride in what they have, how much they have, and what they wear. The boy that stole the jacket didn’t know John and didn’t know how much he needed that jacket. To me it seems that the boy thought it was more important to have the jacket, instead of John, because he wanted it even though he might not have needed it. His wants for the jacket are vastly different than John’s needs for the jacket. Necessity is an issue that the boy struggles with. He wants the jacket and his mentality is that he is going to get it. He isn’t scared of Dan and John because he doesn’t think that they are going to fight back. When Dan and John go back to retrieve the jacket the boy gives it back because he is surprised and scared of their retaliation. Most young children are taught not to fight or act violent towards other kids. The boy that stole the jacket knows this and feels comfortable stealing the jacket. His wants for necessity are so strong that when he sees kids like Dan and John, who he knows aren’t going to fight back; he is going to take what he thinks he can.
These acts of violence shape Canada’s life for future problems that he will have. It teaches him to stand up for himself and to never be a “victim” (pg. 5). When people give into being a victim it allows the other person to get away with what he/she was doing. It doesn’t show them that what they were doing was wrong. It encourages them to do it again because you let them do it. I believe that this moment allowed Canada to take a step back and look at the problem and learn something for his life in the future. It showed him to stand up for what is right and to discourage him from doing wrong. Through him witnessing this Canada is taught about not giving in and being a “victim” (pg. 50) to other people.
Canada learns violence not because it is part of him but because it is a part of the society he is in. His inner self knows violence is wrong but over all self preservation comes first. Survival is more important to him then following his personal morals. When your protector and moral leader (In this case Canada’s mother) tells them not only that violence is okay but tells them to commit an act of violence, they learn from there own mother that it is okay to hurt someone else to better your own life. This is not the way it should be, but nonetheless it is the way it is. You cannot blame Canada’s mother for this because it is out of necessity, not out of greed, that this violence is born. In order to find the source of this violence you must not look inside the ghetto’s that these poverty stricken individuals come from, but rather the ones that put them there.
I think the selfishness of those who run our country has gotten in the way of real progress being made. I think in order to better the overall standing of our country; the ones on top must sacrifice something. But the sad fact is that most of those who run our country are the ones on top. These that are on top are the ones who make the decisions that steer which direction our country is heading. But the sad fact is that most of those who are on top didn’t get there through kindness, empathy, or compassion. They got there because they had the arrogance and the aggressiveness to shove those below them lower. By climbing to the top of the latter they used those below them to support them. All the while as they do this they constantly say to them selves, “I’m only doing this so I can help people once I’m in.” But once they have taken there rightful place in society as the high class decision makers, they forget where they came from. They forget what morals drove them to succeed or what there dreams were of a better world. Now they dream of more money to fill there already drooping pockets with. The sad fact is that progress isn’t really being made, and those who realize it can’t or will not do anything to change it.
Geoffrey Canada learns about violence through his mother and his brothers. Violence and the victims all change though his life. First starting with his brothers and ending with his daughter being attacked. It starts when his brother’s jacket is stolen by another kid, Geoffrey isn’t even the victim he’s just a witness. He changes from the event on this day just as much as his brothers do. Their mother can’t let them think that their world, which is really just Harlem, is a harmless safe place. Geoffrey is just an onlooker but at the age of six is just as vulnerable as his older brothers in the park. The mother is put in the position of having to tell two of her sons that they need to stand up to the bully, and possibly use violence because she can’t afford to buy another jacket. She has to tell her innocent children that they can’t let people walk all over them and that they can’t be victims. She is endorsing violence, and as hard as that is for her she has to because she can’t afford for them to be the victims. Not only because she doesn’t have a lot of money, but because no mother would want her children coming home beaten up because they can’t stand up for themselves. She isn’t telling them to beat up the bully, but she’s telling them they need to get that jacket back and take the beating from the bully or else she’d beat them even worse when they come home. She even has to scare them into standing up to the bully because they’re too scared. This violence isn’t born out of anger or hatred. It is born out of necessity. They need the jacket because of the lack of money, but they also need to learn that they’re vulnerable and they have to fight to live. They need to learn about the violence of their community to survive. This shapes the way they look at the world. They don’t see the world as a friend, they see it as a place where violence is the key to survival.
At a young age Canada was forced to face the violence of society and use self defense to protect himself. As seen in a short excerpt from his life in his book on the other America, his brothers were taught to fight back and stand up for what was theirs. Canada was taught in a traumatizing conversation with his mother that it is ok to use violence and beat down someone. As Canada says “When asked about their violent behavior they’d often say their parents told them to” (p 6). This hatred is taught as a self defense to the children so that the parents will not have to worry about their children. On the day that the boy from the park took John’s jacket his mother finally found it necessary to educate her children on violence. Teaching of using violence is something that if it can be put off it should be put off. Violence in the ghetto is a vicious cycle that is never ending; violence is first taught to children as a self defense and eventually it turns to a weapon that is used against innocent others. Just as it is necessary for the whites to step up to stop the prejudice in society, the people of the ghetto have to rise up and stop this cycle of violence.
This relates back to the War in Iraq. The three religious branches can’t find a peace and are acting out in a violence that leads to deaths of people and the call to arms of young children. This brings us to the question of, was it the right thing to invade Iraq? This can be closely related to the question of, Should whites step in and interfere with the vicious violence that has plagued the ghetto? I will not go into an answer for these questions, but let you decide for I feel it will differ from person to person. Violence in the ghetto is born out of necessity, but it matures into hatred. After living in the ghetto for all of his childhood Canada sees violence as a part of his culture, a part of himself. Canada looks at life as a fight, one in which he is always losing. In the ghetto when Canada was a child, African Americans took out the hate they received from the whites on other blacks. This only contributed to the degrading life of the African Americans and for Canada it taught him that the only way things were to get done would be if he used force. This outlook is one that most African Americans have in common and it is a barrier we have to break down before we have a true racial equality.
Geoffrey Canada learns about violence at a young age when he witnesses his mother demanding that his brothers use violence to get back what is rightfully theirs. At the time, Canada doesn’t think it is fair to be encouraging violence in his brothers. Being only four years old, he doesn’t understand why his mother would demand that. Soon, however Canada is put into a position in which his own daughter is the one being bullied. When put into this situation he does the same thing his mother did. Like his mother Canada tells his daughter to fight back, and to not let people treat her like that. Like his mother, he does not want his child to become a victim. I believe that between these times Canada learned an important lesson about violence. That lesson being that violence has no rules. There is no right or wrong time to use violence, and the only way to protect yourself from it is if you use it as well. I believe that violence is a cycle, and the only way to not become a victim of violence is to teach it. By teaching it to his daughter he is furthering the cycle. Yet by doing this he is ultimately saving his daughter from becoming a victim. I believe that because of this cycle, it is a necessity for him to teach his daughter to use violence. He wants her to survive, so therefore she has to become part of the cycle. It is especially necessary because he resides in the ghetto, where violence is a huge part of everyday life. He has been surrounded by violence his whole life, encountering it first with the incident between his brothers and his mom, and then throughout his life. Because he, and everyone else who lives in the ghetto, have been surrounded by violence their whole lives, that is all they know. If it is all they know, it is all they know to teach. Therefore this just continues the cycle that appears to be unbreakable.
Geoffrey Canada was introduced to the dark ways of violence as such a young child and this has drastically influenced his life and career. This dark path has lead him to be a counselor in order to reduce the violence that has so changed his childhood. He was four years old when his brother’s jacket was stolen for a neighborhood kid in the park. His mother was a single mother and had to attend to 4 kids. After one day of play in the park Daniel and John, John came home without his jacket and his mother made him return to the park and get back his jacket no matter what it took. She wanted them to know that from that point on that they will never be victims again. Therefore this demonstrates that these children were “force-fed” violence behavior by their parents. Canada later on in his life at a last resort, taught his little girl not to be a victim to school-yard bullying. Thus, the chain of violence is spread through the mouth of the parents. I believe that the violence demonstrated in both of these examples was caused by parents telling their children not to take anymore from anybody. Canada’s first experience was caused by anger, not by the anger of his brothers but the anger of their mother and she struck fear into their hearts and made them loose their childhood innocence. Also their violence was a necessity, she couldn’t afford to buy another coat and needed to teach them how to stick up for themselves to avoid future problems. Canada noticed as a young child that this lesson being taught to his older brothers was wrong, but still he taught his very own daughter the same lesson. She was being brutally bullied by a girl on her bus with extremely long fingernails. This lesson, I believe , was born out of a last resort. He wanted more supervision on the buses but the school couldn’t afford it. So he made her not become a victim and therefore she lost her childhood innocence.
Young children are greatly influenced by their older siblings, which is how Canada learns about violence at an early age. Although I don't have any siblings to look up to, I've seen from my friends and family how large of an impact siblings make on a child. I've seen my cousin, who was my best friend as a child, evolve from an innocent little boy who joined in activites with me and his little sister to a quiet teenager who barely talks to me and plays video games with his older brothers. He even got an earring and dresses in baggy, sporty clothing, just like his college-age brother. Similar to this scenerio, Geoffrey Canada follows his older brothers lead. They introduce him to violence by beating up a child on the playground for stealing a jacket, and of course, Canada learns that violence is a way to get through in life. Canada and his brothers' violence definetely evolves in life, to the point where one of his brothers murder someone. However, this evolution can either get worse, or slowly fade in time. Now, Geoffrey is successful and most likely is not faced with vilence in his everyday life. This evolution is depended on your mindset and determination. If you are determined to break the circle of violence, you must make sacrifices. By not choosing violence as a way to survive, you will look weak and defenseless, but in the end it will pay off.
I believe that violence is created out of a combination of hatred, anger, and necessity. It all depends on where you live, how you think, and if you act based on your emotions. Some people find it difficult to control their emotions, and express anger through physical behavior. Their hatred or anger is so strong that they must find another way to maintain it, and do this by fighting. It is usually in a dangerous enviornment where people learn about violence through necessity. Violence is a way to survive in places such as the ghetto or a crime-filled, populated city. By being physically strong and able, one can defend themselves in a dangerous situation.
Personally, I have never been forced to survive using violence. I have never been angry enough to beat someone up. Even if I had wanted to beat someone up, I would fail because of my physical shape. I was never taught to use violence by my teachers, friends, or parents. This proves that violence is not omnipresent if you are living in a small and safe community.
Geoffery Canada learns about violence through events that happen to him growing up in the ghetto. He witnesses his family going to strife in pain when he realizes his family can not even afford a new jacket, but he learns about violence when he sees his mother demand that Dan and John stick up for themselves when a bigger boy takes a jacket of theirs. The mother says that they need to stick up for themselves in order to gain respect and to even survive in the ghetto. When his brother return with the jacket Canada gets a good look at the truth of what his mother said, he now thinks that when you use violence, you get what you want.
I believe that violence can be born out of anger, hatred and necessity because depending on your enviroment that surrounds you and the people that shape your experiences. Violence can be born out of anger and hatred if you are miss treated as a youth and are neglected by your parents and other family members in any sort of society suburbs or inner city. Violence is a necessity if you are living in any sort of ghetto or city, because you have to be able to defend yourself if needed.
His enviroment and his experiences has shaped his outlook on violence to be that if you are in need of respect or someone has pushed you around and taken advantage of you, you can't let them. He thinks that if you let someone push you around once, and you do not do anything about it then they will do it again and again until you decide to stand up for what you believe is right.
My comment isn't specifically for the question, it's just about racism in general.
Racism surrounds us. The color of our skin has played a ridiculously large part in determining whether or not we get the job we want, what areas of town we can live in, how much we get paid, whether or not we are secretly looked down upon, and in the past, which water fountains we could drink from. Yes, whites can all be sympathetic, but they will never fully understand the pain of being punished for racial differences or having to suffer the consequences of being born with a unique ethnicity. The African-American struggle for equality has minimally progressed, and the fence between white people and colored people has barely begun to break down. Troy, being an African-American, has faced the reality of being rejected by the white society. His incredible baseball playing and his inopportune lifestyle do not coincide, which destroys his dream, his persistence, and willingness to pass on the thrill of the game to his sons. His baseball career being one example of his inability to measure up to the whites in his society, he has grown to consider the white man his enemy. Troy associates “Death,” something he’s already defeated, with a fastball on the outside corner, which seems like just another one of Troy’s bragging moments. However, Death represents the white society that he has had to deal with for his whole life, but more importantly, the burden that his skin color has created for him and his family. His imaginary correlation between Death and a perfect pitch has been his vision for as long as he can remember, and what the African-American society still strives for today. A fastball on the outside corner is the best pitch a batter can get to “kiss it goodbye,” and Wilson’s simile between the pitch and the unjust racism towards colored people represents Troy’s everlasting hope for the black society. An end to racism and a final solution that would stop its interference and erase its influence on every last detail of history. Simply kissing the baseball goodbye and watching it fly off into the outfield, where a home run can be made carelessly. Troy’s inability to accept the fact that this pitch may not ever be made brings the point to another question; whether or not whites will allow the pitch to be followed through with. The white population has enjoyed the benefits of freedom, basked in the sunlight of equality, and has recently suffered from the life-changing determination on how to preserve our solid amount of national resources. Laws have been passed, state commissions have been established, and from the outside, the issue of equality looks like it’s been solved. And yet whites still steer away from colored people when they can. Whites continually say that they are for equality and they accept the African-American community members as equals, but when the opportunity is right in front of someone, they will go out of their way to avoid a person of color. Through the stubbornness, unwillingness, and unacceptability of the white society, the pitch to the colored society that would allow them to banish racism from the world is almost impossible.
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