Segregation, prejudice, and discrimination have been problematic and wrong for a long time, and it’s important we try to fight it due to all the negative aspects and detriments they can bring. Brown Girl Dreaming is a memoir written by Jacqueline Woodson that traces her childhood from her birth in 1963 through the Civil Rights Movement. Born in Ohio, Jacqueline's family moves between Ohio and South Carolina due to her parents' troubled relationship. After her parents separate, Jacqueline, her siblings, and their mother settle in New York City. Jacqueline navigates a new life and tries to settle into her new experiences while still missing her grandparents in South Carolina, especially her grandfather, who later dies. Despite struggles with reading, Jacqueline discovers her love for storytelling and writing, a passion that deepens as she grows. The memoir shows how Jacqueline develops throughout the story and becomes more mature and aware of the social issues beyond, and how important it is to stop actions that constitute prejudice or discrimination like segregation.
Segregation has many horrible effects that are seriously detrimental to other people, and it can be very harmful, which is why it’s important to stop it. When people discriminate against others, this causes some people to get advantages and unfair opportunities while others have to struggle and work harder in order to rise. In Brown Girl Dreaming, racial prejudice not only hinders Jacqueline and her family by making them unable to go to certain places, racial prejudice and the prejudice from slavery also results in economic disadvantages for Woodson’s family. For example, when Georgiana must go back to work, the only job available to her as a black woman is housework for white families, which is difficult, long work that is not especially well paid. However, other families that are white can have much better opportunities simply because of the color of their skin, which is completely unfair. Other ways that black people suffer from segregation is that what they get is often lower quality, such as the education. Segregation stifles the creativity and innovation of other races which is detrimental to all because of how they can have good suggestions and benefit our world if they’re given a chance. We need to remember to try and stop segregation in order to help improve our world and create more equality.
The importance of desegregation is in how it can help reduce inequality and help more people gain the same advantages as others and benefits many people. Desegregation causes many races to become less limited in what they can do and will reduce prejudice and discrimination which will also benefit other races. In Brown Girl Dreaming, despite how their town has been desegregated, bringing many benefits, there is still the lingering problem of how socially, everything is still nearly the same. Everyday, Jacqueline has to face racism and prejudice still despite how they should be equal. When Jacqueline tries to go and just get ice cream, something that should be fun and simple, she learns more about the way that others judge them based on their race, showing how embedded discrimination is in even the most unremarkable moments of her life. Desegregation helps limit this by reducing the ways that people of other races can be discriminated against, allowing for more people to have to face less problems. The many problems that people of other races have to face can be reduced by desegregating their lives. Desegregation provides many benefits that can relieve numerous people of a burden that they already have to carry many of.
Family is extremely important in our lives because it allows us to defeat obstacles that would otherwise be too much for us and too dangerous. Our family will always be there for us and will try their best to benefit us and help us, and will allow us to do many more things than we could before. Our family is incredibly important and should always support us. In Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline used to believe that the biological features she had in common with others were what made them family, but when she moved, and met more and more people like her, she expands her idea of family and starts believing that rather being based on blood, family ties can be based on love. Jacqueline's view of family evolves from one that only encompasses biological relatives to one that includes everyone that makes her feel comfortable and accepted amongst them. Jacqueline’s family is always there for her and tries to help her through all her changes. Our family is a crucial part of our lives due to how they benefit and help us during life, and always try to continue doing the best thing for us. We have to remember to respect our family and how they try their best to be our ally as opposed to an enemy.
Brown Girl Dreaming is a fantastic collection of poems that serve to teach important themes that include how detrimental segregation is to our health and how harmful it can be, how helpful and powerful desegregation is because of how it reduces the limits of other races, and finally how crucial our family is in our lives due to how they help and benefit us. Segregation forces many other races to be restricted to less sources of knowledge, of information, and of resources, which can be really harmful. Desegregation however can allow other people to be more innovative and creative, which can benefit many people and help increase the world’s equality. Finally, our family is not restricted by our blood but rather by those who accept and love us, and it is crucial that we remember this so we can receive more benefits rather than harm. Brown Girl Dreaming is an amazing book and I recommend it for all readers.
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