even before death, laborers think about clothing production

imagery of standing on the edge, feeling the wind

shows human want for connection with other people

these women were jumping to their death to escape the factory

Triangle shirtwaste factory accident- showed the demand for better working conditions and led to a rise in unionization

all the smaller factors that combine to make the shirt, do these small factors represent the seperate instruments playing music?

They have more complex lives than just shirt production

Talks about the production process and steps to make the shirt, does this allude to the formation of something else like his music?

Reenforces that figurative aspect

The spoon and bowl melted by the heat of the fire which burned the house. All these are figurative so what part about the author could they represent? Her past, her present?

The house and breakfast are imaginary. Do the house and breakfast figuratively suggest her mind as the house and her thoughts as the breakfast? Her mind houses her past and its baggage

Fire can represent knowledge and awareness as well as destruction. Something that's burned has already met fire, so has this house seen destruction within its walls? Or rebirth, or knowledge, etc? Meals always have a deeper meaning, and breakfast starts the day. Is this breakfast to symbolize the beginning to a good productive day/ period, or does it symbolize the beginning of a destructive day or a day of healing/ reflection among the author?

Wind spreads fire quickly

She stands out to him

Poppies contain sources to make morphine, is she like a drug?

Small yet effective and impactful

Tigers wouldn't take the time to admire the beauty of a rainbow like humans would. Is she missing a bigger concept or refusing to see beauty?

Banker- she burns at the expense of others like bankers, who does the banker represent?

The fire gets stronger and more exaggerated

oil and water don't combine they separate and oil goes to the surface. Is she conflicting herself or internally arguing/ separated?

oxymoron, burning and dry ice. Dryness is exaggerated here

oxymoron, burning and dry ice. Dryness is exaggerated here

The public ignores those who "burn," describes "we" as mindless and ignorant

Fiery persona, dusk is when it's the most intense

Repetition of "she burns," does this represent aggression or passion or sensitivity? Thin-shaped valley seems like a trap, it's think and hangs low, does she feel trapped?

The girl is fragile and delicate, paper burning means she can vanish easily with the traces of ash

He carries the cry but it's not his, it belongs to a girl

Starts poem off with cry and down, so a sad mood

Will everybody get a small piece, or explode as in never exist again and fail?

sag like a disappointment or failed dream/ aspiration or weighs one down like a heavy load on their back

syrup implies slow so while equality seems sugary sweet, the act of actually obtaining it is a slow process like syrup

Sugar as in sugar coated? Not the whole truth?

A dream which is a goal/aspiration, now turned stinky and unreachable and bothersome

Once you acknowledge this dream, it flees and becomes unreachable

Instead of lose life and interest, does it bother you? Does it remain to linger and serve as a reminder which hurts you

old and dry

loses life or interest

Sets the poems topic and subject

bent up in a stairway- in a difficult situation or circumstance

Boasting about wealth

Another gun mentioned

Street clothes to blend in, but there's peepholes, do these peepholes uncover his true identity/ self?

holding a gun, does that make him more serious now? Does this make his threats go away?

Scarface let the fame and things that came with the fame get to his head, so is Nas saying that the pain gets to his head?

Composition- is he saying it all starts with him?

His rhythm is unique compared to other rappers

A lot on his mind he has to organize into a song

If the rap isn't authentic or the rapper lies, they probably won't get that success or fame

Rap has dungeons, some don't make it out to success or fame- it's hard to get out

Building/hying up for the song to start

Why is over capitalized? The growth of victory is more important

repetition from first line-- sense of desprate established

repetition-- author wants the reader to know they want growth but are kept in a place where it cannot happen (where it is dry)

If it's dry, growth can't happen like in the dark gardening mentioned before

Wolves and coyotes howl and make noise-- more conflicting factors

A cold which uncontrolably spins them and a heat which paralyzes them. Opposite senses conflicting or coming together to collectively handicap the speaker

An overwhelming feeling, maybe hopelessness, which takes control of the senses

Growing something but maybe the wrong thing, like a fear

They are desprate for authentic strength

She's awake she doesn't look the best but there's also no audience, no one to judge her

Not knowing ballet is stopping her from expressing herself

Ballet is comprised of movements to express emotion, so does this first stanza relate to her emotional maturity or ability to express herself?

It's probably still frustrating though to hear white girls saying the n-word, even if they're just singing along, because that word is still so divisible and painful for African-Americans to hear, especially from non-black people. As long as that word still carries pain and oppression with it, it's still going to cause arguments based on whether it should be said by certain people or not.

Education on this issue shouldn't primarily fall onto the African-American community, I think it's silly to believe that Black people are responsible for educating others on the history and hurt behind the n-word. People need to educate themselves at some point and not rely on others to explain why something hurts them-- sometimes it's just common sense why you shouldn't say certain things.

With white people saying the n-word, they may feel that desire to do so because as it's later stated in the article, they're raised in a society which communicates to them that everything belongs to them.

I've never looked at it this way before, and this paragraph was a very strong and moving paragraph.

More shocking to hear when it's said by someone who shouldn't say it and used it as an insult

Gloria gives examples of how the word has developed different uses within different situations.

She could recognize in her third-grade class that that wasn't supposed to be said to her even though she's heard it before- this establishes the importance of context, meaning, and consensus.

Represents the environment this little boy has grown up in, no little kid should know those words let alone remember them and know to use them as an insult or when they get mad

not harmful or offensive.

The complexity of life or experiences can just be too rich to describe even with vast languages.

With written words, the writer has time to think out what they're going to say, with spoken words, they just role off the tongue. So with writing, people have time re-read and take back any mistakes, but with spoken words they just role off the tongue, so they could be more harmful because it's easier to just say mistakes than write them because writing gives that buffer time to consider what's going be be released and re-written.

at first I thought I understood this phrase and agreed with it, I thought the poet meant they didn't want their work to be restricted because the writer themselves wasn't white. But now I understand that was the writer fearing their own self, their own skin color, their own features because they wouldn't be accepted by the public opinion.

used to oppress the works of black people, making their racial work seem like it can never obtain success unless it's fallen to the assimilation of standardization.

a place like a nightclub where entertainment is preformed before a watchful audience.

if their music can be widely accepted and celebrated, soon too, then, could their art and individualistic expressions be accepted as well.

Black artists are opposed by their own race unintentionally and possibly made to feel like a burden

Black artists have whites and their own race supressing their work and individualistic expression.

white culture preferred over black culture by the public and reasserts this standardization.

individualism and expression comes without limits and endless possibilities to take form in

restrictions and pressures of assimilation in order to be accepted by society

the majority is "low-down" because thats their only option, society doesn't give them equal opportunities for success

Put themselves in places and surround themselves with as little colored people as possible to be better accepted and fit in.

Bad behavior associated with being Black. Certain stereotypes so deeply enforced by society that Black people would tell their own kids that phrase.

Black artists wanted to fit in to the only praised and appriciated group of America: whiteness.

Quality of work might be affected if the poet is subconsciously doubting/ wishing circumstances were different.

the tempting fruit just within reach but unobtainable

Tantalus was punished by Zeus and consequently forever thirsty even though stood in a pool, and forever hungry, almost in reach of a fruit tree.

is "mirrors" referring to a double consciousness? one day the double consciousness must be shed

Cullen was gay and scared no one would accept this about him. He didn't tell that many people

Grew up religious and with a religious family

importance to start from the ground instead of starting halfway to prosperity and success

dreams of prosperity obtained by humble beginnings

Washingtons ideals that individuals should build themselves up from the ground to prosperity.

smarts can only get you so far but if you don't have a way to use that intellect for a job or to obtain success, it's not serving you

reference to his atlanta compromise speech where he calls whites and blacks as separate fingers but working together as the hand

accepted reality, didn't fight for rights or try to change injustice

Start from the bottom, not any higher, build yourself up to prosperity

advocated industrial trades and humble occupations

accommodationist- adapts to or compromises for another point of view

Establishing a quality within someone but not making a whole new person

Many unique minds, perspectives, opinions, ideologies, biases, etc

Being the worst of a population is so much easier than being the best. Being a role model takes time, effort, and commitment but being the worst is easier to spread.

Du Bois claimed role models must be established to carry the image of the race and better the worst in their own races.

White people believed that if they allowed for black artistic expression, then the artists would be contempt that their work is utilized. No goal, just contempt, and he doesn't support.

W.E.B. claims that Washington is just a follower. He claims Washington is too afraid to fight for equality so he just follows the advice from white people. He calls the financial advisors of Washington "deadly bribes."

Indirect but obvious reference to Booker T. Washington.

The same way art interpretations holds so many possibilities, widened perspectives

Only the individual can romanticize their life, one the observer can determine what they precieve as beauty and what they don't.

Beauty can bring truth with it and they go hand-in-hand. Does beauty bring worth?

Each generation grows up and lives with different problems, different issues, different forms of oppression, but also different opprotunities.

Creating a sense of responsibility for restoration

Ending his mention of beautiful things with the South, but not the location, the music he heard filling the South.

Whites may not realize the true intent of those questions because they wouldn't understand what Du Bois means by a beautiful America- an accepting, equal America

Asking the audience to look beyond the present and current problems. Puts the audience in a position they probable haven't been before, and ask a question they probably haven't been asked before.

Whites will never know the hardships and misery black Americans have been through.

Civil unrest is already tiring enough and any art they make shouldn't have to be judged

Alaine Locke's perspective, that art should be in authentic form without altercations to prove a point. W.E.B. states this view and is nor about to rebuttal

This social dilemma, art or propaganda, is anthropogenic and we live in the middle of the problem, surrounded by the falsehoods we spread through artistic expression.

To this day, most art is tainted with propaganda and it's rare to find an authentic artistic piece free of any trace of propaganda.

young writers have been closed off by a cultural limiting public, so their native and fulfilling expression has been chipped away at.

Ones feelings of inferiority must be held accountable rather than just blindly justified and with that transpiration the small group following blind justification must face a superior feeling majority.

Alain Locke claims propaganda asserts inferiority among groups and attacks those it seeks to down play. Propaganda is too easily spread to control, so one wishing to obtain individualistic expression must make the sophisticated decision, propaganda or art.

Represents how racial injustice continued throughout several generations just taking on various forms and altercations as time passed.

Somewhat represents the idea of double-consciousness and even Washington, when he funded Jim Crow opposing organizations and Black newspapers.

2 other figures with differing views but within the civil rights movement period. MLK advocated for confrontational and peaceful protests such as marches, boycotts, and sit-ins, while Malcom X promoted more violent approaches such as riots.

Just as the poem we had to annotate as well, Washington speaks his views first, and Du Bois follows with his rebuttal.

Since Washington was born a slave, it's easier to understand why he has such views. He was born into an oppressive system and may not see a light at the end of the tunnel that Du Bois saw in which protesting for reform would bring him closer to.

One of the common grounds shared between Washington and Du Bois, both were highly-educated individuals.

My Harlem Renaissance figure, Ida B. Wells, was also a founder of the NAACP.

Washington was tasked with the objective to publicly speak to a majority-white crowd upon race relations and justice.

Washington was born into slavery, which Du Bois was not. This differing factor could contribute to their differing views concerning the strive for racial equality.

Refers to the various approaches to obtain racial equality presented from 2 different advocates. This problem has spread over generations and media outlets upon national coverage.

Introduction to the differing ideologies between activists Washington and Du Bois