How ″Negro″ and ″Ballad of Birmingham″ are relevant and relate to what is happening currently

How ″Negro″ and ″Ballad of Birmingham″ are relevant and relate to what is happening

currently

Racism is one of the most contentious issues that we face in our society today. Many
people in our community today are concerned about the fairness, discrimination, and prejudice
faced by various racial groups. Known as one of the world's most multicultural and open
societies, the United States of America is also a notoriously racist one. However, the African
slave trade contributed to a racist society in America by degrading African races and persuading
Caucasian Americans that they were superior to the African-Americans. Racism is a severe
disease of society that can lead to various unexpected outcomes. Although this disease is
primarily a mental illness, various social, economic, and even political variables play a role in its
genesis. Using the two poems ′′Negro′′ and ′′Ballad of Birmingham′′, this thesis discusses racism,
its causes, and its effect on society.
Discrimination based on race has a negative influence on people's well-being. There is
tremendous psychological stress, even if minorities aren't targeted directly by violence. Having
to deal with discrimination and its ramifications tends to detract from one's sense of well-being,
causing stress and, in some cases, health concerns. Black people are also less likely than white
people to receive high-quality medical care. Black people do not always have access to proper
health insurance or medical care, as evidenced by this case study.

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There are seven times as many black people in jail today than white people, four times as
many of them are given death sentences as white people, and the average term for black men is
ten months longer. White District Attorneys make up 98 percent of all DAs, while black jurors
face more significant challenges than whites. Black people in the United States suffer an ever-
present threat of racism and violence in the "Ballad of Birmingham." In Randall's view, during
the early 1960s, in Birmingham, Alabama, a mother's fear that her daughter would be harmed or
killed by white nationalists led to the inspiration for this poem. That's why she convinces her
daughter to join a church that seems like a safe refuge. Once again, an African American mother
is forced to confront the reality that no place in a racist society is immune from attack as Nazis
bomb her church. In the poem Negro, the author claims that the black "soul" has become "deep"
because it has absorbed all of this historical knowledge. Slavery's effects on African-American
culture are evident in the poem's assertion that black cultural identity is ongoing, spanning the
violence and displacement of slavery, and that black people have made essential but often
overlooked contributions to human civilization.
Affluent African-Americans are more distrustful of white society, according to recent
research. College-educated blacks are more likely to believe that "the government deliberately
investigates black elected officials to discredit them," "the government deliberately makes sure
that drugs are easily available in poor black neighborhoods to harm black people," and that "the
virus which causes AIDS was deliberately created in a laboratory to infect black people." When
Hughes states, "They lynch me still in Mississippi," in Negro, he is describing a culture of deadly
oppression (Hughes, 27). The setting, speaker, tone, and diction are only a few literary devices
that Hughes employs to help the reader better grasp his poetry. The 1963 bombing of a
Birmingham, Alabama, church inspired the song "Ballad of Birmingham. “During the Civil

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Rights Movement, four young Black girls were slain in a blast at the 16th Street Baptist Church
by white nationalists” (Randall, 4).
Discrimination against African-Americans in the United States extends far beyond
isolated incidents, as evidenced by the breadth of incidents documented in various walks of life.
Racial imbalances affect nearly every area of public and commercial organizations, including
health care and the police. Racism in policy and practice must be combated through institutional
measures, as evidence of systemic bias suggests. Nonviolent resistance to racism advocated by
Civil Rights leaders, in the early 1960s in Southern cities like Birmingham were turbulent bu