Assignment 1

In “No Country for Black Boys”, Joy Priest is referring to the discrimination between

Black man and White man privilege in America. In the poem, he writes about Trayvon Martin

who was a young black man, killed on the street of Florida on neighborhood watch. Joy

mournfully writes that the sole crime that Martin had committed was not carrying a weapon, but

being a black, young man that he was. The white men enjoy white privilege obliviously whereas

the blacks spend their whole life explaining that white privilege exists.

Peggy Mcintosh explains in her writing how white people carry their skin color as an asset and

on the contrary, blacks carry their skin as a liability while residing in the US. She has mentioned

a list of white privilege that she enjoys every day unwittingly and has decided to embrace them.

She writes, “I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and

behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.” This daily privilege is an example of

systemic racism because it is deeply-rooted in the society. As soon as a black man comes on the

road to protest, the next minute he is found with the cops.

Audre Lorde’s phrase “for the master’s tool will never dismantle the master’s house” means that

the individuals I a society should not and cannot be clattered together. The master’s tool refer to

patriarchy and the phrase literally means that patriarchy itself can never bring down a patriarchal

society.