Racism: Have Things Changed?

Racism. Has it changed?  Yes, but not enough. We now live in a civilization where black people have the same rights a white person.  However, we still have racism in our world today.  Racism has changed with people believing in the equality of black people and having laws that treat black people equally.  Racism, in the past, wasn’t illegal, but it was normal, with white families owning slaves, and treating them horribly as well.  Even after the Civil War, the government and the white southerners had laws against black people, putting the white people above anyone else.  For example, The Jim Crows laws made it legal for racial segregation against black people. This took place in the southern US. They had separated white people and coloured people, using different sections for black people on buses and trains, and making them go to different schools. The segregation on the bus led to The Montgomery Bus Boycott. This action protested the government with the separation and the mistreatment of black people. Racism has changed over time.  Black people were given the same Human Rights and equality of treatment that white people had.  Martin Luther King was a huge activist for the black community and became a well-known leader in the Civil Rights Movement. Other people and groups like Malcom X and The Black Panther group fought against racism and segregation. However, even though laws have changed and some racist attitudes have changed over time, there is still racism and stereotyping in our world.  The treatment of black people and other non-white people still exists in our society today.

Sonnet 116 Analysis

Sonnet 116 Analysis

In Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare, he talks about love and how it is everlasting. He brings forth this message through the literary devices of metaphor, personification and paradoxes. In his sonnet, he says “Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks” Here, he uses metaphor to tell us that love will not diminish over time. Even though we age, love will persist. He also uses personification when he says “Love is not love/which alters when it alteration finds, / Or bends with the remover to remove.” This quote shows that love “alters”, “bends”, and “removes”. This are human qualities which love cannot actually possess. A paradox Shakespeare uses is “Within his bending sickle’s compass come; /Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, / But bears it out even to the edge of doom.” This is an absurd statement that may actually turn out to be true. In real life, love may very well persist until death. In Shakespeare’s sonnet, he uses several devices to show how love is deep, rich and everlasting.