I was in class one-day right, and my teacher told the class that we had an open letter essay about the book she assigned us. In my head I was thinking not another essay I get so tired doing them so it was a pain trying to start the beginning of this essay but in case you haven’t read the book “I Know Why a Caged Bird Sings” is by a girl name Maya Angelou, and it tells the story of her life and how hard it was for black people to live back in her time.
When I started reading the book I still had no clue what I was going to write about, but then I came across the quote and chapter three Mr. Steward, the white former sheriff, comes to warn Momma that the whites are on the warpath because they say a black man has “messed with” a white woman. I instantly knew what I wanted to write about when I came to chapter 7 when “Momma does not believe it is safe for black people to speak to whites and certainly not with insolence. She does not speak too harshly of whites even in their absence unless she generically refers to whites as “they. It happens all throughout the book towards the end at chapter 24 Maya develops an excruciating toothache. The nearest black dentist practices twenty-five miles away, so Momma takes Maya to see Dr. Lincoln, a white dentist in town. During the Great Depression, Momma loaned money to many people, including Dr. Lincoln. Now she believes he owes her a favor. When they arrive, Dr. Lincoln states that he does not treat black patients. That’s when the deal was set and I was going to make this essay about slavery and how racism is still around to this day.
Like Maya Angelou I am an African American and I’m writing this letter to inform the people who promote racism, and think you’re better than us African Americans and the people who aren’t noticing that it’s still around to this day just last year there was a big break out of racism out in Ferguson. And there’s been more like it all over the world. The purpose of me writing this letter is to try to stop the movement of racism and to wake up everyone’s eyes and to help stop the progress of racism. Let’s try to do better in our households and start by teaching our children that everyone is equal no matter the race.
When Maya Angelou was a kid black people didn’t have a voice to make changes in the world but we do now and it’s time for us to start making changes in the world. We don’t have to let anyone push us around we can stand up for ourselves because everyone is equal no matter the race and that’s what the past has taught me and hey I guess writing this essay wasn’t so bad after all.
