Smashing One’s Dreams
...the African Americans knew this was what their future consisted of. They felt there were no other opportunities for them in life. At that time, blacks felt they had a limited amount of choices to choose from, so they went along with what the white men said. African Americans knew they too had the brain power to conquer the world, but they feared to do so. Blacks were told by the white males that they could never be like “Galileo, Curie, and Edison” (Angelou, 794) because they were not smart enough. The young African American children were told they should become athletes like four-time gold medalist Jesse Owens, and the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Joe Louis. By idolizing Louis and Owens, it stereotyped Black Americans, making it look like they were not as bright and well educated as the white men and women. African-Americans felt degraded and ashamed when they were told these things. How could you blame them? After these ignorant words had been preached to the blacks, it was as if their dreams had been smashed. Mr. Donleavy shattered the graduating class’s dreams into pieces during his speech at their graduation. He took their happiness away from them. The black men and women knew that they were not going to be anything more than “maids and farmers, handymen, and washerwomen” (Angelou, 795). When Donleavy and his helpers left the auditorium, each head of the graduating class dropped. The graduating class should have remembered William Ernest Henley’s words “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” The tragedy of racial segregation had been occurring before and after the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1950s. Blacks were not receiving the same constitutional certainties because of their color. The black society heard the same words repeatedly. The white men were trying to paint an ugly picture for African- American men and women. During Mr. Donleavy’s speech, Maya Angelou and her graduating class were reminded of their uncertainties and the feeling of being unwanted. At the time, the white population believed they were God’s race, and they made the black society feel worthless and unappreciable. The graduating class at Angelou’s high school did not want their moment of accomplishments taken from them, and when it was, they felt useless. The American Dream was composed of values, justice, and equality that the Americans were not living up to. At the time, the United State of America was not a place of equality or justice towards African Americans, including Angelou’s class. People of color were not receiving the freedom they deserved, the same freedom which the white men did. African Americans did not have any control of t...