Maya Angelou spoke about racial discrimination in her poem "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" whereby the African-Americans lacked the freedom enjoyed by the whites. As a child, had adverse childhood experiences where she and other African and Mexican-Americans and lived in fear and lead restricted lives as portrayed by the caged bird whose “wings are clipped and feet are tied”. The clipped wings are a symbol of being unable to flee the cage while tied feed symbolizes the lack of freedom of movement. In the situation, childhood experience she encountered included multiple conflicts with white kids, denial of natural rights which made the stage of life full of anger and frustration and the feeling of being marginalized. There was racial discrimination, harassment, and assault of children of the non-white American community, and was much worse for Maya, who was a woman.
The freedom of the caged bird is taken away and he is only left with one choice, to open his throat and sing, for that is the only thing that makes him happy. This symbolized Maya’s real life and that of the African-American family where they were caged in racial discrimination, felt helpless, pitiful and sad and were left with writing about freedom as the only thing that made them happy. While the whites were free and could own the sky, Maya and her family were oppressed, restricted by their “clipped wings” and could do nothing other than writing songs and poems, sing and dance, keeping the hope that one day they would be freed. Throughout the poem, it elaborates the life of an American black woman and gives an insight into how they had to struggle while lingering in poverty on their own. Like the caged bird who refused to stop singing, Maya herself never gave up and constantly kept expressing herself through her writings and poems.
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Advocacy Plan
Area of Focus: The goal of the plan would be to fight against racial discrimination and ensure equality in justice and freedom for all Americans regardless of their skin color.
| Potential Allies | Common Goals | Resources/strengths | Potential Obstacles |
|
Human Rights Activists Law Practitioners Community Members Federal Antidiscrimination Agencies |
Agitation for equal human rights Missions to end racial discrimination |
Support from the communities Government financial aids Law practitioners to take up cases against human rights |
Stereotyping of the black community Inadequate support from some community members, especially the white conservatives Inadequate finance |
Action Plan-First Step: To create awareness about racial the existence of racial discrimination and the lowest community level.
| Research/Training | Planning/Organizing | Implementation | Review/Revise/Revisit |
|
Counseling oriented training programs for the community Research by the FAA in areas prone to discrimination |
Planning to employ community members who are both blacks and whites and their active participation | Taking the team with members from the potential allies to communities and schools to educate people. | After a given time, the team would visit the areas prone to racial discrimination and see if any change shall have occurred. |
