"Uncle Bucks Loves Jesus, Sometimes." #5-7

In the book The Big Mama Stories by Shay Youngblood, there is a short story called “Uncle Buck Loves Jesus, Sometime”. During the story, Big Mama’s half brother Uncle Buck comes to stay with them for a bit while Uncle Buck and his wife, Miss Red, cool their tempers. The women in the community usually pass on their wisdom to the narrator, but not this time. In this story, Uncle Buck is passing down his thoughts and wisdom to the narrator. While teaching her trick moves for checkers, he lectures her about men and God. He taught her that women do not need men in their lives to make them happy. Women should only bow down to Jesus and no one else because you should not let any man use you as a “whipping dog”. Uncle Buck also said going to church did not mean you were better than any Christian not attending church. As long as you believed in him and prayed, you loved him, but in your own way.

One of the values that seemed to be important in this story was that you couldn’t rely on Jesus for everything. You shouldn’t expect him to help you through every struggle in life. You have to learn how to do things on your own, but just keep in your mind and prayers. God will always be by your side, but you can’t expect him to only take care of you. They’re a million of us on this world and we can’t be selfish. Another value that I saw was to believe in God in your own way. Everyone out there who believes in God doesn’t all believe in the same thing and does not praise him the same way. We each have our own unique way of praising him.

I learned that Uncle Buck values that hard work does pay off in the end and that praying could only get you so far in life. In order to be successful in life, you have to work for it. I also learned from Uncle Buck that “anybody can kill a man, but you can’t kill a evil”. He says that it takes time and prayers and standing up for what you believe in, even if you have to die for it. You can’t expect life to just hand you the good things. You have to work hard and earn it.

"An Independent Woman"

After reading "An Independent Woman" by Shay Youngblood, I learned that the black women in the community had the value of sticking together. A man may get in between friendships once in a while, but in the end, women will always have their special bond. For example, Miss Tweedie and Aunt Mae became friends after that situation. Another value I learned while reading this story is the value of honestly. Lying won't get you anywhere. It will just get you into some trouble. For example, Aunt Mae wouldn't tolerate liars. She wouldn't keep them around in her life unless they were being truthful with her. Aunt Mae always said that you should never leave with a man unless you have money in your pockets. As women, we don't need to depend on men to get by with life. We are just as strong as they are and we can do things for ourselves without their help. There are many successful women in our society today that are single and independent. You don't see them relying on a man to have a successful life. Therefore, we don't need men. We just need to be independent women.

"The Story of the Eagle, A West African Folktake"

While reading “The Story of the Eagle, A West African Folktale” that was retold by Edward Robinson, I found that Uncle Tom was the antagonist. The main character, Turk, was a young eagle born among chickens. He believed himself to be a chicken because Uncle Tom told him so, but was told otherwise by the old eagle that had spotted him from the sky. Turk finally learned the truth about himself.

The first value I noticed in this story was the value of being yourself. Dr. Seuss always said, “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” Every single person in this world isn’t exactly the same. We are all unique with our own different characteristics. For example, Uncle Tom tried to be just like the chickens and ended up losing his identity as an eagle. I believe you shouldn’t try to be like someone else because then you lose your own identity. The other value that I found was learning about your family’s culture and history. Learning about your family culture can teach you a lot about yourself and where you came from. It can also help teach you about the struggles your ancestors experienced to get where your family is today. Turk may never have met his parents, but learning about them showed him who he truly was.

I found value in this story because it reminded me of how I need to be true to myself. I shouldn’t worry about what other people think and try to impress them. This story can still relate to our modern day society because there are still many people out there trying to be someone who they aren’t. Therefore, I believe that instead of trying to be someone they aren’t, they should learn about their family history and who they truly are underneath all the materialistic objects.

"Cindy Ellie"

"Cindy Ellie" is a short story written by Mary Carter Smith in the book Talk That Talk which is similar to the story of Cinderella. The main character Cindy is left with only a father after her mother dies. However, one day her Father falls for a women that has a pretty face, big legs, and great big hips. She was the new addition to their family, but along with her came her two ugly daughters. Once the they had moved into the house, Cindy was made to sleep on a pallet in the cellar and her life changed. The elected mayor was throwing his inauguration ball at the convention center for two nights, which his son Toussaint had come home from college to attend. Instead of joining the two gals in getting ready for the ball, Cindy was busy giving the them perms, jheri curls, and facials. While she was crying her heart out on her hard pallet, her godma decided to pay a visit. Her godma helped Cindy get ready for the ball. She turned onions into cars, mice into chauffers, and her ragged clothes into beautiful gowns. The mayor's son noticed her the moment she walked into the ball. Cindy made it back home on time the first night, but the second night she didn't realize it was midnight already. As she was running out of the ball, she had left a sandal behind. The mayor's son kept it and searched for her. He had every lady in town try it on, but no one could fit it. He then reached Cindy's house, but it didn't fit her stepsisters. She then asked the prince if she could try it on and it was the perfect fit. Therefore, they lived happily ever after.

I enjoyed reading this story because it was another version of the original Cinderella story I've heard before. There are so many different versions out there, but this one was not my favorite. I did not like the fact that her godma gave her braids as a hairstyle even if th

ere were real gold beads at the ends of them.

The two new vocabulary words that I found while reading this story was jheri curl and sumptous. I have heard of the word jheri curl before but never knew what it meant until now. As stated on Wikipedia, the jheri curl is a hairstyle that was common and popular in the African American community in the late 1970s. It was invented by Willie Morrow and named after Jheri Redding, the man who made it popular. The jheri curl gave the wearer a glossy, loosely curled look. The other word sumptuous is defined as extremely costly, rich, luxurious, or magnificent. Now I understan what they were talking about when they said "...the table was loaded with sumptuous food".

The character that I didn't like in this story was Cindy's father. If he loved his daughter so much, he wouldn't let the stepmom and stepsisters treat Cindy that way. He would let her get all dolled up for the ball and join them. Instead, he left her home alone to cry her little heart out. If my own father did that to me, I wouldn't even help my stepsisters get ready. I would let them get ready all on their own and look like crap. Why should I suffer? No thanks.

Character Profile III - Frank

The play "Flyin' West" by Pearl Cleage is about Miss Leah, Sophie, Fannie, and Minnie.  They're a group of black women who decided that they wanted to live a free life.  To be free, they chose to move west of the nation.  One major conflict throughout the story is about Minnie's husband Frank.  He is a mulatto man who believes that superiority lies within the white race.  The moment Frank swept Minnie off of her feet, he moved her to London to get away from the colored people.  He believed that a town filled with white men and women was much better than living in a town full of colored folks.

Frank's character in the play symbolized the light skinned colored men back in this era who criticized other folks if they were not white or if they did not have light skin.  Colorism is a form of discrimination in which human beings are accorded differing social and treatment based on skin color. During the play, Frank discriminated against everyone in Nicodemus.  He even discriminated against his own wife Minnie and her family. He was an abusive husband and didn't care much for her because she had a darker skin tone.  On their train ride to Nicodemus, Frank had been talking to a few white men and told them that she was a black whore that he had won in a card game.  Frank is embarassed to be seen with Minnie.  He doesn't want other people to know that he is married to a women with a dark skin complexion. 

Frank is a mulatto man.  Mulatto is defined as a person having one white parent and one black parent.  The tragic mulatto is a stereotypical fictional character that appeared in American literature during the 19th and 20th centuries.  The tragic mulatto is depicted as the victim of the society he/she lives in, a society divided by race.  Frank takes part in this role during the play in a scene when he talks to Minnie about his father's will and how he may not get a share in it. He talks to her about how his brother's might not claim.  He says that his brother's don't even have to claim him because he looks just like them.  Frank is a man that is very much concerned with living the good life along with the white folks instead of doing what's right.  He would rather be in a community filled with white people who only care about their wealth than join his fellow people in trying to survive and keep their own free land.  

Flyin' West: Act 1

In the play "Flyin' West" by Pearl Cleage, there are two major situations occurring. Sophie is trying to convince colored folks not to sell their land to the white people. She believes that colored folks should have the right to own their own free land. Sophie wants the town to be colored folks only. Another situation is between Frank and Minnie's family. Frank is Minnie's husband and they come down to the frontier to visit her family. Sophie, Minnie's "sister", dislikes Frank very much because he married Minnie too fast and moved her away to England. Frank is ashamed of being colored and hates being around colored people. Frank is an abusive husband towards Minnie and doesn't care for her feelings. Frank loses his temper one day and the family witnesses his abusiveness towards Minnie.

In the play, I enjoy reading about the stories that Miss Leah has to tell the girls. They show me how life used to be back then. Her stories told us about all the abuse they had received from the white slave owners and how she was raped by a man that was much older than her. Miss Leah had gone through so much in her life and is aiding the girls with their lives. She gives them advice and helps them handle certain situations.

A new vocabulary word that I found while reading this play was pickaninnies. This word is defined as the dominant racial caricature of black children for most of this country's history. Picaninnies had bulging eyes, unkempt hair, red lips, and wide mouths into which they stuffed huge slices of watermelon. Another word I found was speculator. It was a person who trades derivatives, commodities, bonds, equalities, or currencies with a higher-than-average risk in return for a higher-than-average profit potential.

I dislike Frank very much. His attitude towards life is just ugly. He believes the white people are better than colored folks. Personally, I don't think they are any better than another race. Frank also is very abusive towards his wife because she has colored skin. If he wanted a white women as his wife then why didn't he just look for a white women instead. Why did Frank have to marry Minnie and then just abuse her later on? I believe he is sick in the mind. All he cares about is blending in with the white folks and having money like the white folks.

"Predators"

"Predators", a short story in the book The Mee Street Chronicles: Straight Up Stories of a Black Woman's Life by Frankie Lennon, describes the feelings people had back in the day about homosexuals. The author describes one of her days at Allen's Lounge. While waiting for her usual drink, the CBS Evening News came on. Walter Cronkite, the newscaster, started off the evening with the story of the "Save Our Children" campaign. This was a campaign ran by Anita Bryant. Frankie and the usual people at the bar became interested in the news as the word homosexuals rolled out of Cronkite's mouth. Everyone in the bar was against homosexuals and thought that they were freaks. Frankie on the other hand had fear building up inside of her. She was hiding a very important fact of her life from all of her buddies at Allen's. She hid the fact that she was one of them, the homosexuals.

I enjoyed reading this story because I got a feel for the way people felt about homosexuals back in that era. The narrator explained her hidden feelings to let us know what she was experiencing during that night at the bar. I found it ironic that everyone became so interested in the news as soon as Cronkite said the word homosexual. No one ever paid much attention to the news at the bar. I didn't like the story only because of the people that were badmouthing homosexuals. Other than that, I thought this was a great story to share with the rest of us.

While reading this story, I found two words that were new to my vocabulary. Piety was one of them and it is defined as the quality or state of being pious as a fidelity to natural obligations. Another word I found new was basso. This word was defined as a bass singer, especially an operatic bass.

I want to say that I can kind of understand what Frankie was feeling at this point. She had something big hidden under her sleeve, but she couldn't exactly tell just anyone. I myself come across this kind of situation once in a while. From my own experience of being in a relationship with a girl, it's not that easy to just tell anyone that you are with a girl instead of a boy. I feel uncomfortable sometimes when people ask me if I have a boyfriend. When they ask me this question, I don't know what to tell them. Sometimes, I have the courage to just tell people without being afraid of what they think. Other times, I feel exactly like the narrator: scared, confused, and alone. Towards the end of the story, the narrator is so angry with the people at the bar that she just wants to confront them and tell them that she herself is a homosexual. I can relate to that and I understand how it feels when people talk bad about being gay and lesbian. It hurts you inside when you cannot express what you're feeling. Homosexuals have feelings too, don't think otherwise.

"The Party"

In The Mee Street Chronicles: Straight Up Stories of a Black Woman's Life there is a short story called "The Party" by Frankie Lennon. The narrator talks about attending a party thrown by her friend Pepper. At the party, Pepper invited 3 of her friends and their high school boyfriends. Pepper had invited one boy by the name of Bobby to be Frankie's partner, but Frankie had no interest in him. She wanted to get away from him badly that she went into the kitchen to be alone, but she followed her. He had said that Pepper told him to go find her. He asked her questions about why she didn't have a boyfriend yet, but Frankie could only give him lame excuses. After all the frustration, he left her and walked out the kitchen. Before he left her alone, he gave her one final word, bulldaggers.

I liked this story because the narrator wasn't afraid to share her experience about getting teased for not wanting to be with boys. She wasn't afraid to let her audience know that she cried when Bobby called her a bulldagger.

Bulldagger - A masculine identifying lesbian; usually African American.

Auburn - Of a reddish-brown color

My question for the author is - Did you ever tell Pepper what Bobby called you before he left the kitchen?