The Autobiography of the Ex-Colored Man The Ability to...

The Autobiography of the Ex-Colored Man: The Ability to Pass The Autobiography of An Ex-Colored Man depicts the narrator as a liminal character. Beginning with an oblivious knowledge of race as a child, and which racial group he belonged, to his well knowing of â€Å"white† and â€Å"black† and the ability to pass as both. On the account of liminality, the narrator is presenting himself as an outsider. Because he is both a â€Å"white† and â€Å"black† male, he does not fit in with either racial group. In the autobiography of an Ex-colored man, James Weldon Johnson uses double consciousness to show the narrators stance as a person that gives up his birthright for the â€Å"privilege of whiteness†. Beginning from when the narrator was a little boy, being†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"A great wave of humiliation and shame swept over me. Shame that I belonged to a race that could be so dealt with; and shame for my country, that it, the great example of democracy to the world, should be the only civilized, if not the only state on earth, where a human being would be burned alive.†(137) Because of that day, the narrator made a decision that he felt was best for him at the time, which was to let the world make their own perception of him. â€Å"I argued that to forsake one’s race to better one’s condition was no less worthy an action than to forsake one’s country for the same purpose. I finally made up my mind that I would neither disclaim the black race nor claim the white race; but that I would change my name, raise a mustache, and let the world take me for what it would; that it was not necessary for me to go about with the label of inferiority pasted across my forehead.† (139) In the narrative, it is conclusive; the narrator’s adult life is considered a performance. Due to the fact he is a man of multiple race, it is hard to determine which lifestyle is the performance, and which lifestyle comes natural to him. The narrator has various connections to the â€Å"white† and/or â€Å"black† world. As a child, the narrator was friends with both â€Å"shiny† who was a black boy and â€Å"red head† whom was white. Both where considered his best friends even after the day he found out he wasShow MoreRelatedPassing in James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man1105 Words   |  5 PagesIn 1912, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man was anonymously published by James Weldon Johnson. It is the narrative of a light-skinned man wedged between two racial categories; the offspring of a white father and a black mother, The Ex-Colored man is visibly white but legally clas sified as black. Wedged between these two racial categories, the man chooses to â€Å"pass† to the white society. In Passing: When People Can’t Be Who They Are, Brooke Kroeger describes â€Å"passing† as an act when â€Å"people effectivelyRead MoreThe American Dream in And the Earth Did Not Devour Him, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, and America is in the Heart873 Words   |  4 Pagesconditions hampered their ability to pursue happiness and created what W.E.B. Dubois called the veil, which refers to the fabric of racism that separates whites from other ethnicities and causes non-whites to see themselves under the distortion of a discriminative society. Thus, the idealized images of America were shattered by a grim reality. The harsh realities that these immigrants found are depicted in literary works such as The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, America is in the HeartRead MoreThe narrator of The Autobiography of an Ex-colored Man was born to a à ¢â‚¬Å"colored† mother and white1200 Words   |  5 PagesThe narrator of The Autobiography of an Ex-colored Man was born to a â€Å"colored† mother and white father. This combination of his identity led him to encounter many internal and external challenges. Physically he appeared white, so he experienced being able to â€Å"pass† as both â€Å"colored† or white whenever he wished. Being able do such a thing, the narrator struggled with racial boundaries. He embodied almost every permutation, intentional or unintentional, of the experience when encountering various racialRead MoreJames Weldon Johnson s The Autobiography Of An Former Colored Man And Nella Larsen s Passing3489 Words   |  14 PagesThe Theme of Passing, Racial Prejudice and Internalized Racism in James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man and Nella Larsen’s Passing The concept of racial passing refers to the occurrence in which an individual is able to transcend racial boundaries. During the Harlem Renaissance, the term â€Å"passing† meant to signify mixed race individuals who were light skinned enough to pass as white and mingle freely within white society, almost completely undetected. This was significantRead MoreIdentity, Double Consciousness, And Gender1811 Words   |  8 PagesMartaya Hopkins Professor Willie Toliver English 325 21 November 2014 Identity, Double-Consciousness, and Gender: Passing, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, and The Blacker the Berry According to W. E. B. Du Bois, activist and author of The Souls of Black Folks, â€Å"†¦ the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world, —a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other worldRead MoreOf An Former Colored Man By James Weldon Johnson Essay2163 Words   |  9 PagesIn James Weldon Johnson’s â€Å"Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man,† the is written narrator to be perceived at face first as an average white male, when in fact he is inherently of colored descent. Consequently, in regards to society s principle of the one-drop rule, the narrator then faces an identity complex in understanding whether he is black since society has categorized him on the account of his bloodline, or white because of his external appearance. For at the end of the novel, he makes the consciousRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. 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Volkswagen’s Diesel Emissions Scandal †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Volkswagens Diesel Emissions Scandal. Answer: Volkswagen Diesel Scandal The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that several Volkswagen Cars had installed software that was designed to cheat emission tests. The software known as defeat device was capable of detecting that a vehicle was being tested and when they were being tested, the software would reduce the amount of nitrogen oxide emission. Such a conduct amounts to an unethical as well as an extraordinarily deceitful conduct (Strittmatter and Lechner 2017). A scandal of this magnitude indicates a systemic disrespect for the conduct at different levels of organization (Jung and Park 2017). The scandal may have resulted from either one or more of the following factors. Firstly, the organization have implemented behavioral norms which would seem to be inappropriate for those outside the organization but the same would appear to be acceptable for those working in the organization. Secondly, the CEO of VW, Martin Winterkorn announced that a small group of software engineers had embedded this device in the care and that he was completely unaware of this conduct as it was not a corporate decision (Hoekman 2016). It is not sufficient for the main actors or the leaders of the company to claim that they were not involved or did not have any knowledge about such conduct, instead they should have questioned themselves that should they have known about this conduct, the answer for which is definitely yes. Thirdly, the centre of focus was on the fulfillment of the goals and targets of the company at the cost of other priorities. Their commitment to attain their goals and meet the company targets created an environment where the ends must justify the means, even if such means involves immoral conduct. Fourthly, the incentives would have acted as an encouragement for the employees to be engaged in such immoral conduct. Those who were directly involved in the case were rewarded significantly (Tse et al. 2017). There is a saying that the main objective of a company is to maximize the value of the shareholder and the investors are only concerned about the stock price. The Board of Directors are required to demonstrate an ethical conduct that establishes that their main obligation are not restricted to themselves and the organization, but to the society and the consumers they serve. It is mandatory for every organization to demonstrate a commitment to ethical practice. The board of an organization is obligated to act in the best interest of the company and ensure that their conduct is not detrimental to the company (Tse et al. 2017). VW had publicly admitted that the approaches and culture of the company is neither appropriate nor ethical, hence it must adapt to some value-based changes that would enable employees to give their dissent opinion with their supervisors. Although the some may argue that, the VW scandal has resulted because of the profit maximization motive of the company but the root cause of this scandal is the unethical culture and approaches of Volkswagen. Hence, the company must establish through its actions, decisions and choices that the values of the organization is committed to ethical practice making the company a socially responsible organization. References Strittmatter, A. and Lechner, M., 2017. Sorting on the Used-Car Market After the Volkswagen Emission Scandal. Tse, Y.K., Zhang, M., Doherty, B., Chappell, P., Moore, S.R. and Keefe, T., 2017. Exploring the hidden pattern from tweets: Investigation into Volkswagen emissions scandal. InSupply Chain Management in the Big Data Era(pp. 172-198). IGI Global. Hoekman, S.K., 2016. Comment on Damages and Expected Deaths Due to Excess NO x Emissions from 2009 to 2015 Volkswagen Diesel Vehicles.Environmental science technology,50(7), pp.4135-4136. Jung, J.C. and Park, S.B., 2017. Volkswagens diesel emissions scandal.Thunderbird International Business Review,59(1).https://www.bbc.com/news/business-34324772