The Fourth of July

What makes a lasting impression on me is that lorde’ parents dictate that “never trust white people”. When they were young ,they were told that they must never trust white people .But the reason was never explained .It always seemed like a very strange injunction coming from her mother .why did lorde’mother always told that? In my opinion, there are two main reasons.

Firstly, the people were not born with the knowledge of discrimination. The fact of American racism by never giving them na me, much less discussing their nature”. It is obvious that Lorde’s parents believed that it was how the new world that they have come to works. In other words, although they did not expect discrimination, they probably expected differences in society as they came to Americathis lack of knowledge in discrimination. But, in fact, although “American racism was a new and crushing reality” to Lorde’s parents, who were immigrants, “they handled it as a private woe” . Lorde encountered the same “new and crushing reality” in the essay because her parents “believed that they could best protect their children from the realities of race in America .

Secondly, because lorde’ mother loves her children so much ,she did not want her children hurt seriously by the white. Seeing from her life: they had to deal with the racism everyday of their life once they

came to the country .They had suffered enough from the American racism .they did the hardest work, but won the least .So as the children’mother ,she did not want her children to be looked down upon by others . Especially, she wanted to protect her children from being hurt by the white .So they thought that if only they had done enough ,it would work.

Certainly, I do not think this is a good way to protect the children from the realities of race. Because the problem was a new and crushing reality and it occurred every time and every where .For example , though the children wanted to eat in the dining car, But they could not .Because the black people were not allowed into railroad dining cars headed south in 1947.When they were told that they could not eat at the counter, the mother and the father would not speak of this injustice ,even they thought they should have anticipated it and avoided it .But could they really anticipate it and avoided it ? Of course not. Though they really did as much as they can to protect their children , they could not change the source of the problem. Lorde then ends her essay in a repetitive mentioning of the color “white”that she saw in her life. This mentioning would likely to lead the reader to realize how the use of color in her essay might have played a role in creating the image she tried to create. For the most important part, the white sun in July, according to her

description, may give the reader an exhausting feeling. It can probably be easily understood by the reader that her parents would not deal with discrimination in such a passive way unless they have already accepted it as the “natural” way the American society works.