MAYA ANGELOU

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Maya Angelou ‘‘Champion of the World’’ and Joyce Carol Oates ‘‘Rape and the Boxing Ring’’
Maya Angelou and Oates have contrasting approaches in their essays. Angelou depicts the fight she describes as possessing cultural roots, a test of skill between an African-American hero and his Italian opponent. Her Champions of the world essay is a view to claim that African-Americans are the strongest people in the world, and their strength originates from their culture. This came after a prominent world heavyweight champion:-Joe Louis fought against his white opponent and won the match. According to Maya, the challenge against the white contender was not an ordinary win.
Maya says in her essay (Paragraph 27) that a black person was associated with struggle. It is because of the racism, oppression, and violence experienced by African-Americans over a long time in history. Simply put, black people struggled to gain freedom both in America and their land, and it is this struggle that strengthened them. This is the origin of the fight Angelou talked about. Going by Angelou’s essay, Africa-American people lived in a society where only the strong survive, but the weak perish. This analogy gave black people the strength to fight for their freedom in society, claim their land, and overcome the oppressive rule of white people.
Angelou describes that Joe’s win not only exemplified a black man defeating a white man, but it also portrayed an aspect of African-Americans defeating the system. For once in the lives of black people, the defeat offered them a sense of empowerment. This was their first step of defense, w...