Race relations were shaped by the context of slavery that African Americans are known for and have been expressed in many different literary works, including, but not limited to, plays, poems, and novels. for over five hundred years Africans suffered and were seen as something less than a working animal, but they shaped American history by breaking the chains of slavery. Even though they were free, white Americans never considered them equal to themselves until the end of the civil rights movement in 1971. Racial identity can cause people to feel ashamed and inferior because of the perception that they others view them as out of place and worthless. them to identify the world around them as limiting and unfair, but this helped them maintain their dream of overcoming the barrier posed by society, having ambitions and goals that they hoped to one day achieve. Racial identity can make people feel ashamed and inferior. , due to the perception that others have of it. Throughout his life Mr.Z, from the poem Mr.Z by Carl Holman, saw the world as a very limiting place for his race, which is why he tried to express himself as a white man, mainly because he was ""Taught early that his mother's skin was the mark of error...” (1) His attempt to blend into white society made him "[Disclaim] kinship with jazz and spirituals."(4) , and he became an “Expert in fine wines, sauces and salads.”(11) Although he made his every move, without fail, hiding who he was, when he died the obituary writer stated that he was “One of the most distinguished members of his race. "(26). It's ironic how, even though he spent his whole life trying to act like a different person, like he was in a play, why was he ashamed of that... middle of paper... not much older than him they can earning a lot of money simply because their race allows them to and is not a barrier they have to contend with Furthermore, in the short story "Fourth of July" by Audre Lorde, the protagonist describes how her first trip to Washington, D.C. came about and illustrates how it does not. were allowed to eat at an ice cream shop, there known as "The waitress was white, and the counter was white, and the ice cream [she] never ate in Washington, D.C., that summer [she] left childhood was white, and the white heat and the white floor and the white stone monuments of my first Washington summer made me sick to my stomach" (20). Everything around her in the land of the free was white and only white people were actually socially free during this time, which is why he believes what happened to them “…wasn’t fair or right!"(18).