Therefore, the black community in Maycomb was crippled with fear. A fear that they will get lynched for a crime they did not commit. Stereotyping is a human instinct. We will always stereotype people's race, class and families. When Aunt Alexandra lived with the Finches, she said this to Scout about the Cunninghams, "Because he is trash, that's why you cant play with him.
Martin Luther King was angered by the signs all over the streets that he lived near which said “Whites only”. He, along with Rosa parks led a boycott against Montgomery busses, which made African–Americans sit in the back and white people to sit in the front. This law was later abolished by the Supreme Court, since bus companies were losing a large amount of money. Martin Luther King also did lots of other things to stop racism. Louis Riel and his Métis followers felt threatened by Thomas Scott, an Irish Protestant who was against Métis and Roman Catholics being involved with the Government.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee incorporates the theme, prejudice, to portray the feelings and thoughts that people had during the time period of the Great Depression; this was described in the Trial where Tom Robinson fought for his life. throughout the 1930's, most people were raised with prejudice beliefs in the South. Whites were taught from generations before them that african americans do not deserve respect. Therefore, it should not be brought to them. Most whites believed that African Americans were to do what they were told, by them.
In “My First Conk”, Malcolm X assured that black people were being brainwashed to believe that they actually were inferior to white people, thus they conked their hair; which was a hair straightener gel made from lye popular among African-American men from the 1920s to the 1960s. They were, essentially, giving up what they were fighting for as far as civil rights- the right to be who they were and also be accepted by society. Therefore, the conking of their hair was hypocrisy and a contradiction of morals and values. Blind conformity caused them to disregard their strongest beliefs which should be the most powerful driving forces in all lives. Especially in today's society, there is a dire over emphasis of the media.
Dougy expresses that character in the novel including; whites and blacks, creating tension though racist comments. An example for this is pg.64, chapter 6, Craig told Brett, “you have to die your skin black to get the boarder fees, cause the government only gives that sort of money to Abos.” This comment creates anger mostly towards Raymound, also Dougy and Gracey that are listening. If a white girl or boy won the scholarship, Craig would just congratulate them and move on, but because Gracey is black the automatically thing she didn’t earn it. Moloney’s focus is on the aboriginal point of view,
The level of racism in the southern parts of America was the most extreme and prejudice and greatly impacted upon the speed of racial equality in America. The Jim Crow Laws (1890) enforced in the south made segregation legal in Southern states (this was based on the show my Jim Crow mocking black people and classing them as second-class citizens). This meant that facilities such as Transport, Healthcare, Education, toilets and restaurants were segregated, this had a negative effect on the black community as it showed the gulf in living standards and class between the whites and blacks, it also showed the lengths that were taken to distance the two races and the lack of equality that was being shown in the South with little likelihood of significant change. In addition to this there was a segregated heart of society in the south dedicated to the oppression of black people. In the south most prominently there were a set of unwritten laws made to segregate white people from black people.
Throughout the play, animal imagery such as “an old ram”, “Barbary horse” and “beast with two backs” is used to describe Othello, which portray the racist attitudes held by society of the time and highlights the belief that black people were animalistic and therefore acted on emotions, lacking rational thought, like animals. Due to the entrenched attitude of black people being second-class to white people in society, Othello himself believed that he was below the status of what Desdemona deserved. This attitude leads Othello to so readily believe that Desdemona cheated on him and why he would “most gladly have forgot it. Though sadist – Oh, it comes o’er my memory.” This shows that due to his race, he thinks that he is not good enough for Desdemona and allows himself to be engulfed by jealousy. Iago, one of the most racist characters in the play, is racist towards Othello due to his extreme jealousy of his rank, which is evident when he says, “I hate the Moor.” This jealousy is employed by Iago to his advantage by manipulating Othello’s low-self esteem due to his race to plant a seed of doubt about the faithfulness of his wife, which is abusing
“The forgotten Man”, the famous speech by William Graham Sumner, points his idea about the social problems in late nineteenth century and early twenties. In his point of view, if A and B came up with an idea to force C to do something to help D who is suffering from some problems, C would be the forgotten man. Sumner’s idea, to some extent, supports Jim Crow Law. During the reconstructive, the society didn’t reach the point of equality of the two races, instead it became even worse in many places all over the country. The Civil War only ended the slavery, not racism.
By reading the principal’s speech, Richard was saying what the white power wanted him to say and to Richard this would be giving in to the very thing he hated so much. Richard was willing to leave school without a diploma instead of this. White people alienated Richard from his environment because he did not accept the way of life that other black people did. Richard’s relatives never understood Richard and because of this he was alienated from his family and his own people. Shorty is the young black boy who gets beat by the white people and jokes about it.
He is almost completely shunned from the town because he is trying to help a black man accused of rape. Mayella had told Tom, “I said come here, nigger, and bust up this chiffarobe for me, I gotta nickel for you.” (p.241) She had tricked him to coming over to her. Then that’s about the time when she accuses him of rape. He had felt sorry for her, which is why he was falsely accused in the first place. Courthouse segregation was one of the biggest bits of racism I found in this book.