Prove Me Wrong
Police lights flash on and a man pulls over grabbing his license and registration. There's a knock on the glass, rolling down the window giving the officer your license he asks what seems to be the problem? The officer replies you didn´t turn on your blinker three blocks back then trots away to register and ticket the man. The driver was a black man while the officer was white. Although our constitution states that we are created equal and have equal rights, we tend to favor or trust those who are of white/western European descent. Job opportunities for people of color are harder to find because of racism. For example, ¨To tell you the truth, Miss Jean Louise, Helen's finding it hard to get work these days. . . when it's picking
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For example, in to kill a mockingbird the white jury can't see past their own prejudices, and wrongly convict Tom Robinson. Even when the evidence clearly states he is not guilty. Also, Link Deas stands up and says, "I just want the whole lot of you to know one thing right now. That boy's worked for me eight years an' I ain't had a speck o'trouble outa him. Not a speck¨ (Lee 261). The people of Maycomb are too set in their ways to see Tom could not possibly have raped Mayella. Also when a black girl was accused of threatening the life of a white girl in class (Prom Night n.pg.). The white girl had police escort her around because they would not listen to the black girls side of the storey. To evenfurther that the black girl had done nothing of the sort the teacher and 30 other students had witnessed this conflict. The school board didn´t take the teachers word into consideration because she too was a black …show more content…
A white woman selected one of 13 black people out of 50 white supporters to slap across the face. The woman did not wish to make a scene or cause any more trouble, so she quickly walked out of the gym. Several Michigan City witnesses both black and white state they saw Coach Giesler fly up the bleachers with fists formed. She didn't even stop when he tripped over a black student to see if he was hurt (Why Are Blacks n.pg.). The woman targeted her just because the color of her skin was different from the others. Simalerly when a police officer pulled over a car with two white and one black high school student. The officer gave the two white people a pat down and strip searched the black kid for drugs(Prom Night n.pg.). The group of kids were never users of drugs in any way. Although people were created identical and have equal rights, we tend to prefer or accept those who are of white/western european descent. possibilities for people of color are harder to locate due to racism. When people of color are accused of a criminal offense, racism plays a part in their verdict which can result in wrongful conviction. Society regularly treats people with cruelty and disrespect because they can´t accept another race. Indeed, if people would see everyone as equals, that a black man would be stopped for a broken tail light not
It is very common among people to misjudge others prematurely, which are changed once the individual being judged is gotten to know better. Once, Walt Whitman said, “Be curious, not judgmental”. This can be a lesson to a vast number of persons, not excluding Jem and Scout. They are two of the most important characters from the most fiction novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, which takes place in the Great depression, in Maycomb, Alabama. Two of the most misunderstood characters in the whole book are Dolphus Raymond, the town drunkard, and Atticus Finch the town lawyer as well as Jem and Scouts “boring” father. Jem and Scout both misjudge Dolphus Raymond and their own father, Atticus, fate decides to oppose them with two events the trial of Tom Robinson, and the disposition of Tim Johnson, and they are forced to change their absurd opinions.
To some it is very unclear whether Mayella is powerful or powerless. In the book to To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, a family tries to defend a ‘Mockingbird’ who is being charged with crimes of rape. The book ironically takes place in the mid 1930s after similar events have just recently happened relating to blacks vs. whites. While Mayella Ewell can be considered as powerful based on her race, her class and gender indicates that Mayella is powerless based on the circumstances during the mid 1930s.
- on June 23, Williams was driving when a heavy car came up from behind him and tried to force his car off the embankment and over a cliff with a 75 ft. drop off. The bumpers of the two cars were stuck and the cars had to pass right by a highway patrol station, which was a 35 mile and hour zone, but the car was pushing his at 70 miles per hour. Williams started blowing his horn hoping to attract the attention of the patrolmen, but when they saw they just lifted their hands and laughed. He was finally able to rock loose from the other car’s bumper and make a sharp turn into a ditch. He went to the police about it, but they would not do anything because he was black. The police in Monroe never did anything to help blacks
“In recent years, scores of African Americans and Latinos, including prominent athletes, members of Congress, actors, lawyers, business leaders and even police officers, have experienced the humiliation of being stopped on the nation’s highways upon suspicion of a crime. Few white motorists can tell the same story.” (Bouie 2014). Most colored motorists have had this feeling at least once while driving. The article, "It's Been Proven: "Driving While Black" is a Real Thing" takes a look at incidents around the United States where the multitude of racial stops have been questioned. They explore three sides of the “driving while black” issue: whites who feel they have never experienced this or were let off for not being colored, blacks who feel they have been discriminated against, and cops defending the force and believing this does not happen.
Ever since America was found, there has not been social equality. African Americans were slaves for hundreds of years. During World War II, people discriminated the Japanese. Today, people are discriminating Muslims. People have repeated this part of history so many times, that it keeps happening. South Carolina Slave Laws, established in 1740, starts out article ten by saying “Slaves being objects of property...” (Bowdoin College). In the eighteenth century, people didn’t even think of African Americans as people, just property. This feeling has been passed on from generation to generation. In, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, a black man, was accused of raping a white woman. After being claimed guilty, he was shot and killed. “In Maycomb, Tom’s death was typical,” said the narrator Scout Finch (Lee, 275). People were not fazed by a black man being killed because it has happened so many times in the
Has evil always been around, or did man create it? One could trace evil all the way back to Adam and Eve; however, evil came to them, but it was not in them. When did evil become part of a person? No one knows, but evil has been around for a long time and unfortunately is discovered by everyone. In many great classics in literature evil is at the heart or the theme of the novel, including Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. This classic book demonstrates the growing up of two children in the South and illustrates the theme of evil by showing how they discover, how they deal, and how they reconcile themselves to the evils they experience.
Firstly, a person’s race comes into play too often. People of color are more likely to entangle themselves in the justice system. Consider that the arrest rate and disparity of African American and Hispanic people are much higher. Police “stops and searches” are proof of racial profiling. A study conducted in Connecticut proved the racial disparity by showing that more people of specific races are pulled over during the day, but not at night because they cannot be seen. Also, a glimpse at the people serving time provides a vivid example of the racial inequalities seen throughout legal situations. When the Brown vs Board of Education case was won, there was around 100,000 African Americans in jail and currently there are at least 800,00 in prison. Black men are six times more likely to get incarcerated as white men and Hispanics are 2.3 times more likely (“18 Examples of”). Additionally, before the sentencing even begins these individuals are at a disadvantage. These communities have worse odds of making bail, in contrast to white defendants. This implies that they include the greater parts of those who are imprisoned before their trial even begins, placing even the innocent in jail for longer than needed. Overall, a person’s race or skin color should not produce a lower quality of
In the Scottsboro Trials, there were 9 boys all accused falsely of a crime they did not commit. Knowing how much worse the racist back in the early 1900s was shows we have come a long way, but are still far from a completely non-racist world. To Kill A Mockingbird is also a great example of how things were back then, seeing as the two cases carry the nearly exact same things. Both were falsely accused by poor white women that had no medical evidence provided at the ‘crime scene’. Both of these things were horrible things, but have helped us move on from our past mistakes. In today’s world, most of the racism has moved on from blacks, but is still there, and onto the Middle Eastern population. Hopefully, people will learn from our mistakes
In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee, the author, wrote about the journey of a little girl, named Scout, as she grows up. Scout’s father Atticus serves as a grand part of her aging because he teaches her many life lessons. The most significant of all the lessons and a pivotal moment in the novel occurs when Atticus tells Scout that “you never really a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them,”, which contributes to one of Scout’s intellectual changes and the theme, understanding requires time (Lee 372).
A current event that vaguely mirrors police misconduct and the racial prejudice in similar traffic stops like Cameron and Christian by Officer Ryan is the “arrest of Raymond Wiley, a 66-year-old black man”, on Friday morning when he “was stopped by a police officer and ultimately arrested” as he was taking a walk about four blocks from his house, wearing a pair of gloves to pick up any recyclables in his path as he is a scrapper and travels to automobile shops to collect spare pieces of metal for sale (Winkley). He was also “carrying a shortened cane with duct tape” for protection against unleashed dogs he’s encountered previously. According to police officials, an officer spotted Wiley and suspected he was casing nearby vehicles(Winkley). When stopped and searched, the officer found his car keys (which police officials claim could be utilized to break into vehicles) as well as $2,500 in cash. Wiley was soon arrested on suspicion of two felony charges: possession of a baton as well as burglary tools. His lawyer claims the only thing “Wiley is guilty of being black and living in Encanto”(Winkley). The original article, published by the San Diego Union Tribune appears to have no underlying biases, as it gives both sides a platform to tell their story and remains neutral throughout the
Discrimination has always been there between blacks and whites. Since the 1800s where racial issues and differences started flourishing till today, we can still find people of different colors treated unequally. “[R]acial differences are more in the mind than in the genes. Thus we conclude superiority and inferiority associated with racial differences are often socially constructed to satisfy the socio-political agenda of the dominant group”(Heewon Chang,Timothy Dodd;2001;1).
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest” Ellie Wiesel. Readers may find the amount of injustice in Harper lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird a little shocking. This could be why it’s such a popular book. People like the suspense of knowing someone’s right, but still being found guilty for something they did not do. There are many times throughout the book when people are powerless to prevent injustice but they still protest it. This shows that even when people unjustly punish there should always be someone to protest it. The theme of injustice is a common one in harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, whether it be through racism, misinformation, or Arrogance.
When a person of color is being sentenced the unjustness of sentencing is blatantly shown such as in the article Race Sentencing and Testimony which stated, “ These scholars conclude that black male arrestees “face significantly more severe charges conditional on arrest offense and other observed characteristics” and attribute this primarily to prosecution charging decisions” (Mauer 4). This piece of writing explains that for no other reason than race do these people get convicted far more significantly than others who have the same charge but are white, which continues as far as giving a person of color the max sentence that they can have on a certain charge just for the color of their skin. The justice system has turned into the opposite of what it claims to be and continues to grow as a racist overseer, bashing down on those that they believe should be punished as harshly as possible simply for the color of their skin. The system has gone as deep as to making it so that even if a person has not committed a crime, but are being charged for it they can agree to a plea bargain, which makes it so even though the person did not do it the system is going to have them convicted of it anyway (Quigley 1). “As one young man told me ‘who wouldn’t rather do three years for a crime they didn’t commit than risk twenty-five years
There are things that are going on today where men specifically black men are being mixed up for being a risk towards white individuals and the final product being sent away to jail or being killed for reasons unknown by any means. Black men are being dealt with unjustifiably then white men. On the off chance that a black man was to stroll into a store with a dark hoodie on he will be viewed as a risk yet in the event that a white man was to do precisely the same he wouldn 't be appeared to be identical
Blacks look for jobs longer and sometimes more aggressively than whites do and they are 44% less likely to get hired for the job even when they are just as qualified. Today they have a law that jobs cannot discriminate on who to hire just because of their race or ethnicity, and even though that’s a law some jobs still discriminate, they just use a different reason for why they could not hire you. Other races have heard so many stereotypes and stories about African Americans and they also grew up being taught certain beliefs which become part of the economy.