Analysis Of Separate Pasts By Melton A. Mclaurin

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Melton A. McLaurin is the author of the novel, Separate Pasts: Growing Up White in the Segregated South. He was raised in Wade, and throughout his writing he developed different themes based on his experience as a young boy growing up. The theme that stuck out to me was that of racism and the classism that followed it. McLaurin discusses how segregation and racism is heavy in Wade, and I agree with this, but I found it interesting to understand how the African- Americans have classes within the lower class that the Whites already place them in.
McLaurin was growing up in Wade during the 1940’ s-1950 and this place was the perfect representation of a racially segregated small-town in the south. The community that lived in Wade believed in racism and both races followed the unspoken “rules” of segregation. One of the rules was that the African Americans were not allowed to enter through the front door of the house; they always used the back door when entering. Even if they were domestic workers or had to conduct business with the owner of the house they must enter through the back door, and they would only conduct business on the back porch or maybe even the kitchen. Another rule was that all ages of African Americans must refer white adults as “mister” and “miss”. African Americans also never entered a building first if there was a white person trying to enter the same place, in some instances they would even hold the door open for the white person. Most of the African Americans houses and businesses were held in an area that was called “The Bottom”, this referred to the bottom or the edge of Wade and even though the community was mainly black at “The Bottom” it was still not uncommon to see white families living next door to the...

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... incident with Sam or his affection with Betty Jo could be used to show that he still cared about the African Americans but was also superior. Many of the White children in Wade had this problem; they felt that they had responsibilities to hold but still knew to care and show respect towards the African Americans.
Wade was like any other small southern towns, they had strong racism beliefs and believed they were superior to them but they also were confused with their good morals. In this novel McLaurin does a very god job at showing both sides. There is obviously a strong belief in the social status and hierarchy of whites vs. African Americans, but the people of Wade, especially the higher class, still care about the African Americans and definitely regard them as human beings. It is this attitude that helped lead to the rights and freedom of African Americans.

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