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Essay about race crime and justice in the US
Racism in the american justice system
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Power is something that gives control to its owner, but can easily be lost in a second. In this story which is set in the old days there is a small court trial in which the defendant, Tom Robinson is accused of rape by a young poor white woman named Mayella Ewell. Because of her class and gender mayella lacks power but her race makes her powerful because, unfortunately at this time racism was in play so if you were white you had power over african americans in a court of law or any aspect of life for that matter.
Again mayella lacks power because of her class as being part of one of the poorest families in town. This means in any situation if it came down to it rich man or female could win over mayella. The ewell family could barely afford a home ,(document a)“Maycomb's ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once an african american cabin used in slavery.” The ewells take what they can get and try to keep it , if they make the wrong people mad they could lose everything. Mayella ewell was just about disgraced by everyone except for african americans,(document e)”As Tom Robinson gave his
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I don't have to take his sass, i am not called upon to take it.”this shows that mayella female and poor doesn't take any sass from atticus who is representing tom robinson. The jury and court system at the time was also almost completely racist.(document d)”’now don't you be so confident, mr.jem, i ain't never seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man.”this is also supporting evidence that the trial was a racist one.(document e) “‘why were you so anxious to do that woman's chores ?’ ‘...tried to help her i says.’it seems you did all this for not even a penny?”they doubted he could be a good man just because the color of his
...uth to fully understand that it is typical to act superior to those with colored skin. All Dill sees is a man being rude to another, just because of his skin color. While Atticus clearly shows everyone in the court that it was almost impossible for Tom Robinson to have beat Mayella, he still loses the case just because he was a black man against a white woman. Lee includes, “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” (Lee 323) This enforces how it didn’t matter what Tom was really doing or why Mayella was screaming, but just by the way Tom looked they were able to essentially pin the rape and the beatings on Tom. Of course this was not true and he did not receive the justice he deserved, but that didn’t matter to Maycomb. All that mattered was the color of his skin and what the teenage white girl named Mayella Ewell said about him.
Is Mayella Ewell powerful?That is the question that is asked and must be answered.Throughout the story” To kill a mockingbird” Mayella shows some glimpses of power, but not enough to say she is powerful.For example, in the beginning she shows that she cannot even control her home life so how can she be powerful.Also she shows that she is just too poor for her to have power.Now in the next three paragraphs I will explain my thinking on why I believe Mayella is not powerful.
With this being said, even though Mayella was a low class female she inherited the superiority of being white making it easy for her during the trial. Mayella used her individualistic self pity against Tom Robinson. The little town of Maycomb Alabama knew the truth, but the Ewell’s plan backfired on them. They gained no respect, and are still considered white pieces of trash. As for Mayella individually, she’s not educated but she is very smart. Mayella did have power through race, class, and
In the 1930’s, turmoil has erupted in Maycomb, Alabama all because the young lady Mayella Ewell has accused African-American Tom Robinson of raping and sexually assaulting her. Yet, Mayella Ewell has no power because of her race, class, and gender. At the time, Maycomb, Alabama was at the peak of segregation against African-Americans. Mayella Ewell may be white, but that does not mean her class, gender, nor her race give her power.
Hypocrisy is as much a part of Maycomb’s society as church and community spirit. For example, Mrs. Merriweather talks about saving the poor Mruans from Africa, but she thinks black people in her community are a disgrace (p.234). The hypocrisy of this teaching is shown as soon as she mentions the word ‘persecution’. This is due to the fact that she herself is persecuting the black people of Maycomb by not raising an eyebrow at the killing of innocent black men. Furthermore, it is obvious Bob Ewell is abusive to his daughter, Mayella, and that he is the one who violated her, not Tom Robinson (p.178). Since there is such hypocrisy in Maycomb, there are excuses made for whites. The jury probably thinks that if they pronounce Tom innocent the citizens will mock them as they do to Atticus. Harper Lee uses hypocrisy to show how the people of Maycomb are so engulfed in a variety of elements that they unknowingly complete acts of unjustified discrimination.
Her being white in the 1930’s after slaves have been recently set free in the south, she is going to have a lot of power regarding to her race alone. People in the south mostly still treated african americans the same as when they were slaves. The white people would try to insult most african americans anyway they could at any time because whites still thought they were superior over african americans, and even though that is still an issue in today’s world, it was probably more than ten times worse back then. In court, if the jury is white, it is almost a law that if the case is white versus black, the white person or people will win because in that time period, court cases were won based on public interest. Not to mention in court Tom was convicted as “immoral” based on his race of being african american because of the time
Atticus is explaining to the jury; She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance, but I cannot pity her: she is white. She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it.” [20.207] In the quote Atticus is explaining that Mayella Ewell is simply following the long time code in Maycomb, to have racist views against African Americans. He is using persuasive techniques to convince the jury who have the same racist views that their long time ways of prejudice against people of other race is wrong. This is an example of his efforts to get justice for the falsely accused a Tom Robinson. Atticus illustrates to the reader that he is striving for a better Maycomb in the quote, even as he knows that his efforts may prove to be futile.
The Maycomb ladies provide an excellent example of racial prejudice, and a failure to see what it is like in someone else’s skin. They believe they are doing well by making money for missions, failing to see the hardship on their own doorsteps. Aunt Alexandra is very important to the novel, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ as she is a representative of these viewpoints, disapproving of Calpurnia and disassociating herself from the black community entirely. Miss Maudie however is the counterpoint to Aunt Alexandra. Maudie offers Scout a female role model, whereas Aunt Alexandra tries to make Scout more ladylike, to fit in with her position in life. Aunt Alexandra plays the greatest role in reinforcing class distinctions within the Finch family. As she believes that because the Finch family comes from a long line of landowners, who have been in the county for generations, they deserve greater respect than other people do and therefore must behave according to their status. However her prejudice alienates her from the tolerant Finches, but she fits in well with the rest of Maycomb.
According to Fred Erisman, Maycomb is a very traditional Southern town for two reasons; it has a caste system that works to suppress African Americans and it has a “ubiquitous system of class distinctions among the whites.” (Erisman 2). This caste system can be clearly seen in some characters throughout the novel, like Mrs. Dubose. Mrs. Dubose is very old fashioned, racist, and stuck in her ways. She is also very strongly opinionated, which can be inferred by the way she yells at the Finch children and Atticus Finch as well. In fact, Mrs. Dubose is introduced by yelling to Scout and Jem, saying things like, “‘Don’t say hey to me you ugly girl!’” and “‘what are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole!’” ( Lee 132 - 135). She also makes unspeakable comments about Atticus and his current client, Tom Robinson. On the contrary, some characters throughout the novel choose to not let Maycomb influence their thoughts and opinions. These characters, like Atticus and Miss Maudie, are viewed as more progressive. For example, while Atticus may not have wanted the Tom Robinson case, he still wanted to try his best and knew he could not carry on if he did not give this case his all (Lee 117). Characters like Atticus also tend
Her race makes her very powerful you can see how powerful race makes her in document C Mr.Gilmer is questioning Tom and the first thing that he says to Tom is “Are you being impudent to me, boy” By using the word boy this shows that because of his color he is very disrespected and not treated fairly so it gives Mayella Ewell a advantage to the trial. It also shows another example of Toms race being powerless and Mayella's race being very powerful in document D “The Ewells present themselves to you gentlemen, to this court...confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption that all negroes lie, that all negroes are basically immoral beings, That all negro men are not to be trusted”. This shows that the Ewells a white family and Mr.Gilmer is trying to present them off the true facts that they are just trying to convince the people that all black people are bad. In the most important part it shows that in document E it was in the first excerpt. Scout starts to think “Mayella must have to be the loneliest person in the world…:white people wouldn't have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs...negroes the closest neighbor to her wouldn't have anything to do with them because they are white”. This shows that even though tom was black and he treated her descent that they took advantage of it
Whether you like it or not there is a hierarchy in Maycomb, it's true, I know exactly who the most/ least powerful person in Maycomb is. You may think that I am wrong but I can prove it to you. Alexandra Finch is the most powerful person and Tom Robinson is the least , I mean how can you possibly not agree. Anyways, Aunt Alexandra is a wealthy woman who has “boarding school manners” and isn't afraid to correct or judge someone. On the other hand, Tom Robinson is a black man who has been accused of rape by a white man in the 1930s which were years that overflowed with discrimination. Within the hierarchy of Maycomb, Alexandra Finch has the most power because she is very wealthy and has alot of education and Tom Robinson has the least power because he is a poor African American in the 1920’s who has not one say in any situation.
Mayella, the woman defending against Robinson, comes from a low income and low educated family, making them a poor family. Yet Mayella’s word is still favored against Tom because she still holds a higher social status than Tom just because she is white. In fact, in the novel, Atticus has an important quote regarding the court system that is still true today, “In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins.” (Lee, H. (1960). To kill a mockingbird. Philadelphia: Lippincott. pg. 251-252).
In this case Tom Robinson is nothing but a mockingbird as he did nothing but help the Ewell family but still he got taken to court for a crime he didn 't even commit and shouldn 't have been imprisoned for. These are the main things scout and jem learn from Atticus. When Atticus is at the court and is working on Tom Robinson, case a black field worker, he is accused of raping and beating Mayella Ewell. At first Atticus points out three strong points in chapter 20. The first is to find out the truth of what happened that night at Mayella 's house. The second was that she was white and she tempted a black man so that why she got hurt. Then the third point was he found out that Bob Ewell, Mayella 's father, was left handed. In court if you a black male and is accused of doing anything to a white woman, then they are conceder guilty, no matter what. Almost everyone in the town thinks that Tom is guilty, and so Atticus is doing his best to prove that Tom is innocent. In the story we learn that Mayella was beaten on the face and strangled. She had two hand prints around her neck, so we know that whoever did this was strong and had the use of both of his hands, and also was left-handed. When Atticus asks Tom to stand up so Mayella can get a good look at
The litigants, the Ewells, and the defendant, Tom Robinson, a kind, black man, represented the two lower classes. The jury's decision proved one sad, undeniable fact: when a black man's word went against a white man's word, the white man, regardless of his background or his character, would always be victorious. Despite the jury's doubts pertaining to the Ewells' accusations against a Black man, they had to find in favor of Mayella because she was white. In spite of the jury's knowledge of Tom Robinson's character, they could not allow Mayella 's accusations to go unanswered. To do so would have made the two races equal, an idea which was unconscionable at that time. There was no justice or mercy for a Black man, even one as upstanding as Tom Robinson. Atticus may have stated this point best when referring to the jury's decision, "They've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it, seems that only children weep" (Lee page #).
Despite the jury's doubts pertaining to the Ewells' accusations against a Black man, they had to find in favor of Mayella because she was white. In spite of the jury's knowledge of Tom Robinson's character, they could not allow Mayella 's accusations to go unanswered. To do so would have made the two races equal, an idea which was unconscionable at that time. There was no justice or mercy for a Black man, even one as upstanding as Tom Robinson. Atticus may have stated this point best when referring to the jury's decision, "They've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it, seems that only children weep" (Lee page #).