Racism In John Edgar Wideman's 'Looking At Emmett Till'

In John Edgar Wideman’s article, “Looking at Emmett Till” shows Emmett’s horrific murder as the living proof of the racism that occurred at that time in history and how it has revived its way back to distress our country with the same racism that existed 61 year ago. Today, more than ever, African Americans are facing another battle for equality. It seems as if the phrase, “history eventually repeats itself” has been prove by the continuous breaking news of African Americans been murder by white police officers. The murder of Emmett Till happened 61 years ago, but his loss has found new significance, as reaching back to the lynching of a 14-year-old boy in Mississippi has stretched into the murders of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown in recent

Did any contributions to these incidents relates to race? Of course, most definitely, yes. From the depiction of the jury hearings beforehand and afterward. The disturbing fact that very little people were concerned about the facts that demonstrated that Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam were truly guilty of both of the murder of Emmett Till. This is what “unintended” racism has done to our society. It blocks judgment, makes people to jump into conclusions, and can reveal one’s true identity. African Americans are at the scope of racial profiling. Racial profiling is making assumptions that particular individuals are more liable to be involved in misbehavior or unlawful activities based on that person 's race or culture. Racial profiling drives an abusing message to the people that they are pre-judged by the color of their skin. Wide has come to a conclusion that as long as racialized thinking ponders through our everyday perception of “whites” and “blacks” we are doomed to keep allowing the murders of African Americans to go pass right in front of our eyes as he stated, “As long as racialized thinking continues to legitimize one group’s life-and-death power over another, the battered face of Emmett Till will poison the middle ground of compromise between so-called “whites” and so-called “blacks” (Wideman 34).Now more than ever, is time to break the chains that have prevented the nation to assemble equality

Wideman points out how the racism in America is an unbroken chain as he states, “The circle of racism, its preserve logic remain unbroken. Boys like Emmett Till are born violating the rules, aren’t they? Therefore they forfeit any rights law-abiding citizens are bound to respect. The bad places—ghettos, prisons, morgue slabs—where most of them wind up confirm the badness pf the boys” (Wideman 32). Wideman’s form and content in this quote is sarcastically profound to reveal the unfairness of the typical stereotypes that African Americans have to deal with, in their daily lives. Most certainly, black color skin when seen out in the public, and its connection among the ghetto, black skin is correlated with poverty status. Such arrogances effect the unfortunate African Americans living in