Racism in American Schools

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Even though extraordinary changes have been made in the past to achieve racial equality, America is still racist, especially in schools. In the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” written by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch is criticized for defending a black man accused of raping a white woman. During the 1930s, the time this novel took place, America was a very segregated country. At the time when Harper Lee wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird," America was fighting a civil rights movement. The events of racism in “To Kill a Mockingbird” reflect the time period.
Atticus Finch does not let anyone else's opinion affect what his beliefs are. In chapter eleven of "To Kill a Mockingbird," Atticus explains to Scout what a "nigger-lover" is. He tells Scout, "It's hard to explain-ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody's favoring Negroes over and above themselves. It slipped into usage with some people like ourselves, when they want to use a common, ugly term to label somebody" (Lee 113). Obviously, Atticus doesn't believe the term is funny or clever. The southern town of Maycomb, Alabama had adopted this term as a racial slur. All throughout the trial of Tom Robinson, racist white people judged Atticus for defending a black man. This racism has now been transferred into schools across the country.
To get an idea of where racism started in schools, we first have to look at the past. Just three years after the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling that segregated schools was unconstitutional, nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School. On their first day of high school, the nine students were forbidden to enter due to the fact the Arkansas National Guard was blocking the entrance to the school. The first day...

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...color of their skin, then America will have a huge problem on its hands. Although racism in America is not as strong and hateful as it once was, it clearly has not disappeared nor will it ever. Harper Lee demonstrated the struggles of African Americans back in the 1930s, and unfortunately, some of those struggles are still present today.

Works Cited

Lee, Harper. "Chapter 11." To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: Harper & Row, 1960. 113. Print.
"Little Rock Nine: Photos of a Civil Rights Triumph in Arkansas, 1957 | LIFE | TIME.com."
LIFE. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Resmovits, Joy. "American Schools Are STILL Racist, Government Report Finds." The
Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 21 Mar. 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Young, Molly. "Shocking Racist Tweets Follow High School Basketball Win by All-white
Team." MLive.com. N.p., 17 Mar. 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.

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