Systematic Racism In Native Son

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Mercy Love Spencer Ms. Murdock AP Literature and Composition 12 22 February 2017 Systematic Racism in Native Son Holding only five percent of the world’s population, the United States carries twenty five percent of the world's incarcerated people. The latest Federal Bureau of Prisons from 2016 reported African American males are 5.1 more times likely to be incarcerated than caucasian males, and African Americans represent more than half of the prison population in over sixteen states today. This fact has separated families since the start of our segregated country. One factor that keeps these percentages growing are systematic racism which is showcased in Richard Wright's’ Native Son. Systematic Racism in the United States has kept the rich, …show more content…

Bigger wakes up in the morning in the same room as his younger brother, sister, and mother. As the family starts their morning, the boys turn their heads as the two ladies dress. Richard Ellison includes this scene not only to showcase Bigger’s poor living conditions, but the shame Bigger and his family feel as a struggling black family. “The two boys kept their faces averted while their mother and sister put on enough clothes to keep them from feeling ashamed;” (Wright 15). The shameful feelings presented in the scene are felt by the women in modesty, but reflect on Bigger’s mental health because the situation is so unfortunate for his family. This shame plays into his anger shown later in the …show more content…

Jones and a team of her colleagues started a project connecting neighborhood violence to poor psychological adjustment in children and adults. The results were shown in the three domains of psychological adjustment being internal, external, and physical. Poor physical and mental symptoms in children who had been over exposed to violence served as a marker in difficulties in a child’s psychological adjustment. However, some research shows children are more likely to respond to chronic neighborhood stress with physical symptoms versus internal or mental.”Neighborhood risk, characterized by disadvantage, crime,and violence” (Jones, Foster, O'Connell 238) has been proven to be a leading factor in child adjustment difficulties, yet poverty in America’s inner cities made up of minorities do not seem to be getting much better. African American children in low income neighborhoods are more likely to be exposed to violence rather than black children in less risky neighborhoods or Caucasian children in general and are likely to remain in these neighborhoods due to financial incapabilities (Jones, Foster, O'Connell 238). “For example, almost 70% of urban African American children in a study by Bell and Jenkins (1993) had witnessed a shooting and almost half had witnessed a murder.” (Jones, Foster, O'Connell

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