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Racial inequality essay as student
Racial inequality essay as student
Essay on racial inequality in america
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America has always been a country with different cultures, races, and people. Only, not everyone has been accepting of different kinds of people. A persons thoughts on another person can differ depending on a person's race, gender, or age. In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, racial equality is nonexistent. The African Americans were treated like they weren’t people, and were totally isolated from the Maycomb, Alabama society. America will never achieve true racial and social equality because people are ignorant, have a history of being prejudiced, and are unjust. Ignorance is a lack of knowledge. People are so set on their ideas they set in the past, that they do not want to face the present or future. People that are racist and prejudice are ignorant. Ignorance is passed on and spread, therefore there will always be a person in America who are ignorant, and we will never achieve racial equality. Martin …show more content…
Ever since America was found, there has not been social equality. African Americans were slaves for hundreds of years. During World War II, people discriminated the Japanese. Today, people are discriminating Muslims. People have repeated this part of history so many times, that it keeps happening. South Carolina Slave Laws, established in 1740, starts out article ten by saying “Slaves being objects of property...” (Bowdoin College). In the eighteenth century, people didn’t even think of African Americans as people, just property. This feeling has been passed on from generation to generation. In, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, a black man, was accused of raping a white woman. After being claimed guilty, he was shot and killed. “In Maycomb, Tom’s death was typical,” said the narrator Scout Finch (Lee, 275). People were not fazed by a black man being killed because it has happened so many times in the
Lynching of black men was common place in the south as Billie Holiday sang her song “Strange Fruit” and the eyes of justice looked the other way. On the other side of the coin, justice was brought swiftly to those blacks who stepped out of line and brought harm to the white race. Take for instance Nate Turner, the slave who led a rebellion against whites. Even the Teel’s brought their own form of justice to Henry Marrow because he “said something” to one of their white wives (1). Flashing forward a few years later past the days of Jim Crow and the fight for civil rights, several, but not all in the younger generation see the members of the black and white race as equal and find it hard to fathom that only a few years ago the atmosphere surrounding racial relations was anything but pleasant.
Discrimination and Prejudice in Killing A Mocking Bird Discrimination and prejudice were very common acts in the early and middle 1900's. Prejudice in this book is displayed by the acts of hate and misunderstanding because of someone's color. People of color were the majority that were treated unfairly. During this time in the southern states, black people had to use separate bathrooms, drinking fountains, sections in restaurants, churches, and even go to separate schools. Although much of the discrimination was directed towards blacks, there were plenty of accounts towards impoverished families by those that had money.
America has been the site of discrimination in race for years. The Black Codes were laws each state came up with on their own that limit certain rights, prevent them from voting, and keep the black slaves under white control. Even after the Black Codes ended, a new way to keep African-Americans unequal came up. The Jim Crow laws were a series of laws passed in order to keep African-Americans unequal from white Americans. Every state had their own form of the Jim Crow laws. African-Americans used to be treated very poorly by the rest of the United States. They were still treated as though they were slaves until the end of the Jim Crow laws. Even after that, southern states still attempted to keep African-Americans from being equal to the rest of Americans. Taxes were put up in order to vote, which kept African-Americans from doing so because most were very poor. They still did not have equal opportunity in the work force either. African-Americans were not the only ones being treated like this either. Native Americans and Hispanics were treated the same way that African-Americans were. The United States used to treat immigrants inadequately.
Throughout history, the United States has fallen flat in showing equality. In 1861 was the start of the Civil War. The country was “split in half” about equal rights and liberty. The South was set on having slaves and thought nothing was wrong with it. To them slaves were not people, but instead they were property. The North,
Why do people these days tend to make fun of other people based on that person’s clothing and their skin color? Why don’t people realize that these assumptions can lead to violence? It could also end up killing innocent citizens who don’t have anything to do with this. In another way you can put it is that, prejudice ruins and sometimes even destroys humans. It also causes people to lose the way they look at their fellow human. . In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows how prejudice causes people to believe in rumors, judge others by their skin color, and the beliefs of others.
In a desperate attempt to save his client, Tom Robinson, from death, Atticus Finch boldly declares, “To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. This case is as simple as black and white” (Lee 271). The gross amounts of lurid racial inequality in the early 20th century South is unfathomable to the everyday modern person. African-Americans received absolutely no equality anywhere, especially not in American court rooms. After reading accounts of the trials of nine young men accused of raping two white women, novelist Harper Lee took up her pen and wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, a blistering exposition of tragic inequalities suffered by African Americans told from the point of view of a young girl. Though there are a few trivial differences between the events of the Scottsboro trials and the trial of Tom Robinson portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird, such as the accusers’ attitudes towards attention, the two cases share a superabundance of similarities. Among these are the preservation of idealist views regarding southern womanhood and excessive brutality utilized by police.
Racial inequality provided everyone their status in life. As a white person, you had rights and privileges. As a black person, you had nothing in life. “The wide discrepancy between the funding for white and black schools. The attempts to withdraw even that little money from black schools in order to fund white and the obvious even virulent racism of the school systems, brought the southern issues into the forefront as the Great Depression deepened” (J. Stakeman, and R. Stakeman). With kids being segregated, they are shown the inequality between the two races. This generates stereotypes that would be passed on to the next generation, producing a cycle that won’t end unless action is taken. Black people weren’t considered important in the 1930s. Lynching portrayed the unimportance of black people towards white people. In the 1930s, mobs frequently slaughtered black people without legal trial. “The first politician to take a visible stand against lynching was President Harry S. Truman, in 1946. Shocked by a lynching in Monroe Georgia, in which four people—one a WORLD WAR II veteran—were pulled off of a bus and shot dozens of times by a mob, Truman launched a campaign to guarantee CIVIL RIGHTS for blacks, including a push for federal anti-lynching laws “ (lynching). African Americans were easily targeted in lynch mobs due to their status in life which was not as superior as to white people. Inequality among the people
Racism has always been a controversial topic in history. All people face racism, no matter what race you are, and it’s an injustice. Racism is a major issue in today’s society, because … THESIS STATEMENT
Looking back at the history of United States in the 1800s, clearly racism was everywhere, and slavery was a major part of society. In the 1900s, racial discrimination still played a major part in society as White Americans were given the rights which includes right to vote, schooling, employment, or the right to go to certain public places. Colored people, did not have the equal rights and freedom as White Americans, especially African-American who back then were turned into slaves. Despite the fact that formal racial discrimination was largely banned in the mid-20th century, this issue of racism still exist even in today's society. The problem with society is that stereotypical views of various races still play a role, like when people always
From the birth of our nation to the present day, there have been numerous laws passed to help make this country for people of all races no matter what. Even the constitution, the very document that has guided us to build a great country that expects us all to live together with freedom and peace. With all these laws in place and copious amendments to the law of the land we still live in a world where racial relations are predominant issue. Why is this so? To better understand the present situation we find ourselves in society we must first go back and see where we came from that had led us to get here. When we first became a sovereign country free from British control there were three major ethnic and racial groups. These groups included Caucasians, Native Americans and later African Americans. These groups were the ones around the time when the constitution was written as well. Even though these were the three major races, the white rich men wanted a set of laws that they saw the fit during that time. African Americans were only seen as objects and property to these rich people they were at a very huge disadvantage from the start in receiving equal rights. In the Dred Scott Case of 1875, the U.S Supreme court addressed the question “Are Slaves citizens?” The court went on to write the following statement “We think they
Today, the United States is considered to be one of the most diverse countries in the world with regards to its citizens being of a different race and ethnic background other than white, but sadly this was not always the case. During the post-emancipation era, also known as the period of “redemption” for southern whites, was a time of great racial violence and hate from most white individuals, typically farm and plantation owners, towards the newly freed slaves emancipated after the civil war, which of whom were predominantly black. Right before the civil war, society was separated into two racial hierarchies: white, and black. If an individual was of any color other than white they were labeled as a slave and considered someone’s, referring to white slave owners, property. After the civil war America’s social lifestyle and overall government changed dramatically due to the emancipation of slaves in the south. When African Americans were emancipated the idea and concept that was once accepted, any individual other than white is considered to be insubordinate and a slave, was now abolished and considered inhumane. This caused a major disruption within society because former slave owners lost huge amounts of manpower that use to work and generate profit by making enslaved individuals farm their land. As a result, once wealthy farmers and plantation owners became the poorest of poor with no one to work their fields and no money to even hire anyone because of post-war fees that needed to be paid. With that being said, African Americans are considered now to be citizens of the United States but sadly were not treated equally by their white peers till the Civil Rights Act (1964); and from the time of reconstruction through the period of...
Harper Lee is most famous for her class, American-literature novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee created a story that reflects compassion, loss of innocence, and the courage to break barriers in the midst of adversity. By creating this novel, she built one of the most model, male figures in all works of writing: Atticus Finch. Today, Atticus Finch is seen as a literary hero, and a role model for many people. From his wise council, to his unprejudiced love and care for others, Atticus Finch lives up to the strong title of being a hero.
Segregation is the exclusion of a certain racial, religious, or other categorized group from actively participating in aspects of society. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, was set during a time period where segregation was customary in society; it affected the way people portrayed certain ideas and how people regarded one another. In the southern United States at this time there was a clash amongst races that separated people. Whites in particular served a less complicated lifestyle than blacks, as blacks were considered to be of lesser importance. The struggles endured by those dealing with segregation were overlooked by the discriminative inhabitants of Maycomb who were brought up in a society where their unjust actions were accepted. Engrained in their minds was an inequality that divided races, which lead to the inability to combine races into an integrated society.
“Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.” -Maya Angelou. Preconceived opinions and unreasonable thoughts are what determine one’s actions and path in life. Everything one does and is surrounded by develops some kind of prejudices in one’s mind and therefore resolves how people act in certain situations. Prejudices are the causes for discrimination and as people have developed unfavorable stereotypes from past experiences, this greatly affects decision making and creating a more ideal society for people of all kinds to thrive in. Prejudice, or judging and making decisions based on personal experiences force people to draw rash and hostile conclusions about people who fall into
Although The United States is known as the land of the free, equality for all, the Constitution masks the fact that this country is all but equal and free. Dating back since the beginning of its’ rise, the country's government system fails to seek equality for everyone. Even though not all members of society are treated unfairly, the majority of women are not provided the same opportunities as men.