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Bigotry In American Culture

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The term "Cotton Picking" is derogatory in nature, referring to African American slaves and their frustration at their plight.
Jack Daniel (creator of Jack Daniel’s whiskey) learned how to make whiskey from a slave named Nathan Green.
Overview

OVERVIEW
Listed below are ten examples of Bigotry in American culture. Examples are included for American Life, Institutions and Culture. Several of the examples originate from the 19th century and the majority of them are still in existence today.

AMERICAN LIFE
Cotton Picking:The phrases “cotton picking” and “cotton picker” are both derogatory in nature, referring to Southerners in general and African American slaves in particular in reference to picking cotton for plantation owners during the slave …show more content…

The cartoon character was intended to be funny, swarthy character, but was found to be offensive due to the portrayal of the character as a bandit carrying a pistol, sporting a gold tooth and speaking with a Mexican accent. The Mexican-American Anti-Defamation Committee sited the offensiveness of this image, campaigning against Frito-Lay until they removed the character in 1971.

Land O’ Lakes Butter:In 1928, Land O’ Lakes adopted the Image of an Indian maiden as their official mascot, an image that we have all come to know. The image portrays the iconic representation of an Indian maiden with long braids, a headdress and a lot of beads. Recently, the image has been called stereotypical based on not only the typical portrayal of the maiden’s garments, but also because of her serene expression. It is felt that this expression belittles the suffering that indigenous peoples experienced at the hands of foreigners who invaded their land.

Cream of Wheat:Rastus, the famous icon seen on Cream of Wheat packaging is still in use today. Created in 1921, Rastus was portrayed as an uneducated, subservient black man and was sported holding up a sign stating “Maybe Cream of Wheat ain 't got no vitamins. I don 't know what them things is. If they’s bugs they ain 't none in Cream of …show more content…

Many craft products which are portrayed as belonging to a family tradition or a signature process or recipe can actually trace their true roots to African American creators. Whiskey, which is considered a Caucasian affair, actually can be traced to African American men and is just one example of craft culture. Jack Daniel (creator of Jack Daniel’s whiskey) learned how to make whiskey from a slave named Nathan Green. Green was considered one of the best whiskey distillers of his time, and Jack Daniel actually hires two of Green’s sons when he later opened a distillery of his

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Eli Whitney’s invention helped give slavery a new life in the 1700s and 1800s (11). Eli Whitney was a mechanical engineer, who was the first to invent the cotton gin. The cotton gin is a machine that quickly and efficiently separates cotton fibers from their seeds (2). His machine moves like brush like teeth through the raw cotton, which makes the hard task go by faster. The cotton gin grew to produce a thousand pounds of cotton a day in the 18th century (11).

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In the book To Kill A Mockingbird made by Harper Lee , many different people are discriminated against, for their color or gender like Tom Robison and even Scout.. But one character is discriminated against very early in the book, Walter Cunningham, who was discriminated by class. To start with, Walter Cunningham is from a family of farmers. This means he is a class below the citizens of Maycomb. But this also means that he(and all other farmers) got hit hard by the depression and are very poor.

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William Edward Burghardt Du Bois once said, “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line.” He refers “color” as race and how race is a social category used to assign human worth and social status using whites as the superior race and the minorities as the inferior. That’s what America is facing during Reconstruction. When the Reconstruction Era transitioned into the New South Era, the lives of Freedmen changed socially, economically, and politically for the worse. Although southern whites were still unpleasant to African Americans during Reconstruction, it got more severe socially in the New South Era.

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It is truly evident that the fundamental focal point of the whole motion picture is bigotry. Bigotry is characterized as the conviction that all individuals from each race forces attributes or capacities particular to that race, particularly to recognize it as substandard compared to another race, which prompts preference and oppression somebody of an alternate race. The film determines its attention on bigotry in the unified states. As we clearly all know, prejudice has been one of the greatest issues that american culture has looked since its establishing and even previously.

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This was a clear insult to the slave because they were working like an animal, however, there were strong like one, but will you really treat a human this way. Throughout the article, he justified that African men were basic savage in Africa with a native way that brought to the nomad age and when American troops brought them to America, some were born here, to become the property of a slave owner. During this time of age, it was considered right, even if it wasn’t.

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1355 Words | 6 Pages

Atticus’s decision to defend Robinson raised and attracted a lot of criticism and anger towards him from the white community of Alabama. This is evident where Cecil Jacobs announced in the school yard that “Atticus Finch defended niggers” . When Scout mentions the name “nigger defender” to Atticus, he said to Scout, “Don’t say nigger, that’s common” . By reprimanding Scout in this way, Atticus is showing that the statement was racial and unacceptable. It is evident that calling black people niggers comes as an influence from the racial inequality in the Maycomb white community.

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People of the town including children refer to black people as “Niggers”, and raised to think of black people as lower class individuals. “To Kill A Mockingbird” has a strong message towards racism, this is learned from Scout & Jem as they mature throughout the novel and are constantly being exposed to demeaning segregation in Maycomb County. In giving Scout a lesson about racism, Atticus also does the same for the readers of the novel. This happens when Scout asks Atticus what the term ‘Nigger-lover” meant, after being insulted several of times and not knowing if it is an offensive word or not, but had a slight feeling it was when Atticus was being called at. A quote from the novel: "nigger-lover is

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Whites felt the need to stay in their own race while blacks do the same. The blacks however did not feel the same as they wanted all men to be equal. The Jim Crow Laws got its name from a white actor named Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice, who played as a fictional character named “Jim Crow”. Jim Crow was a dimwitted black slave that was a caricature of a clumsy person. Many people found this as entertainment as Jim Crow aka Rice would sing a song called “Jump Jim

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Soul food is just what the name insinuate. It is richly flavored and cooked food that is cooked from the heart with love. Some people might say soul food is a home cooked meal, but to my family soul food is a tradition, a way of life handed down from generation to generation. During the era of slavery, blacks were often given the undesirable cuts of meats that slave owners would not eat. Although slaves were given the undesirable cuts of meat, such as pig feet, tails, intestines, chicken livers, and necks they were creative and resourceful, turning these foods into delicious dishes.

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Being a fast food worker for the past year and a half, I have been exposed to numerous different types of people, and most of them are not the same race as me. When I first started to get to know them, even though at times there was difficulty communicating, we were able to make it work and build stronger relationships. One of my favorite managers was Rose, a Hispanic woman who had been so kind to me. She was an example of someone who was able to teach me things about herself I could have stereotyped and not taken the time to learn anything about her as an individual. Growing up in Joliet, Illinois has always given me the opportunity to experience race relations on a regular basis, just due to the diversity of the city that I live in.

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A problem that is occurring in today's countries is ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is using your own culture norms and values to judge the behavior of people from another culture. To summarize the definition in clearer terms ethnocentrism is making fun of less advanced or less superior culture. One problem that comes with ethnocentrism is the feeling of superiority. For example, if the United States had more nuclear powered weapons than Russia superiority could be created.

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Through the lesson Atticus tries to teach Scout, she learns that people will follow biases and prejudices rather than the truth. Within the book To Kill a Mockingbird the main character, Scout, her father is defending a black man in court. During his time defending, he is called name foul names by people in the community. This is a quote from the

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This insinuates that their society rejects people of color and anyone who converses with them. In chapter 11, the phrase “nigger lover” reappears as Mrs. Dubose calls Atticus that, Scout asks Atticus what it means and if he actually is one, he says, “I

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Racism is defined as the poor treatment of people based on color. For as long as humans lived, millions of people have been treated poorly because of their skin color. Racism has carried throughout the many years of American history. Since the abolishment of slavery, a huge spike of racial discrimination flourished the United States and it still does. Stereotypes, racial profiling, and discrimination are signs of racism that still are shown to many people today.

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