ipl-logo

Caged Bird Segregation

1323 Words6 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Racial and ethnic prejudice

What really divides a nation? I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings takes place in a southern town in Stamps, Arkansas during the Great Depression. In the South, Jim Crow Laws were intact that legally allowed for the segregation of race. The idea of segregation only further enhances racial hostility and stereotypes. The Great Depression played a huge factor to racial issues. Some employers won't hire Black Americans because of their race and make them work in the field instead. Work was scarce and hostility was high. The book is about a young girl named Marguerite Johnson living in the South with her brother, grandma, and disabled uncle. Marguerite, or Maya, and her brother moved to Arkansas with their Grandma and Uncle because of their …show more content…

When she moved over, Maya started to live in Stamps on the Black side of town. Most Black Americans in Stamps lived on the Black side and the opposite with the Whites. With the new laws implemented in Southern States, people can refuse to serve others based on their skin tone. The Jim Crow Laws affected both Whites and Blacks during that time. Schools received different funding based on what race attends there. People can become despised and threatened for interacting with others from different races. People start to hate one another based on the stereotypes of other’s actions. Blacks think that all Whites are evil based on the actions of radical Whites. Because of racial issues, Jim Crow Laws were implemented and it drastically affected Maya’s life. Maya was denied services due to her race and wasn’t taken seriously in academics until she moved to California where segregation isn’t allowed. Race plays the role of dividing a nation, limiting opportunities, causing unfair treatment, and creating hostility …show more content…

Segregation was legal because the government saw it as a way to keep the peace between two races. Segregation was also legal as long as both races had equal circumstances such as restaurants, living conditions, and trains. Although they were said to have equal things, Blacks received far worse treatment than Whites. White schools were given more funding and were taken more seriously than Black schools. The only doctor and dentist in Stamps were white and refused to serve Blacks, which doesn’t make it fair for the Black population. This quote from the book describes Maya’s visit to a White dentist office. “Annie, my policy is I’d rather stick my hand in a dog’s mouth than in a nigger’s.” The dentist in this quote would rather treat a dog with more respect than someone who was Black. Another quote in this book describes the unfair treatment Marguerite’s grandmother was given because she was Black. “The girls had tired of mocking Momma and turned to other means of agitation. One crossed her eyes, stuck her thumbs in both sides of her mouth and said, “Look here, Annie.”” In this quote from the book, several poor white children came to her Store to mock and act as they were better than her because she was Black. Race in this book gave Black Americans unfair treatment just because of the color of their

Show More
Related
619 Words | 3 Pages

During this time, the blacks experienced high levels of racism from the whites. This included experiences such as racial discrimination, economic exploitation, segregation and humiliation among others. The blacks were also denied the right to practice their own taboos and forced to leave their culture (Rowan, pp.14-37). All this was in violation of the civil rights and therefore forced the author to write and report what the blacks were going through in the south region. According to the book, the blacks experienced high levels of racism in the hands of the white people.

Read More
239 Words | 1 Pages

In the novel, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor, Cassie, a fourth grader, experiences people showing inequity towards blacks, including herself, at a mercantile in Strawberry. For instance, when Cassie, Stacey, and T.J. arrived in the front of the line to receive their orders from Mr. Barnett, a white man who runs the mercantile in Strawberry, he deliberately omits them when white people come to the line to wait for their orders to be filled. After around an hour, Cassie grows impatient and tries to politely addresses him that them still need their orders filled up. But then, he grew hot in temper, turns to Stacey with a hateful force, saying, “Make sure she don’t come back till yo’ mammy teach her what she is” (Taylor 112).

Read More
846 Words | 4 Pages

Tatum uses the conflict theory to look at racism, economic and social inequalities. The power structure of the white dominant society in the United States, does not often recognize white privilege, while others do not believe this is a privilege at all. They believe that the power structure in the United States is one that if you work hard, everyone will have the same opportunity for success. This is an example of how white privilege helps racism to continue to exist. The inability to recognize white privilege helps to creates perception and ideals that racism in our society is a thing of the past.

Read More
1385 Words | 6 Pages

In the book, there are significant racial tensions and racial divisions in society. Young Black women like Lauren, the primary character, must find their way in a society where they face prejudice and marginalization. In the story, racism is shown as a persistent menace in a society where one's character or aptitudes are more often evaluated than the color of one's skin. Unfortunately, this is a problem that persists in modern culture. The work emphasizes the consequences of institutionalized racism, which persists today.

Read More
670 Words | 3 Pages

Even though slavery was over, there was still racial tensions across the country, highly, and African Americans continued experience oppression (Source 1). Oppression meaning being subjected to unfair treatment (Source 1). With this mind, African Americans were unfairly even though before they were used, bought and also sold before this. ”The Supreme Court had given segregation a legal “okay” and many states took advantage of this” (Source 1). With this happening, it was very prevalent in the South.

Read More
500 Words | 2 Pages

Blacks were not allowed to go to the same bathroom or drink from the same drinking fountains as whites, attend the same school, and African American were not allowed to vote like the white could. Racism and segregation is a big problem in Black like Me. Racism is poor treatment of or violence against people because of their race. In 1932, if a black would drink from the same water fountain as white, he would get into a lot of trouble. That’s why John Howard changes his skin color.

Read More
1719 Words | 7 Pages

Throughout history, race has been an ongoing theme. Race was used to define a person as well as the rights that they held. People of races other than white were given little to none respect and were not treated as human beings but instead property. It was a constant battle between races, therefore forming a them versus us society. Through history there were many people who were treated based off their race, there were many different government made laws and documents that defined and laid out the rights of those certain races.

Read More
532 Words | 3 Pages

She gives a hint that the whites were able to do whatever they wanted to the blacks during the time. She even goes on to talk about the brutal killing of her mother in a rape situation by three white men. She also talks about the difference in white and black education. White people would have better

Read More
464 Words | 2 Pages

Anne Moody, through her sudden understanding of the extreme amounts of unfair treatment and pre-decided opinions that African Americans endure; she created an unforgettable image of the inequalities and violence that branded Southern, Black Humanity. Through her own envelopment, she shows why the Civil Rights Movement was such a requisite. In this essay I am going to be discussing how prejudice plays a role in Moody’s life growing up, how blacks and whites had different experiences with prejudice, and how that shaped their behavior, as well as how prejudice goes hand in hand with the two other themes of the book, gender, and poverty. Moody’s important early childhood experiences weren’t all that great. Her uncle, George Lee, would watch her

Read More
721 Words | 3 Pages

African Americans were considered separate but “equal” even though it did not really come off that way. They were treated as inferior to the white population. African-American women were treated even more inferior beyond that. However, through Beals’s eyes, she was able to show how strong her mother and grandmother were as African-American women as well as herself.

Read More
1299 Words | 6 Pages

Along with the segregation, blacks were subject to poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses which basically took away their rights to vote. ("Jim Crow and Plessy v. Ferguson"). Plessy v. Ferguson was supposed to be a case in which the blacks finally secured equality to whites. Instead of this, it seemed to have taken a step back into a horrible time in which everything was separate, but nothing was

Read More
481 Words | 2 Pages

Sometimes people come into your life and leave a very Great Impact on it. That person for me is Selena Quintanilla-Perez. A Tejano American singer known as the “Tejano Queen’’. Selena was born April 16 1971 in Lake Jackson, Texas. Her father Abraham Quintanilla was a musician.

Read More
1194 Words | 5 Pages

The discrimination against the white race begins with a gradual distinct treatment of the African Americans who appear to have a trace of the white race. Helene proves to have a more formal dialect as she asks for “the bathroom” (23) and the black woman cannot understand until Helene finally refers to it as “the toilet” (23). The difference in word choice distinct Helene from the African Americans in the Bottom. The fact that Helene also has fairer skin than the African Americans gives the black woman a reason to believe Helene has a trace of white. Therefore, when Helene approaches the black woman on the train, “[the woman fastens her eyes]…on the thick velvet, the fair skin, [and] the high tone voice” (23), as if surprised and shocked to see an African American women appear in such a manner.

Read More
610 Words | 3 Pages

Black people were treated as less than because of their race and often had low paying jobs working for white people. Racism was especially bad in the south in states like Mississippi, where The Help takes place. The Civil Rights movement also started during this time so racial tensions were even higher during this

Read More
796 Words | 4 Pages

The new laws that the government had set in place made lives for black people very difficult at the time. When this law was put in place, the differences between blacks and whites were very clear. Whites got preferential treatment, just for being white whereas blacks had to struggle with daily

Read More

More about Caged Bird Segregation

Related Topics

Open Document