It is important to have a precise definition of racism to identify when others are being racist and also to be able to know when something you have said or are about to say is racist. I think when people are being racist it falls into a few categories. The person is maliciously being racist, they grew up around racist people so they have adopted that mannerism or they aren’t necessarily educated in matters of racism so they don’t know that there are things that you shouldn’t say because it will come off as racist. For the first category, the person is just racist. The second category they say or act in ways that is racist because that is what they grew up around. They might not be being intentionally racist but because they grew up around racism …show more content…
In 1955, in Mississippi 14-year-old Emmett Till was beaten, tortured, and shot in the head. As the story goes he was from Chicago and visiting his family in Mississippi. He went to the Bryant store and some witnesses said he might have whistled at Carolyn Bryant. It was four days when Emmett was kidnapped by Roy Bryant, Carolyn’s husband, and J. W. Milam and killed. The story of the murder got media coverage and people across the country, both north, and south were horrified by the way Emmett was killed. This was, even more, the case because Emmett’s mother had an open casket funeral and the picture of his remains was in newspapers. This is a clear case of racism because even if Emmett Till whistled at Carolyn Bryant he was only a 14-year-old boy and didn’t deserve the brutal death he was given or death at all. Moreover, in 2017, Carolyn Bryan admitted she lied and Till didn’t do anything she accused him of doing. She had testified “that Emmett had grabbed her hand, she pulled away, and he followed her behind the counter, clasped her waist, and, using vulgar language, told her that he had been with white women before.” So, in the end, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy, was killed for a “crime” he didn’t