Examples Of White In The Underground Railroad

Elliot Fyfe Dr. Adams American Literature 4/28/2024 In the novel The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, there are many examples of white people taking advantage of black people with measures like restricting learning and withholding knowledge. These instances show the systemic oppression and exploitation by whites, keeping African Americans under their control by keeping them uneducated and uninformed. White characters in the novel use their control over information and education as a means of “proving” their intellectual dominance and inherent control over black people. Through these instances, Whitehead shows the unsettling ways power dynamics and inequalities are reinforced in societies built on racial hierarchies, by taking advantage

In fact, the niggers were participants in a study of the latent and tertiary stages of syphilis.We have to tell them they’re being lied to. They’re sick.Will they believe you over their white doctors? Sam asked. With what proof?... the town is paying for it all”(pg. 124-126). This shows how whites withheld knowledge, and used the obliviousness of risk and false confidence of the slaves, to keep them under their control and take advantage of them, like using them as unwilling participants in a study on a disease for the benefit of themselves. Another example of whites withholding knowledge and taking advantage of the black people's obliviousness is in the Ridgeway section of the novel when it explains the life of a young slave-catcher. In the novel, the young slave catcher says, “Get them off the plantation and they learned to read, it was a disease”(pg. 1). 77). The 'Standard' is a 'Standard'. This short excerpt shows how they kept black people under their control by explaining how they made it difficult for black people to learn, and how if they did, “it was a disease” to the slave-catcher, meaning it made it difficult for them to keep the black people under their control if they