Police Brutality In Native Son By Richard Wright

1493 Words6 Pages

At a glance, the judicial system appears to have been set up to make sure that every one is punished fairly and equally no matter what your race is, your gender or your beliefs. But, once you begin to delve into the judicial systems background and trends you will begin to notice things that continuously happen to specific groups of people. You will begin to see that clearly some races are treated way different than other races which is not how the judicial system should be set up. Racism in the judicial system has been around since the beginning of the judicial system´s existence. It is a prime example of out many that showcase how the social justice of minorities are infringed upon. This type of injustice has lead to the many social justice …show more content…

But, there are also some who still hold on to prejudices that they grew up with. Black people and white police officers for centuries have never been able to get along. This relationship is the weakest, most violent and often the most fatal relationship the world has ever known. Police brutality is shown throughout the novel Native Son written by author Richard Wright. Police brutality not just in the physical form that we are used to but verbally as well. In this novel, a great example of physical police brutality that can be seen on pages 268-270 when Bigger is finally caught by police. Once he is caught he is forcefully drug down concrete steps with no care at all. Verbally, he is called many derogatory names. Many phrases are thrown at him such as “Kill ‘im! Lynch ‘im! That black son of a bitch! Kill that black ape!” (Wright 270) and “...burn that black ape…” (Wright, 334). A great example of this relationship is the police officers specifically in Ferguson Missouri and the African-Americans in that community. The relationship between these two were never great but in the event of a police officer shooting and killing Michael Brown in August of 2014 it worsened.This relationship from the