Racial Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

An incentive for one person to show prejudice to another is through racial discrimination and the belief that one race is superior to another.. This is first evident in the book when Cecil Jacobs insults Scouts father for defending n****rs. The chapter begins with Scout talling Cecil to take back what he said about her father. She seems to want to start a fight but soon stops remembering the consequences of what Atticus would do to her if she did start a fight. She later goes home and starts to discuss the issue with Jem who says she should go ask Atticus about it. She soon goes up to Atticus and tells him what Cecil Jacobs had said the day before. She says, “He had announced it in the schoolyard the day before that Scout Finch's daddy defended

In the beginning of the book when Scout first meets Walter she stands up for him saying that he can’t pay anyone back because of his family status. Due to these statements she ends up getting hit on the hand with a ruler. After class lets out Scout runs to find Walter hoping to get revenge on him. Jem soon stops this and invites Walter over for dinner saying that their dads were friends. Walter hesitantly agrees and they head to their house. As they are eating Atticus attempts to make small talk with Walter while Scout makes rude comments. Calpurnia, the family maid, soon pulls her into the kitchen and says. “There’s some folks who don’t eat like us, she whispered fiercely, but you ain’t called on to contradict ‘em at the table when they don’t. That boy’s yo’ comp’ny and if he wants to eat up the tablecloth you let him, you.” After hearing this Scout retorts, “He ain’t company, Cal, he’s just a Cunningham” (32-33). This quote implies how Scout feels after being humiliated in front of the class and how she reacts by showing prejudice to Walter. When Calpurnia says, “There’s some folks who don’t eat like us,” it shows that there are many different kinds of people that don’t do things like we do, but we have to respect how they do things. Based on the comments she said to Walter she obviously can not see this and this makes her turn to show prejudice to him, since she can not respect that many people do things differently. When Scout says, “he ain’t company, Cal, he’s just a Cunningham, it shows that she has different opinions on how people should be treated based on their family background, race, or way of living. She tells Cal that since he is a Cunningham he shouldn’t be treated as a real person. Another example of prejudice that is shown in the book is from the townspeople of