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Racial Politics In Ernest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying

973 Words4 Pages

The elaborate racial politics of Ernest J. Gaines’s book, A Lesson Before Dying give insight and reason as to why certain people of different ethnicities are treated as such. The racial politics in A Lesson Before Dying are more intricate with people of mixed race factored in. The hatred for African Americans by white people runs very deep in this novel, but people of mixed race complicate this system because those of mixed race are both face racial prejudice while maintaining a superior attitude towards African Americans.
White people are politically, economically, and socially privileged and continue to believe that they have racial superiority in this novel. White supremacy is very visible in this novel as is their racism towards the two …show more content…

In this scenario, they also believed that Jefferson was rightfully charged and made crude, prejudice remarks when discussed. “Should have burned him months ago. I’d pull the switch myself, they ask me” (198).
However, Grant’s family cautiously came to be accepting of Vivian when she refers to herself while explaining that not all people of mixed race hate African Americans. Evidence of racism towards African Americans in the mixed community is demonstrated when Vivian was outcasted by her family for marrying an African American man, “Her family had nothing to say to her husband and hardly anything to say to her” (112). Lastly, the racial politics of Ernest J. Gaines's book, A Lesson Before Dying are all centered around an overall hatred towards African Americans and anyone related to them. Special cases such as those with mixed race further complicate the politics because they are unaccepted by both races due to their ethnicity and prejudice towards African Americans. To summarize, African Americans are hated by both races while white people remain to have a supremacist view of themselves. Whereas mixed people are outcasted and unaccepted by either race in the

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