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Racism In Nic Stone's Dear Martin

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Dear Martin, a novel written by the author Nic Stone, Dear Martin has some very real world problems. A main problem in the book is racism which is also a problem in today's world. Racism is seen as bad by society, but people continue to judge and stereotype people because of their race. In the novel racism is shown in hurtful ways with different situations that are mostly based off race. Demonstrations of racism includes racial bias from the public which leads to police brutality towards people of color and causes constant violence and negativity between people.

Bias can create multiple different outcomes, but three key relations and creations that come from it stand out the most these three include, stereotypes, skin color and physical …show more content…

Police brutality is caused because society creates stereotypes and is racially bias, this makes select police officers racially profile people, suspect gang activity, and act out in different ways.
Racial profiling from police can be extremely obvious, especially if the officer makes questionable remarks that seem racist. For example, “I know your kind” (Stone, 8) is only one of the racist comments in the book. This quote was said by a police officer while arresting, and handling Jus who is also a person of color.
In general racial profiling is bad but there must be a reason for it, this reason could very well be gang related as we know that some or most gang members carry weapons. Gangs generally cause violence and chaos, but also fear in people when they know how dangerous some members can be. An example of this type of fear can be found in the book “The guy with the gun smiles at Jus. “You and the rich kid can sit with us if you want to” All the black jihad guys laugh” (Stone, 44). After Jus was arrested he has had a deeper fear of weapons and seeing the gun makes Jus feel threatened, he even felt a flare of pain around his wrists reminding him of the handcuffs that were on …show more content…

In the story Jus finds himself questioning why people always doubt, “Can you explain why everywhere I turn, I run into people who wanna keep me down” (Stone, 65). This quote also proves that Jus is starting to doubt himself because if everywhere you go someone keeps you down, eventually you'll start to believe them, that's if you don’t have a strong mental state.
Another side effect of doubting yourself is losing your abilities and talents while destroying your mind. “ As much as he wants to turn on his heels, and bolt but he can’t seem to move.” (Stone, 85). Jus’s mind and abilities are withering away all because of how he let the others get into his head, he starts to struggle making decisions on when he should leave or stay in place, again due to his mental state. Those who don’t doubt themselves will succeed.
An overview of this is how negative expectations and doubt will cause you to lose abilities, and can also spark negativity between people and within someone own mind, these should all be avoided to keep

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Racism harms individuals and communities, and its root causes must be addressed to combat this pervasive issue. “Dear Martin” by Nic Stone is a perfect example of how black people are affected by racism as it greatly affected Justyce throughout the novel. Justyce got arrested by the cops for no reason, he was targeted for the colour of his skin by Jared and Blake, and he and his friend, Manny, got shot by a police officer Firstly, Justyce first experiences racism in the novel when he was trying to help his drunk friend Melo into her car so he could drive her home but a police officer thought he was up to no good and arrested him. “I know your kind; punks like you wander the streets of nice neighbourhoods searching for prey.

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