Racism is defined as prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior (Oxford Dictionary). Many popular novels have tried to recognize prejudice and how is was wrong to discriminate colored people. Racism didn’t just stop after one generation, but continued on for a long time. Both To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Help by Kathryn Stockett show how racism was taught down generations in the South during the 1900s.
In To Kill A Mockingbird main characters Jem and Scout were left confused when Tom Robinson was convicted for a crime he clearly didn’t commit. Most people were taught that no matter what a white man’s word should be believed over a black
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Her mother was very strict about the rules that were kept against black people, and educated her with false beliefs. The segregation solely for bathrooms was taught to Mae Mobley by her mother at an influential age when she used a colored persons bathroom. “I did not raise you to use the coloured bathroom!... This is dirty out here, Mae Mobley. You’ll catch diseases!”(Stockett 111) Mae is harshly punished for using the wrong bathroom, and was taught that all black people “carry diseases.” White people during that time sternly believed black people are ‘dirty” and continued to pass these beliefs down to their children. Aibileen tried to help Mae as much as possible and tried to give her better morals than her mom taught her. She tried as hard as she could, considering she practically raised her. “I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain't a color, disease ain't the negro side of town. I want to stop that moment from coming – and it come in every white child's life – when they start to think that colored folks are not as good as whites. (Stockett 112)” Since Aibileen Mae Mobley second mother, she taught her so Mae could grow up as a better person and be prevented from becoming racist like her mother. The black characters in The Help all awaited the time when white people were equal to colored people, and the right morals were taught to children. Racism was something that was taught down to kids in the younger generations in the books The Help and To Kill A Mockingbird. White people had the privilege and power to control a colored persons life with just their words, which was a very scary concept to colored people. They stayed strong, and stood up for themselves. It was only time that brought the notion of equality to a