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Susan Sontag

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Being born in America in 1933 has shown to impact Susan Sontag, a liberal author and human rights advocate, when she stated, “I do not think white America is committed to granting equality to the American Negro... this is a passionately racist country; it will continue to be so in the foreseeable future,” on Quotestoknow.com. Susan Sontag, born in the great depression, has set the scene for To Kill A Mockingbird in an extremely powerful way. The citizens in To Kill A Mockingbird experience prejudice in many different ways. A very impactful and influential woman in this novel is an African American woman named Calpurnia. Scout, the narrator in the book, goes to Calpurnia’s church with her and her brother, Jem. While at the church, Scout realizes …show more content…

Throughout the trial, Atticus’s son Jem becomes very intrigued by the case, and obsessed with the possibility Tom being acquitted. This causes atticus to tell Jem, "Tom Robinson's a colored man, Jem. No jury in this part of the world's going to say 'We think you're guilty, but not very' on a charge like that. It was either a straight acquittal or nothing.” (219) A huge part of today's racial issues is an action called stop and frisk. Stop and Frisk is a term used to describe police officers stopping people on the street to “pat them down” in order to collect illegal weapons and prevent possible crimes. Although it was intended to be a safe and proactive way to prevent crime, it has turned into serious cases of racial profiling. For example, an article titled Stop and Frisk by Numbers, written by Jason Oberholtzer on Forbes.com, state's, “Young black and Latino men account for 4.7% of New York City’s population but 41.6% of the stops in 2011.” These numbers prove the issue of racial profiling when it comes to Stop and Frisk. This conflicts with Tom Robinson’s trial because in the 1930’s, when the story of To Kill A Mockingbird takes place, people are outwardly racist. However, the racist people in today’s society tend to keep it secret in order to hide from the open-mindedness in the world

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