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To Kill A Mockingbird Racial Inequality Essay

738 Words3 Pages

In the world right now, there is still inequality for all. People are criticized everyday because of how they look, speak, dress, act, etc. In America, although there is people that are changing, there with always be that small group of people that won’t change their views on what they believe is right and wrong in our society. You can also see this in the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, written by author, Harper Lee. All throughout the novel, you can see how white people are superior to the African Americans that live in the same town. Even if you are one of the poorest people in the town, if you are white, then you are still more significant in the social classes than a black person. Today, people are going through the same racial discrimination that was happening so long ago and will happen till the day our world is nonexistent anymore. In our society, people are judged for many things they can’t change. In the article, “Inequality, Race, and Remedy,” there was a study done that sent out approximately 1,300 résumés to apply for the same job. Half of the names were white sounding while the other half were black sounding. The study showed that the white names were about 50% more likely to get a job …show more content…

Throughout the book people talk about how wrong it is for Atticus, one of the main characters, to defend an African American in court. The children in the book are told that their father is a disgrace and that he is ruining other people’s lives. For example, “‘...now he’s turned out a nigger-lover we’ll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb agin. He’s ruinin’ the family, that’s what he’s doin’.’” (Lee 110). Just by defending a black person Atticus is trashed on how horrible he is for doing such a thing. The bigotry about race is the same back then in the book than it is now in modern

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Although there is a promise of failure Atticus will not stop on his fight for justice. In order for his children to see the difference in how the world is and how it should be Atticus is constantly teaching them about the unfairness and unjust ways around them. Using your higher status in society to belittle and discriminate against those below you is an appalling act that according to Atticus Finch makes you trash. ‘“As you grow older, you 'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don 't you forget it -- whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash”’ The metaphor “that white man is trash” is used when Atticus is explaining to his son the unjust racist ways of their small town.

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In the book To Kill a Mockingbird the author, Harper Lee, uses the character of Atticus to represent Moral and Truth. In many situations, Atticus's actions differ from the rest of the prejudice society of the 1930s south and represents how the south would change in the next 30 years. The reason why Atticus’s actions were unusual in this time period was because anyone who publicly challenged the system of segregation was in danger of being killed. When the book was written in the 1960s, many anti-segregation movements had happened since the 30s, changing laws and making it much more common for people to act out against segregation like Atticus. One major example of this was during Tom Robinson’s trial where Tom was convicted of a crime

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Additionally, the results showed that “a white name yields as many more callbacks as an additional eight years of experience” (Bertrand). A white sounding name is equal to eight years of hands-on, real world experience, people. That fact alone shows built in bias. And, in a survey done in conjunction with the study, “more than a third of African Americans reportedly experienced racial discrimination during a hiring process. (Bertrand)”

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A Segregating Society Martin Luther King Jr. once stated “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” In the story, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the people of the town of Maycomb, Alabama judge individuals by the color of their skin, not the content of their character and face various incidences of Social Inequality. Harper Lee demonstrates how unequal and prejudice the 1930s southern culture is when Walter Cunningham comes over for dinner and Scout does not respect him, when Aunt Alexandra does not agree Atticus defending Tom Robinson, and when Tom is falsely charged with rape because of his skin color.

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To Kill a Mockingbird I believe that to Kill a Mockingbird shows social injustice. One reason this is shown during the trial for Tom Robinson's life, people chose the opinion of the white folk instead of the truth. Another reason is because people judge people by the way they live which is presented with the Cunninghams. My last reason is shown by the way people believe rumors instead of the people who witnessed the scene and believe in telling the truth. One reason I believe that the book “To Kill A Mockingbird” shows social injustice is shown because people judge by the color of their skin, rather than the most believable story.

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Race has always been a part of history, from slavery to MLK, to Barack Obama. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee defines race in the south during the 1930’s. Jean “Scout” Finch, is the narrator of the story. Her brother Jeremy “Jem” and her dad, Atticus, are both main characters. Calpurnia is their house cook and helper, she is also black.

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Scout displays the theme of social inequality when she invites Walter Cunningham into her own home for a meal. Walter Cunningham was a student in one of Scouts classes who she immediately got off on the wrong foot with but when Jem opened her eyes to the situation, he was invited over for dinner. Scout shows that she feels sympathetic to Walter when she says, “Yeah Walter, I won’t jump on you again. Don’t you like butterbeans? Our Cal’s a real good cook.”

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Rough Draft Do you think America has changed in regards to equality for all citizens since The Great Depression? In fact many believe it has not, including myself. In this education unit, we have read a very controversial novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, watched a few TED talks, researched articles for this topic, and had in-class discussions about the commonalities between this topic and the novel. There are many reasons why we see America as it was back in the 1930’s, such as gender inequality, socio-economics, and ageism, but ethnicity inequality stood out to me the most.

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A study indicates that dark-skinned African Americans face a distinct disadvantage when applying for jobs. Matthew Harrison, a doctoral student at UGA undertook the first significant study of "colorism" in the workplace. He found that a light-skinned black male can have only a bachelor's degree and typical work experience and still be preferred over a dark-skinned black male with an M.B.A. and past managerial positions, simply because expectations of the light-skinned black male are much higher, and he doesn't appear as “menacing' as the darker-skinned male applicant.” This finding is possibly due to the common belief that fair-skinned blacks probably have more similarities with whites than do dark-skinned blacks, which in turn makes whites feel more comfortable around them. (Harrison

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Discrimination by definition is “the unjust treatment of different categories of people or things especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.” To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee set in the small southern town of Maycomb in the 1930s. The 1930s were a time of racial inequality, social unrest, and the start of the civil rights movement. It was also a time of the Great Depression which left many families poor and impoverished. The most obvious form of discrimination in the book is racism but there are several other types present in the book including discrimination based on class, gender, and other social stereotypes.

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I experienced my first significant reality check when I was thirteen years old. In junior high, I attended a school where administrators and students alike embraced ethnic diversity. When I entered into a new school freshman year, I did not find this to be the case. However, this didn’t change the way I attempted to make friends and interact with my peers.

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In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates the small, imaginary town, the Maycomb County, as a place where racism and social inequality happens in the background of 1930s America. Not only the segregation between whites and blacks, but also the poor lived in a harsh state of living. As Scout, the young narrator, tells the story, Lee introduces and highlights the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb County by using various characters such as Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Mayella Ewell. Firstly, Harper Lee portrays Boo Radley as a victim of social inequality through adjectives and metaphor in the phrase, “There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten;” ‘Long jagged scar that ran across his face’ tells us that Boo Radley has stereotype about his appearance, which forces to imagine Boo as a scary and threatening person. The phrase, ‘yellow and rotten’ make the readers think as if Boo Radley is poor and low in a social hierarchy, as he cannot afford to brush his teeth.

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Racial distinctions between Africans Americans and Caucasians have been used to justify significant differences in jobs, policing and housing, leading to great injustices. If we want to address those injustices we need to change the way we think about what our society needs to do in order to strive. The racial influence on finding jobs for African Americans in modern society still worsens as discrimination still decides who gets the job or the promotion. For example, if two qualified males of both races applied for a job the one who would be called up for the job is most likely the Caucasian male.

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Though most of the town Maycomb feels negatively and discriminates the African-Americans, characters like Atticus show us how one person can impact his surroundings if he has high morals. Although he couldn’t change the mindset of the other town residents , he made sure that his own children didn’t discriminate people, purely on the basis of their skin colour. Racism can be seen even in the first few chapters of the book. These racist comments by nonracist children typify the culture in which they were growing up.

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Racial discrimination is an ongoing inequality that is seen in multiple ways, one being racial/ethnic groups which effects their pay wages. The black-white

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