To Kill A Mockingbird Still Relevant Today

In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird there is evidence of a racist past that is still brought up to this day. There are many lessons to be learned from this book that are still relevant today such as inequality in the justice system and underlying racism. In modern day society, historian Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor talks about how the “n-word” is used by many but most of the time people do not know the harm or history behind the word. I believe that Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird is still relevant to this day and that it can help teach future generations to stray away from using the “n-word” by learning from its racist past.

Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird brings about the unfairness of the justice system for African

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows how no one gave Tom Robinson a shortcut for justice to be true but for Arthur Radley, who is a white man, they gave him a chance since he had saved Atticus’s children. They made up a story saying that “Bob Ewell fell on his knife. He killed himself” but in reality it was Arthur Radley which is revealed when Atticus says, “Thank you for my children, Arthur”(314-317). Harper Lee shows that equality isn’t fully shown in Atticus even when he is a man of truth. Tom Robinson, an African American was presumed guilty for a crime he didn’t commit but Arthur Radley was saved for killing the person who committed the crime Tom Robinson was guilty for saving Jem and Scout. It is important that we learn about this racial injustice in the court of law because it replicates what our society has been through and that it could possibly repeat due to the lack of not being educated about these hard topics. We must learn the harsh truth to

Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor defines interaction with the “n-word” as a “point of encounter.” I have had many “encounters” of the “n-word” such as hearing it in rap songs, at school, in movies, and sports games and events. It has somehow been normalized to say by members of society and by normalizing the use of the “n-word” we will never be able to advance forward on the problem of racism. Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor argues that the “n-word” is different from other vile words because of its racist meaning and past. She also inferred that it made people uncomfortable, mad, or depressed. The history of the “n-word” is that it was used for political protest at first. It also became a slur during the 1820s which made African Americans inferior and unfavorable in all of humanity. During her video, one thing that stood out to me was how she talked about how, as a historian, schools had teachers in modern history that called African Americans the “n-word” to make them feel shameful. I believe that schools should teach students about the “n-word” but in the correct way so that we can be aware of the dangers of the word and so that we know never to say it. A counter argument to this could be that not every school will be teaching students the “n-word” in the proper way. The proper way of teaching the word is by not saying it but by