Racial Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

Cozette Rinde #14156 Mrs. Moore English 1, Period 4 13 February 2023 Division by Discrimination “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences” (Audre Lourde). Institutional racism has been persistent throughout history, whether it be the recent murder of George Floyd, a victim of police brutality, in 2020 or the Scottsboro Boys in 1931. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, directly inspired by the Scottsboro Trials, a combination of individuals' bigotry and the flaws of the court system (systematic racism) is presented. Set in the South, discrimination runs amok.

The ever present distaste from whites in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, shows the issues that blacks had to deal with constantly. Lee was able to portray this hatred by putting and important character, Tom Robinson a black man, on an unjust trial for the alleged rape of a white woman, Mayella Ewell. This classic story reveals the awful conditions and intense racism during this time in the southern Unites States. Some of the many African Americans affected by southern white racists in court or otherwise include the Scottsboro

Even if the black man put more effort into the job, and got more done than the white

Racial Issues and How it Affects the Everyday Life Racial issues are brought up constantly in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. One area that race issues affect is education, and those who are black have harder times in school due to a lot of different factors. In the article How the Stress of Racism Affects Learning, it talks about the life of a 15 year old Zion Agostoni. In his school and his neighborhood, there are cops everywhere and they follow him to school some days to “protect the city” and the cops acts affect his school work.

Discrimination has a lot of layers including racism, gender roles, and class that cause minorities to get held back and criticized by society. The fiction novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, takes place in a small Southern town in the U.S during the 1930’s. The 1930’s was a time filled with discrimination caused by the economic tension of the Great Depression. Throughout the novel, the characters such as Scout Finch, the Cunningham family, and Tom Robinson all endure discrimination whether it is for their gender, their race, or even for their social class. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee proves that discrimination, throughout the 1930’s, such as class, gender stereotypes, and racism, lead to the downfalls of characters.

Discrimination The legal system, prior to the 1970’s, was flawed. The American court system is meant to be the epitome of equal treatment and justice. However, for black Americans, being put on trial was inevitably going to be an undesirable and unjust outcome. This is partially due to the fact that juries consisted of white men.

Not too long ago, May 25 of 2020 marked the unlawful death of the well-known black man, George Floyd. He was arrested, and soon after, murdered, by a racist white police officer, who pinned Floyd to the floor while kneeling, causing Floyd to plead 20 times he could not breathe. While George Floyd had been committing a small crime, it was not acceptable for a police officer to unlawfully punish him for his crime. That’s not his job, but the court’s. However, this tragedy occurred due to one common fact in every racial-based situation to take place in society.

Harper Lee's book "To Kill a Mockingbird" sheds light on racial injustice in the American South in the 1930s. The narrative is seen through the eyes of Scout Finch, a little child growing up in the Alabaman small town of Maycomb. The book examines a variety of topics, such as racism, prejudice, and having the guts to stand up for what is right. A classic work of literature, Harper Lee’s

To Kill A Mockingbird is a famous novel by Harper Lee, portraying a stereotypical southern town. Lee depicts Maycomb, a town full of complex characters, to illustrate privilege and its advantages in society. As a result, Lee demonstrates race’s relevance to southern society. Considering the relationship between the court case in the novel and real life, the reader forms many connections between the characters and their opinions on the case. Furthermore, the African American defendant in the case, Tom Robinson, allows the audience to comprehend systemic racism and other prejudices.

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.

Can you be surprised at my discouragement?” This young African American was first in his class and that means nothing because he is black. Even though he was top of his class, his job choices were restricted because white people won’t employ him or work with him. This is one example that shows that blacks way of acquiring an income was cut off no matter how educated or experienced they

In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, undoubtedly there is more than one type of discrimination displayed. Before we get into that, what exactly is discrimination? Well, to discriminate means to treat someone differently based on what they believe, their age, gender, who they love, even their appearance. The forms that I will be talking about are Sexism, (Prejudice actions based on gender) Racism, (Prejudice actions based on race) classism, (Prejudice actions on those of a different social class) and discrimination on those with a disability.

“Now don’t you be so confident, Mr. Jem, I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man…” (Lee 179). This quote from Reverend Sykes in To Kill a Mockingbird is a sort of summary of how and why Tom Robinson was wrongly convicted guilty. It also gives a lot of insight on race relations in this time period. Unfortunately, racism has yet to leave society.

In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches us about the town of Maycomb County during the late 1930s, where the characters live in isolation and victimization. Through the perspective of a young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, readers will witness the prejudice that Maycomb produces during times where people face judgement through age, gender, skin colour, and class, their whole lives. Different types of prejudice are present throughout the story and each contribute to how events play out in the small town of Maycomb. Consequently, socially disabling the people who fall victim from living their life comfortably in peace. Boo Radley and his isolation from Maycomb County, the racial aspects of Tom Robinson, and the decision Atticus Finch makes as a lawyer, to defend a black man has all made them fall in the hands of Maycomb’s prejudice ways.

In To Kill a Mockingbird there are lots of racial, gender, and religious, discrimination. Which is shown a multiple amount of times throughout the novel. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee which takes place in Maycomb Alabama, where there is a lot of racial discrimination. But there is also some gender, and religious, discrimination.