Examples Of Institutional Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

By focusing on individual racism, these readers fail to see how institutional racism can have a painful result. Calpurnia went to the court before and told Atticus that the kids were missing. That’s when people in the court said that the kids were up there with the African Americans. The kids had to go home to eat and Atticus agreed that they could come back. When the kids got back to the court after eating, Scout shuts her eyes and “Judge Taylor [starts] polling the jury: ‘Guilty… guilty… guilty… guilty…’” (Lee 282). This is institutional racism because the jury was made of all white men, no blacks. Tom had an unfair trial due to jury. This is a failure of the local government because it is their responsibility to make sure every trial is …show more content…
This happened because the court, the Ewells, and the people in Maycomb believe in stereotypes. Institutional or structural racism is more harmful than individual because institutional has a bigger impact on a person. Tom thought about escaping from the prison knowing that was the only way he could die. Due to institutional racism, Tom’s life was ruined. Individual racism only has a short term or temporary effect that can be changed over time. Institutional racism caused a person to want to end their life which is a painful result of this type of racism. Another impact of institutional racism can be seen by the people of Maycomb. After all the evidence and cross examination in the trial Atticus said his closing statement. During his closing statement, he mentioned that “[Mayella] has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society…” (Lee 271-272). Institutional or structural racism is shown here because Maycomb, a society, have a system to supplement ways to perpetuate racial group injustice. They have a system which is that white people are only supposed to have feelings for another white