Discrimination Affected The Watson In The 1960's

The year is 1963. People are separate but definitely not equal. African Americans face terrible things such as segregation and discrimination. This affected a lot of families, such as the Watson's, with their mindset, actions, and beliefs. 1963, not a fair time. To begin, 1963 affected the Watson's mindset. An example of how discrimination affected the Watson's mindset can be seen on page 146. Standing in the Appalachian mountains, Byron states, "Man, they got crackers and rednecks up here that ain't never seen no negroes before. If they caught your butt out here like this they would hang you now..." Since the boys have been treated different by whites, probably most of their lives, their mindset is that whites are all mean, hateful people that they are supposed to stay away from. The Watson's mindset was very much affected during the 1960's. …show more content…
According to the text after white men bombed Joey's church on page 183, Kenny's actions really changed. When Kenny learned Joey's church was bombed, he sprinted to the church. While there he saw little girl’s dead, and covered in blood. By this he thought his little sister was murdered by white men. Kenny was traumatized by the sight of it and went into a very deep depression. Most days he would not even come out from behind the couch. Due to Kenny's actions changing Byron's did also. Byron really tried to be a lot nicer to Kenny and talk him through this rough time in his life. If there were no discrimination then Joey's church never would have gotten bombed and Kenny or Byron's actions would not have been