Examples Of Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

As Nelson Mandela once said, “Racism is a blight on the human conscience. The idea that any people can be inferior to another, to the point where those who consider themselves superior define and treat the rest as subhuman, denies the humanity even of those who elevate themselves to the status of gods” (Mandela). Racism has been happening ever since but is slowly fading away. There are still some who believe one's ethnicity and appearance change everything in that particular person. The 1930s was a moment in our history where racism was ubiquitous, particularly in the South. Many southern whites were deeply aggrieved of the termination of slavery, so they took it upon themselves to accuse innocent Blacks of crimes, just like in the book, To …show more content…
One example is when Jem explained to Scout and Dill (their friend) about how Mr. Dolphus Raymond has mixed children and how why they do not fit anywhere. “‘He’s got a colored woman and all sorts of mixed chillun’…. ‘They don’t belong anywhere. Colored folks won’t have ‘em because they’re half white; white folks won’t have ‘em ‘cause they’re colored, so they’re just in-betweens, don’t belong anywhere’” (161). In this quote, Jem explains to Scout and Dill why the mixed children do not belong anywhere, nobody will take them just because they are mixed. People will not take the mixed children because they do not want to be associated with the other race in any way. As a result, they are called the in-betweens because they are mixed children and nobody wants them. Harper Lee was able to showcase this quote to demonstrate that race in this book because nobody wanted mixed children. The quote shows inequality towards colored people and mixed races because they do not treat them the same and think that they are just the in-betweens who do not belong …show more content…
Lee was able to show this in the book when Atticus was talking about how no matter what, whether it is a White man’s word or a Black man’s word, the White man will always win. “‘There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads-they couldn’t be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins’” (220). This quote explains that no matter what, the White man’s word will always win. This shows racism because the White person will always win, no matter how hard the colored people tried. It shows how unequal race is because the more superior race will win, which in this case is the Whites. It is unfair to the colored population because they are never equally treated in society and that they are always