Jerald Walker's How To Make A Slave

In “How to Make a Slave,” Jerald Walker uses second person narrative to put the reader in the writer’s point of view to convey how society impacts Walker and his family. Walker compares the different experiences of growing up in the ghetto versus growing up in the suburbs. In the ghetto, Walker describes how he “lived in communities with drugs, gangs, crime, bad schools, police brutality, and collective view that white people were and would be racist”(194). As for his wife, she grew up in a community that faces a different situation. One that is calm and non-violent. Walker depicts how his wife’s community has excellent schools, safe neighborhoods, and clean parks. Despite having a nice community, Walker’s wife still faces racism. For …show more content…
Since Walker’s wife did not see the horrors of reality that Walker experiences in his youth, Walker’s wife believes they should just let go and move on from the situation. Basically, Walker’s wife believes that the children are only joking around and that they will forget about this issue one day. Walker’s wife is evidently taking the situation lightly, which is wrong because her children will grow up one day learning that their differences will make them inferior in a predominantly white society. Even today, racism still exists. For instance, racism is evident in salary differences in work place, police brutality against minorities, discriminatory treatments, etc. If Walker had chose to stay in the ghetto, his family might have had to witness police brutality, which would scar his children for life and make them discouraged of their skin color. In my opinion, racism should not exist today, but since there are people who are close-minded and ignorant about other people’s race, there exist a social injustice. Also, it is right for Walker to take action when his children are discriminated by other people in order to protect their identity and freedom to express their