Unblinding White America: Max’s Perseverance in Native Son
(2011)
Human tendency can cause the development of animosity based on rumor and speculation. Once an unfavorable opinion is spread like wildfire among a clique of people about another, these stigmatized fears of the other group can manifest themselves into community standard of thought. Consequently, this mindset sprouts over-generalized expectations of others: a concept widely used to develop racism in the mid-twentieth century. While most people in the 1940s conformed to the standards presented by the highest people of power in society, author, Richard Wright, sought to expose the inner workings of this falsely presumed injustice. In Richard Wright’s classic novel, Native Son, Bigger’s …show more content…
Part of the failure of his argument can be attributed to the major unpopularity of Max’s opinions about racial divisions. When appealing to a courtroom full of white, upper-middle class citizens in Chicago that have been conditioned to see the black community in a negative light, Max’s evidence can easily be unabsorbed due to their confirmation bias. Therefore, it may be nearly impossible to reverse a group’s core, unconscious belief that black men viciously prey upon white women after, stubbornly holding onto this conjecture for a massive amount of time. The jury also remains less susceptible to believe Max’s criticisms of their race as placing indirect blame on themselves for the murder of an admired, young woman seems absurd to them. Another source of Bigger’s loss in trial is Mr. Buckley’s powerful use of provoking rhetoric to turn the jury against not only Bigger, but the African American community as a whole. Buckley’s scare tactics, overly vivid descriptions of the murder of an innocent girl, and his use of psychological framing influences the bystanders to rule a decision primarily based on biased emotions. Buckley also plays upon the impression that white populace has been trained to believe that African American people are dangerous and need to live separately from their daily lives in order to confirm security. Although the jury struggled to be persuaded by Boris Max’s revolutionary perspective and could not overcome the State Attorney’s discriminatory influence, in the end, Max most essentially touched Bigger’s life beyond what any other human being had previously by simply not giving up on
(2011)
Human tendency can cause the development of animosity based on rumor and speculation. Once an unfavorable opinion is spread like wildfire among a clique of people about another, these stigmatized fears of the other group can manifest themselves into community standard of thought. Consequently, this mindset sprouts over-generalized expectations of others: a concept widely used to develop racism in the mid-twentieth century. While most people in the 1940s conformed to the standards presented by the highest people of power in society, author, Richard Wright, sought to expose the inner workings of this falsely presumed injustice. In Richard Wright’s classic novel, Native Son, Bigger’s …show more content…
Part of the failure of his argument can be attributed to the major unpopularity of Max’s opinions about racial divisions. When appealing to a courtroom full of white, upper-middle class citizens in Chicago that have been conditioned to see the black community in a negative light, Max’s evidence can easily be unabsorbed due to their confirmation bias. Therefore, it may be nearly impossible to reverse a group’s core, unconscious belief that black men viciously prey upon white women after, stubbornly holding onto this conjecture for a massive amount of time. The jury also remains less susceptible to believe Max’s criticisms of their race as placing indirect blame on themselves for the murder of an admired, young woman seems absurd to them. Another source of Bigger’s loss in trial is Mr. Buckley’s powerful use of provoking rhetoric to turn the jury against not only Bigger, but the African American community as a whole. Buckley’s scare tactics, overly vivid descriptions of the murder of an innocent girl, and his use of psychological framing influences the bystanders to rule a decision primarily based on biased emotions. Buckley also plays upon the impression that white populace has been trained to believe that African American people are dangerous and need to live separately from their daily lives in order to confirm security. Although the jury struggled to be persuaded by Boris Max’s revolutionary perspective and could not overcome the State Attorney’s discriminatory influence, in the end, Max most essentially touched Bigger’s life beyond what any other human being had previously by simply not giving up on