“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite,” Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa once said. Nelson Mandela himself was a victim of racial injustice. He fought for the rights of people of color in South Africa. This problem wasn’t limited only to South Africa. In the 1940s, people of color in The United States were facing the same problem. At the time, racial injustice was a tremendous problem throughout the United States. Even with the Emancipation Proclamation, people of color faced discrimination and immoral treatment.
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Gaines, racial injustice is a problem Jefferson, Miss Emma, and Grant encounter, which not only affected them physically, but also played a negative role on their emotional …show more content…
People of color were forced to act inferior to white people no matter what, both in the book and in real life. Grant, being an educated man who knows proper English, is forced to speak improper English, not make eye contact, and address a white person formally when talking to them. “I shook my head. ‘I have no idea.’ He stared at me, and I realized that I had not answered him in the proper manner. ‘Sir.’ I added” (21). This quote shows how white people were thought to be superior to a person of color. When Grant talks to Mr. Pichot, he is forced to show inferiority. This racial injustice has left Grant in a confused and perplexed state of mind. “‘You hit the nail on the head there, lady-commitment. Commitment to what-to live and die in this hellhole, when we can leave and live like other people?’... ‘I need to go someplace where I can feel I’m living...someplace where we have a choice to do things’” (29). When Grant is talking to Vivian, he expresses how he would want to leave this society where people of color don’t get a chance to live freely. Grant presents himself as a calm and confident man, but this quote infers that deep down, he is facing many inner conflicts. When he says,“other people” he is talking about white people who don’t experience racial injustice. It is evident that Grant is internally torn apart because of
Gaines, racial injustice is a problem Jefferson, Miss Emma, and Grant encounter, which not only affected them physically, but also played a negative role on their emotional …show more content…
People of color were forced to act inferior to white people no matter what, both in the book and in real life. Grant, being an educated man who knows proper English, is forced to speak improper English, not make eye contact, and address a white person formally when talking to them. “I shook my head. ‘I have no idea.’ He stared at me, and I realized that I had not answered him in the proper manner. ‘Sir.’ I added” (21). This quote shows how white people were thought to be superior to a person of color. When Grant talks to Mr. Pichot, he is forced to show inferiority. This racial injustice has left Grant in a confused and perplexed state of mind. “‘You hit the nail on the head there, lady-commitment. Commitment to what-to live and die in this hellhole, when we can leave and live like other people?’... ‘I need to go someplace where I can feel I’m living...someplace where we have a choice to do things’” (29). When Grant is talking to Vivian, he expresses how he would want to leave this society where people of color don’t get a chance to live freely. Grant presents himself as a calm and confident man, but this quote infers that deep down, he is facing many inner conflicts. When he says,“other people” he is talking about white people who don’t experience racial injustice. It is evident that Grant is internally torn apart because of