“Three black men, convicted as teens, exonerated in Ohio after serving 20 years in prison.” Article published by Daily Kos on April the 7th. Dec. 6th, 1865: slavery was outlawed in the United States. To Kill A Mockingbird takes place around 1930, 70 years later. While laws may have changed, people and society still hadn’t; society was still racist. To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960, 95 years after the end of slavery, 30 years after the events in the book, and 29 after the Scottsboro Boys trial (1931) that inspired the book. Now, 55 years after the book was published, sadly we can still see how relevant the book is in our society. We see the same racist injustices continuing to be repeated in our criminal and judicial systems. Looking
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During the trial of Tom Robinson, Mr. Gilmer brings into question Tom’s statement about feeling bad for Mayella Ewell. “You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?” (Lee 264) Looking at this quote, we can see how at the time black people were thought to be inferior to white people. This is why Mr. Gilmer questioned Tom about why he would feel sorry for a “superior” person. Even today people have these views–they have just learned to hide them a lot better. Looking at these quotes, we can see how things that were done and thought in the 30s are still prevalent today.When discussing Black people, there will always be people who try to be good and not racist but don’t understand what that is. After Cecil Jacobs yelled that Atticus defends n-words, Scout went to Atticus for confirmation. “Do you defend niggers, Atticus?” (Lee 99) Here we can assume that Scout has been taught by Atticus before now to not say the n-word, yet she still uses the n-word quite a bit because she learned it and can’t be easily trained to not use it. Today, still, ignorant white people will use words that are disrespectful, such as the n-word. After Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to her church, Scout asks about the way Calpurnia talked. “Why do you talk nigger-talk to the -your folks when you know it ain’t right?” (Lee, 167) Scout states that the way Black people are talking is wrong, even though Scout herself usually speaks
During the trial of Tom Robinson, Mr. Gilmer brings into question Tom’s statement about feeling bad for Mayella Ewell. “You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?” (Lee 264) Looking at this quote, we can see how at the time black people were thought to be inferior to white people. This is why Mr. Gilmer questioned Tom about why he would feel sorry for a “superior” person. Even today people have these views–they have just learned to hide them a lot better. Looking at these quotes, we can see how things that were done and thought in the 30s are still prevalent today.When discussing Black people, there will always be people who try to be good and not racist but don’t understand what that is. After Cecil Jacobs yelled that Atticus defends n-words, Scout went to Atticus for confirmation. “Do you defend niggers, Atticus?” (Lee 99) Here we can assume that Scout has been taught by Atticus before now to not say the n-word, yet she still uses the n-word quite a bit because she learned it and can’t be easily trained to not use it. Today, still, ignorant white people will use words that are disrespectful, such as the n-word. After Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to her church, Scout asks about the way Calpurnia talked. “Why do you talk nigger-talk to the -your folks when you know it ain’t right?” (Lee, 167) Scout states that the way Black people are talking is wrong, even though Scout herself usually speaks