“All depends, all depends on the skin, all depends on the skin you’re living in,” as stated in the poem “Blink Your Eyes” written by Sekou Sundiata. This phrase means that the life you are living depends on the color of your skin. Throughout history in the United States, racism based on ethnicity and skin color has always been a prominent issue. Racism against African Americans dates back to the United States when slavery was still going on. African Americans were thought of as an inferior race. In the poem, “Blink Your Eyes” by Sekou Sundiata and the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, discrimination is a recurring societal problem that the main characters face. The main character of “To Kill A Mockingbird” and the speaker of “Blink
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The societal issue that Tom Robinson faces in To Kill A Mockingbird, is discrimination. Also, since Tom is an African American, he has conflicts with the law. Harper Lee writes, “...the evil assumption-that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber.” The quotation illustrates the assumptions that African Americans at the time, had to face. All African Americans were thought to be nefarious and despicable. If Tom Robinson had not been an African American, he would not have had as much trouble with the law. A white woman had accused Tom of a crime but her evidence had been disproven. Unfortunately, Tom was black, which was why the court was still on the side of the white woman. Thus, in the early 1900s, racism against skin color, was a prominent societal issue that African Americans including Tom Robinson in To Kill A Mockingbird …show more content…
The speaker of the poem, a black man, was pulled over by a policeman who assumed that the speaker was just another misbehaving, dangerous African American. He is faced with racism, the societal issue of the poem, and gets in trouble because he is African American. In the poem, it states, “Put your hands up in the air you know the routine...You’re unreliable, that’s undeniable. This is serious, you could be dangerous.” The speaker simply had drove his car through a red light, but a policeman pulled him over and told him to put his “hands up in the air”. Instead of giving the speaker a ticket, the policeman was being serious with the speaker, just because he was an African American man. The policeman assumed that the speaker was a dangerous law-breaker simply because the speaker was black. The speaker got in trouble with the law merely because of the trait that he possessed, being an African American. The speaker of “Blink Your Eyes” shares the same trait with Tom Robinson of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and face many problems in life because they are African
The societal issue that Tom Robinson faces in To Kill A Mockingbird, is discrimination. Also, since Tom is an African American, he has conflicts with the law. Harper Lee writes, “...the evil assumption-that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber.” The quotation illustrates the assumptions that African Americans at the time, had to face. All African Americans were thought to be nefarious and despicable. If Tom Robinson had not been an African American, he would not have had as much trouble with the law. A white woman had accused Tom of a crime but her evidence had been disproven. Unfortunately, Tom was black, which was why the court was still on the side of the white woman. Thus, in the early 1900s, racism against skin color, was a prominent societal issue that African Americans including Tom Robinson in To Kill A Mockingbird …show more content…
The speaker of the poem, a black man, was pulled over by a policeman who assumed that the speaker was just another misbehaving, dangerous African American. He is faced with racism, the societal issue of the poem, and gets in trouble because he is African American. In the poem, it states, “Put your hands up in the air you know the routine...You’re unreliable, that’s undeniable. This is serious, you could be dangerous.” The speaker simply had drove his car through a red light, but a policeman pulled him over and told him to put his “hands up in the air”. Instead of giving the speaker a ticket, the policeman was being serious with the speaker, just because he was an African American man. The policeman assumed that the speaker was a dangerous law-breaker simply because the speaker was black. The speaker got in trouble with the law merely because of the trait that he possessed, being an African American. The speaker of “Blink Your Eyes” shares the same trait with Tom Robinson of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and face many problems in life because they are African