Chelsea is a foreign country. It is not just an elite private high school. It represents the white community and their dominance. Just as what they society looks like, controlling by the wealthy and privileged superior group of whites. Martha Southgate uses The Fall of Rome to reveal how institutional racism prevents the blacks from reaching success while limiting their opportunities by using the relationship between Jerome Washington and Rashid Bryson, which further leads to how damaging internalized racism is for a minority group. As the white people dominating every aspect of the society, institutional racism deeply affected both Jerome and Rashid in the opposite ways that Jerome chooses to escape from the harsh reality and purposely internalizes
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Rashid's growth can be seen throughout the book, from suffering from his brother Kofi's death that his parents being: "no offers of help, no encouragement or applause" (Southgate, 21) to reconcile with his parents: "but I've been thinking that we've got to take better care of what's left. That matters, too. So I'm going to try to do that. You try too" (Southgate, 163). He also learns when he says: "If I can learn to deal, to really deal with the world like it is--not like it is just in this neighborhood, but like it is where the power is, like it is everywhere that things are not fair--then maybe I can make my life worth enough for both of us" (Southgate, 192), and it is important because he understands that although racism and white privileges bother him, Chelsea prepares him as a representation of the white dominated society that he will face in the future where the power, the wealth, and the injustices are. Unlike Jerome, Rashid learns and makes himself stronger under institutional racism while continuously argues with Jerome on his works and working even harder at the same time. Rashid chooses to directly face the reality of the society of racism by insisting to confront Jerome while keeps working twice as hard as his white classmates with a strong will of reaching success. By opening up himself to Gerald and Jana, Rashid embraces the reality of both racism and the death of his brother while building up self consciousness. Institutional racism and internalized racism help Rashid learn about the real society with racism and injustice as well as working hard and accepting the reality, in opposite of what Jerome chooses to
Rashid's growth can be seen throughout the book, from suffering from his brother Kofi's death that his parents being: "no offers of help, no encouragement or applause" (Southgate, 21) to reconcile with his parents: "but I've been thinking that we've got to take better care of what's left. That matters, too. So I'm going to try to do that. You try too" (Southgate, 163). He also learns when he says: "If I can learn to deal, to really deal with the world like it is--not like it is just in this neighborhood, but like it is where the power is, like it is everywhere that things are not fair--then maybe I can make my life worth enough for both of us" (Southgate, 192), and it is important because he understands that although racism and white privileges bother him, Chelsea prepares him as a representation of the white dominated society that he will face in the future where the power, the wealth, and the injustices are. Unlike Jerome, Rashid learns and makes himself stronger under institutional racism while continuously argues with Jerome on his works and working even harder at the same time. Rashid chooses to directly face the reality of the society of racism by insisting to confront Jerome while keeps working twice as hard as his white classmates with a strong will of reaching success. By opening up himself to Gerald and Jana, Rashid embraces the reality of both racism and the death of his brother while building up self consciousness. Institutional racism and internalized racism help Rashid learn about the real society with racism and injustice as well as working hard and accepting the reality, in opposite of what Jerome chooses to