Origins Of Racism In America

The United States of America. Known to many as “The land of the free, and the home of the brave.” A country that many immigrants and refugees seek to migrate to escape their home country’s poverty, violence, war, and environmental destruction for employment, safety, and ultimately the lure of the great American Dream. But the “…for liberty and justice for all” from the Pledge of Allegiance that we proudly say at the start of every day of an average public school, or before a game of America’s favorite pastime, did not always apply to all of the residents of our great country. From the very beginning of the history of America, African Americans, mostly called the blacks in the past, were often mistreated and taken full advantage of in the worst …show more content…
Racism is a particular form of prejudice defined by preconceived erroneous beliefs about race and members of racial groups.” (Hoyt 225). Despite this, there is research disproving these beliefs, so why is it that we think such invalid thoughts based off of a person’s skin color alone? Well, *Origins of racism* Yes, and it starts from a young age, where adults have a heavy influence on a child’s judgment, whether it be from extreme bias from the child’s parents to possible the subtle differences in treatment of a teacher towards another student of a different skin tone. They may also have influence from within their church and community. In Recitatif, we see that the two young girls, Twyla and Roberta, become fast friends after setting aside differences. While their friendship flourished outside the influence of the adults present in their lives and in the orphanage, they get one of their first glimpses of racism as they try to introduce their mother at church on Sunday morning. The author, Toni Morrison, does not blatantly give whether either girl or their mothers were black or white or any other race, but from Roberta’s mother’s reaction, we are hinted to the racial differences between the two