Racism In John Braithwaite's To Sir, With Love

To Sir, With Love follows the teaching career of a black man who had just finished his time in the British Air Force. He was convinced he would find a decent job right out of the military because he stayed current in his field: Communications Engineering. However, because he is black, no one would hire him even though he was qualified. Braithwaite discusses the difficulty of the scuttle and polite racism that exists in England, where the people there did not believe they were oppressors. The only place that he can find a job is Greenslade Elementary School. A school in London’s Easy End, where the kids come from disadvantaged homes and the school is different than most. Through is own methods, he gains the respect of his students and finds …show more content…
This type of prejudice did exist, and sadly people could do little about it. One of Braithwaite’s goals was to try and change his students, who were mostly white, feelings about black people. He thought he had made much progress, until the kids refused to go into a black neighborhood to deliver flowers after a classmate’s mother died. The author did a good job at conveying how difficult it was to overcome people’s opinions and bias. One example of how he did was with his girlfriend’s, Gillian, parents. They did not want the relationship because of the hardships their daughter would go through, but they came around to …show more content…
This was the starting point of the civil rights movement in the United States. The book was very prevalent at that time because it showed that black people were more than qualified for the same jobs done by white people, it illustrating the daily struggles a black person can go through, and showed how students need a strong and determined teacher in their lives regardless of their skin color. This book’s message absolutely still applies today. Racism still exists in this country and many others. Black people still go through daily struggles, and some, like the author, may find it easier to ignore it rather than fight it. The struggles are different today than in the 1950s and 1960s, but they are still there. This book shows that even that scuttle prejudice is still prejudice and should not be tolerated. From a student perspective, this book remains relevant because children will always need a teacher who will go above and beyond for them. For some students, their teacher is their strongest role model. This book showed how important of a responsibility that