White trash

Imagine being a six year old child, and watching brutal racism and injustice growing up, while trying to hold on to your innocence and own opinions. That’s the struggle of Jean Louise Finch, who prefers to go by “Scout.” In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout, friend Dill, and brother Jem, must face friends and family turning on them, as father Atticus makes a life changing decision of defending a black man in court in the 1930’s, a time of racial injustice and segregation. Also…

because of your skin color? The novel A lesson before dying took place in the south in the year of 1948. African Americans were still slaves and forced to work on plantations. At this time blacks had separate facilities they had to use aside from whites. The book shows the struggle that African Americans went through, the struggle where no one would believe you or even try to side with you. A young boy’s life gets taken because he is accused of murder but he was innocent all along. Why was his…

The word “dirty” is an interesting word coming from a poverty and race context. We often think of people who aren’t “white” as “dirty.” I’ve heard it time and time again, “Dirt Mexican,” and it’s such a cruel way to describe a person who is just out here trying to work their way out of poverty. “Dirty” is a name we can’t get rid of; it is a word associated with race, financial status, and locations. There is a clear connection between poverty, slums, and race in creative texts; when applying…

protested against segregation. Of these people, one prominent person whose legacy left an impact, is Rosa Parks. as she was sat in her seat on the bus that would take her home the bus driver approached her and asked her to leave her seats so that white people can sit in it. Being the brave person she is she refused and stood up to the bus driver. Consequently, Parks was arrested, jailed, and fined. Rosa Parks choice proves that being brave and daring comes with risks. Many works of literature…

define herself. Rachel is a young biracial girl with beautiful blue eyes who is suddenly forced to move to Portland, Oregon and live with her strict African-American grandmother. Rachel was raised by her Caucasian mother to think of herself as white, but now she is in racially intolerant Portland and expected to “act black”. Rachel refuses to accept the narrow labels that people in Portland are using as adequate to describe who she really is – she rejects all of the descriptors as belonging…

The main plot of Mississippi Trial, 1955 is the murder of Emmett Till, but it also covers the idea of people expressing their own beliefs. For example, Harlan was not afraid to speak his thoughts of equality to his father. He strongly believed the mistreatment of African Americans in the south was not right, which lead to tension between him and his father. Harlan did not care if it ruined his relationship between his father, because he knew the South’s beliefs were cruel and coldblooded. Mr.…

he could not order anyone to do the right thing if he was not righteous. The reasons are as big as representing the county, all the way to his household and raising his kids. “The handful of people in this town who say that fair play is not marked White Only; the handful of people who say a fair trial is for everybody, not just us;” (270). Miss Maudie is also part of the glimmer of hope. Her and a ‘handful of people’ in the society are the hope. Although she points out that there are not many,…

in the end everyone knew there was nothing else that could be done to help Tom Robinson. Because of racial stereotypes and discrimination against black people, Tom Robinson had been found guilty and was killed. It was a black mans word against two white people, there was no way he could have possibly had a fair trial. Another major stereotype is the novel is that girls have to be feminine. There are multiple times in To Kill a MockingBird when aunt Alexandra makes comments about Scouts…

My parents are from Bangladesh and I was born in America. My two cultures clash, especially since I see myself more as American than Bengali. I consider myself Asian American as I am able to accept both cultures. An Asian American is an American with an Asian background who has both American and Asian influences within his or her life. Defining Asian American leads to questioning the definition of Asian American literature. Asian American literature is literature that displays Asian American…

the ages from 12 to 20 were detained and wrongly accused of both rape and assault of two white women. A lynch mob of almost hundreds of white people assembled in the perimeters of the jail, causing the National Guard to interfere. Over the next decade, the Scottsboro Boys case as it became notorious of, was a nationwide icon of legal injustice in the segregated South, with no fair trial, consisted of an all-white jury that led to the conviction all the suspects without any evidence or a proper…