David Anthony Herrera

4/26/19

Period 1

​To Kill A Mockingbird ​Racism

In the book ​To Kill A Mockingbird ​by Harper Lee brings racism into the book​.​ ​She does

this ​to show its a problem. Racism was ​very common in ​the ‘1930s so that’s also means it was

normal to Jem and Scout. Racism carried on into today’s society and is a major problem.

Many African Americans experience racism towards them in the 1930s.

To begin​,​ when Dolphis Raymond sees how favorable the judge is towards the white people he

tells ​Scout​ ”cry about the hell white people give colored folks without stopping to think that

they’re people, too” (Lee 20)​.​ When Dolphis says this​,​ it refers to black people not having rights

and suffering because there a different color. The judge favors ​Mayella ​side because she’s

white and not Tom Robinson because he’s black. Furthermore, when Scout and ​Jem ​were

passing by Ms Dubose's house she yells at the two saying “ Your father is a no better than the

n*ggers and trash he works for” (Lee11)​.​ Many people in this time accepted racism. To add on,

when Atticus went to Tom's house Scout said “Tom was a dead man the minute ​Mayella

opened her mouth and screamed”. (Lee25) Since Tom was black​,​ nobody would believe in him.

And since Mayela was white​,​ everybody would believe her. To conclude, these examples are

quotes straight from​ for Harper Lee’s ​To Kill A Mockingbird ​showing racism in the 1930’s.

Since the 1930’s racism hasn’t improved. For example​,​ in the New York Times article

Matt Apuzzo wrote​,​ “Once they stopped black driver they were twice as likely to be searched,

even though searches of white drivers were more likely to turn up contraband​”​. This ​shows
thats officers are in favor of white people by not pulling them over as much. To add on the

article ​Ferguson police routinely violate rights and blacks justice ​find that “Jay walking cases,

which hinge on police discretion. Blacks accounted for 95% of all arrests​”​. ​If a black guy jay

walked by a police officer, they would arrest the guy on the spot.​ To continue in article

Justice Department to Fault Ferguson Police Seeing Racial bias in Traffic Stops ​it shows “

Blacks accounted for 86% of traffic stops in 2013 but made up 63% of its population according

to most recent data published by Missouri attorney general​”​. This is a big problem because

63% is the black population and 83% of the people getting stopped we’re black. To conclude

these examples help prove that racism has gotten better.

While racism is still present today​,​ I experienced and seen progress in terms of

racism. In school I see that there’s is a mix of black, white, Mexican, Asian, Indian kids in school

in the same class. I have also experienced kids of different race get along and put aside there

differences and do school work. This shows that’s segregation is far gone. ​Everyone in the

school gets equal treatment no matter how different they are.​In conclusion this proves that

racism has improved tremendously.

Unfortunately racism is a big part of ​To Kill A Mockingbird. ​Since the book takes place in

1930’s racism was common towards black people. Tom Robinson and African Americans today

suffer unfairness in the law and in other places because if there skin color. It’s important to talk

about these issues because racism towards African Americans has been going on for almost 90

years since the 1930’s. It’s also not fair to treat someone other than white different. Seeing

different race getting along in one school isn’t enough to prove that racism has improved. In

conclusion, racism has not improved.