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Examples Of Racism In The United States

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Racism. It’s a word you hear a lot of these days. Yet society throws it around so much that it loses its meaning. The true definition of racism is ‘prejudice and discrimination towards members of a different race based on the belief that their race is inferior.’ Unfortunately, racism has been a huge part of American history. Ever since white people brought over the first slaves from Africa, they have been treating members of other races terribly. White people kept black people in chains to do their work for them. Slavery was so important in the 1800s, that it was one of the reasons why the country went to war. When the slaves were freed in 1863, many white people were furious. They lynched and burned black people for no reason other than …show more content…

This quote shows that even though people would still be prejudiced and discriminatory towards her, she and all the other black people living during this time would have to fight hard to rise above it and ensure a better future for themselves and their families.

Between the 1930s and the 1960s, things had gotten slightly better. Black people were no longer being lynched or killed, and white people had finally started to treat them like humans. However, there was a catch. During this time, black people were considered second-class citizens. Raisin in the Sun and “Hidden Figures” are two pieces of evidence why. As stated before, though they are fictional, the stories are based off real events and real experiences that black people had to go through during the time. Raisin in the Sun is a play written in the late 1950s that details the life of a black family after their husband/father dies and the insurance money they receive because of it. For example, in the midst of the story, Lena Younger, the leader of the household (and whose husband died), decided to buy the family a new house. The problem is, she chooses a house in a all-white neighborhood. Their new neighbors apparently had an issue with

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