Racism In Midnight Without A Moon By Linda Williams Jackson

It is always around, it is impossible to back away from it, but what it is? Racism is a very strong force, it has captivated the world ever since humans existed. It is hard to back away from racism, to avoid it all together. Whether you are black, white, Jewish, Catholic, Irish, etc. you will be discriminated against by a group of people. No one can hide from the hatred, it is just there. The Color of Water shows that no matter where you are or who you are, that you can face racism. Rachel faced it when she was a Jew in an all white, Protestant school. James and his siblings faced racism when they were in an all-Jewish school. In the memoir, The Color of Water, by James McBride, racism is a powerful presence that can severely affect those who are victims of it.

Institutionalized racism remains as one of the dominate ways in which one race stays in control over other races, in “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison its illustrated socially, also economically in African Americans but it’s displayed through the men. In other words, the history of battling to survive and overcome institutionalized racism is the same as the battle of slavery the protagonist and is family are giving the tools to survive before the patriarch of the family dies. These two issues of social and economic are just two ways in which the elite whites kept African Americans in servitude and bondage of the mind, having them to think they couldn’t achieve greatness in life except for what was allowed by the dominate race. The narration within “Battle Royal” depicts a struggle that is passed down from one generation to the next until an elder in the family leaves a plan of survival.

Mississippi in the 1960s was the poorest state in the nation, even whites struggled with money, it was also one of the most racist. Mississippi had the most voting restrictions even after the law was past that blacks could vote. Most people just lived with the conditions they faced on the daily but one young lady, Anne Moody, refused to let these injustices continue; she demanded change. In an unadorned, unflinching prose, the nonfiction story Coming of Age in Mississippi narrates her life from her early childhood through her involvement in the civil rights movement as a young woman and how the relationships in her life shaped she into the activist she was. From personal racism to unfair laws for the African American community Anne demanded equality for all! The New York Times Book Review describes the book as “A history of our time, seem from the bottom up, through the eyes of someone who decided for herself that things had to change…” This is annes story.

Racism has been a debated topic throughout the years. There have been many questions about if racism is a communal structured method of categorizing and separating people or if it is a learned or inherited behavior. The word has so many different meaning to each person affected by it. According to Miles and Brown, “The concept of racism is heavily negatively loaded, morally and politically” (3). All the way through history, racism has generated grief for those who fall victim to the problem. “Kindred” by Octavia Butler explains how a black woman is able to take a journey back in time to encounter and witness slavery up close and personal. In Natasha Trethewey “Bellocq's Ophelia”, the reader is able to recognize Ophelia’s yearning to be seen as a white woman opposed to a very fair-skinned black women. both Ophelia and Dana encounter racism and stereotypes. “During both of these women’s journeys throughout the stories, they have to face issues and hardships concerning their race in many different ways.”

Exploring and Defining Racism Works Cited Missing To define racism it is important to firstly define race. Race is defined as "a group characterized by closeness of common descent and usually also by some shared physical distinctiveness, such as colour of skin" (source: Modern Thought - Bullock and Stallybrass). Racism can be defined as "a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others" In the name of protecting their race from

Racism: the belief that all members of a specific race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race. This belief has been a part of society for many, many years, and while racism is slowly diminishing, there are still some who believe one's appearance and ethnicity are the defining point for their character. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, the citizens of Maycomb repeatedly misjudge African Americans. They treat them as garbage, and continuously make sure they feel left out and unwanted.

The fourth article, “Racism,” by Joe R. Feagin, provides us with multiple perspectives and new information regarding the statements of how “discrimination against white men is increasingly a problem,” and “racial minorities use racism as an excuse more than they should.” The second statement, “racial minorities use racism as an excuse more than they should,” more often than less, comes from the oppressor, and in this case of the article, the oppressor is usually a white male. Feagin suggests that when discussions of racism are being taken place in the mass media, usually it is the working class white male that is tagged as the serious racist, and the elite or middle class are downplayed or have no connection to the broader issues of systematic racism (Feagin, 2000, 358).

Minorities have struggled with racism and racial stereotyping for decades. The act of racism is shown widely throughout the United States. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, racism is “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race”. People of all gender, religion, and race can experience being discriminated against in some way. Racism can be identified in an abundant amount of different types of people including Colorblind and Defensive Racists and many more.

Racism is, the act of judging a person based on their ethnicity. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, racism is exerted all over. It shows in the Tom Robinson trial. I will talk about Atticus Finch, Mayella Ewell, and Tom Robinson and get their sides of racism and all that had happened in maycomb.

Racism has been a dividing factor among people for many centuries. Racism was extremely relevant and at an increased tension in the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s. Throughout the 1900’s there were many race riots that were happening. One of which was the “Eruption of Tulsa”, where over a hundred African-Americans were lynched with no evidence of wrongdoing. Through research and in-depth thinking I want to determine how southern history of the 1900’s influenced Jean Toomers short story, “Blood Burning Moon”?

Carol Anderson is digging into the very controversial issue of racism and the idea of white privilege. When Anderson mentions “take to the streets and face rubber bullets” she is stating that their rage is prevalent and known, but no one does anything about it. She continues with “carries an aura of respectability”. Aura tends to take the connotation of creepy or eerie which gives a tone of a scary, deeper, underlying problem with racism. Anderson extends her pursuit with mentioning how white rage “has access to the courts, police, legislatures, and governors” she is shedding light on how much of an issue racism is and how much power it has over minority groups. She even takes it step further in saying that they put up an act and “cast it’s

Ian Tuttle, in a magazine called National Review which provides commentary on issues across the world, constructed an article called Anti-Semitism, old and new (August 25, 2014), that suggests that the uprising and current harsh opinions about Jews show that there is a chance for a second genocide, and the public needs to take more action against it. Tuttle supports this assertion by providing current twitter hashtags that are trending, saying “Twitter reached its most loathsome depths when, in late July, the hashtags “#HitlerWasRight” and “#HitlerDidNothingWrong” became global trends. It was not so long ago that Hitler was the unanimously agreed upon incarnation of evil. Now, not 70 years after exterminating half of the world’s Jewish population,

Elizabeth Culotta argues in her essay, “Roots of Racism,” that racial prejudice stems from deep evolutionary roots and a universal tendency to form coalitions and favor our own side. However, Frans de Waal states in his “Antiquity of Empathy” that altruism and empathy toward the same “outgroup” could have the same preconscious and genetic roots as racial prejudice does. It is in these roots that Carlotta and de Waal attempt to help us better understand the current climate of racial tension and violence in the United States. Culotta alludes to the killing of Trayvon Martin as modern-day proof to the “in-group/out-group” relationship in terms of race.

America in the 1950’s was unfortunately filled with racism. Racism was seen not only occasionally seen in rural areas, it was also present in big cities across America, like Chicago. One of the main forms of racism in Chicago came in the form of the segregation of neighborhoods. Certain areas were traditionally black neighborhoods while the more wealthy white Chicagoans lived together. While the white areas tended to be clean, wealthy and safe, the black neighborhoods were just the opposite.

Relationships span the spectrum, from the mumbled “hey” tossed over the shoulder to a colleague to the intimate “oh, how are you?” pressed into the palm of a lover or loved one. Many factors complicate them, but assumptions about race and racism can pull a relationship up or drag it down. Such is the case in Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie: Ifemelu, the protagonist, realizes that race tangles relationships until it is impossible to tell the beginning of the string from the end. While race, in the context of fleeting relationships, causes different people to be treated differently, it can also deepen lasting relationships and create cherished bonds between the two parties involved.