Racism in Short Stories

As I apply the brakes on my car, the loot in my boot rattles, shuffling up, down, left and right, ignoring the hustle and bustle of my stolen goods, I exit my car. Opening the door, sliding my left foot out and immediately my feet dissolve into the ground, the deep, sludge like mud covering my shoes I effortlessly stole, with filth. I look at the mud latched onto my shoes, and them look around me. Both were brown. Both were a pile of disappointment. But being an expert thief I realise things like no other, I notice a freshly refurbished and well-decorated house which most definitely had valuables stored for my taking. A diamond in the rough.

I believe that as far as the vast majority of the world problems are concerned, I am hopelessly misinformed. This doesn't seem like the most controversial of opinions. After all, there is so much to know and only so much time to learn it. Even with the things we do feel we’re knowledgeable about it’s easy to miss the mark. There is no shame in this, as the only time ignorance is an issue is when it actively stifles the truth.

For my research project I chose the topic of Racism in Children's Literature. I chose this area of study because it is something that bothers me and I know as a child in school I was very uncomfortable with assignments that dealt with racism. One day I would like to make a difference to all the people who are affected by racism. My hypothesis states that if educators are better trained to deal with the delicate subject of racism in children's literature, books would not be banned, yet actually teach the lesson the authors of these books intended for all of us to learn.

In the novel, Chesnutt uses mixed race characters, which have both black and white ancestors and these characters display the conflicts between black and white societies. Within the novel, Janet Miller is the best example of a mixed race character. Janet’s father was from the white aristocracy, while her mother was a slave and a servant. Janet is emotionally hurt because she doesn 't receive the same affection like white half-sister. She views herself as black and submits to the segregation of the time. In comparison to societal views, Olivia Carteret also cannot view her sister as an equal which is incredibly sad. Janet’s angry compassion for her white sister sets the novel’s climax and represents hope for equality between the races. The Millers are well educated and were brought up in the white world where they exclude themselves from the poor and uneducated members within the society. However, the whites within society do not welcome them due to their race because they think that Africans lack sense of purity. When exploring the complexity of mixed races in the South Chesnutt describes, “looking at these two men with the American eye, the differences would perhaps be the more striking, or at least the more immediately apparent, for the first was white and the second black, or, more correctly speaking, brown...but both his swarthy complexion and his curly hair revealed what has been described in the laws of some of our states as a “visible admixture” of African blood”

A major turning point in Anne’s life was when she heard of the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, who had allegedly whistled at a White woman. She was tremendously bothered by the murder and was unable to sleep or work for days. She realizes that she has been greatly unaware of the racial inequality and violence going on around her. When she was younger, she struggled to figure out the difference between the races and she gains no more insight or understanding of why there was such inequality, as she grew older. This causes her to wonder if there any true differences between Blacks and Whites, other than the fact that the Whites typically employed the Blacks. She now fears being murdered simply for being Black.

Many of the characters who associate with middle-class white culture feel the need to separate themselves from lower-class blacks whom they identify as lazy and criminals “I destroyed white baby dolls….The truly horrifying thing was the transference of the same impulses to little white girls." (pg. 22). "White[ness]" is associated with value, virtue, and cleanliness while being black is associated with immorality, dirtiness, and the sense of being disposable. The novel involves mostly black characters and due to this the idea of being white exists on a spectrum. Race is not only decided by the genetic make-up of one's appearance and skin, the shape of one's features, or the texture of one's hair, but also by one's place of origin, socioeconomic class, and educational background “... his mother did not like him to play with niggers. She had explained to him the difference between colored people and niggers. They were easily identifiable. Colored people were neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and loud” (pg. 53). These ideas of race being valuable became a main point in the story. And by internalizing these ideas about race the main characters ultimately obtained a racial self-hatred, which created various forms of dysfunction in the characters'

Similarly, another example of race injustice occurs when Lily has racism ingrained in her from her family and what society has taught her. When Lily was sitting in the honey house she was thinking how, “T.Ray did not think colored women were smart. Since I want to tell the whole truth, which means the worst part, I thought they could be smart, but not as smart as me being white. Lying on the cot in the honey house, though, all I could think was August is so intelligent, sho cultured, and I was surprised by this. That’s what let me know I had some prejudice buried inside me” (Kidd 78).

In these lines from Derek Walcott’s “A Far Cry from Africa,” the speaker emphasizes the natural human tendencies to “inflict pain.” Similarly, in his poem, “Sympathy,” Paul Dunbar explores pain from the point of view of a bird being trapped in a cage. It flaps its wings and tries to escape but it cannot. The bird symbolizes an African American bound by slavery and unable to escape. On the other hand, in Claude McKay’s poem “The Harlem Dancer,” the dancer feels as if

She was very proud of the fact that her great-grandfather had owned so much land with so many slaves, but she did show a tad bit of moral ambiguity when she spoke to the little black boy. It sounds weird but thinking that she has always been a racist since she was a little girl, but she loves children enough to let that slide. She could’ve acted no different to that little boy with his mother but instead she treated him like any other boy she would have met on the street. “To Julian's disappointment, the little boy climbed up on the empty seat beside his mother. His mother lumped all children, black and white, into the common category, “cute,” and she thought little Negroes were on the whole cuter than little white children. She smiled at the little boy as he climbed on the seat.” (O’Connor

With the insight and humble words of Chimamanda Adichie, I have learned that a “single story” is how you define somewhere, someone or something. Ignorance steps into control and you begin to develop the beliefs and the opinions you have, though, you may only have a brief encounter with the subject. This can cause a lot of confusion and anger. Ultimately, the disappointing truth is that judging this way is human nature. We continue to be both the perpetrator and the victim of this; including myself.

This is not the only instance when the racial roles play a significant part in her life. When she sees the little black child in the countryside during the road trip and boldly refers to her as a ‘pickaninny,” it seems as if she considers the child a type of animal because she is so unlike her, revealing that she has never experienced poverty and misfortune as African-Americans did

If he speaks up, not only will he put in jail but he will also be humiliated if his colleagues find out. Racism isn’t only towards the black population of the town, it is demonstrated in many other ethnicities as well. Jean Cabot is a woman who believes her race, white, is superior than any other race including black and hispanic. Jean is also very rude towards her maid Maria, and she gets angry at her over the littlest things. She is also convinced that mexicans are gangsters so, when Daniel is changing the locks at her house, she demands that they get redone the next day, fearing that Daniel will sell a copy of her house keys to one of his gangster friends. Farhad, a persian man with a strong accent, is also humiliated by a gun store owner when he’s trying to buy a gun.

Note: This essay intends to explain the differences in first and third person narratives, highlighting examples within the two stories “Let them call it Jazz” and “A sense of shame”, both of which deal with racism and its subcultures in a first and third person perspective, respectively. The arguments presented are limited to that of first and third person perspectives only.

The book’s character’s main problem is finding individuality in racism. For the duration of the book, the narrator is constantly fighting racism and stereotypes. Ellison put many examples in the book to help show the character’s fight to be seen equal. Ellison shows that, through the character himself, that you can not tell people who to be. However, Ellison throws curves at the narrator that challenges

The controversial subject of race has been around for many centuries. Whether it be disagreements between White and Black people or Hebrew and Jewish people, race has caused wars and led to the death of many people. Every writer depicts society’s tensions caused by race in a different way. A great example of an author using literature to express his feelings about racial discrimination is Shakespeare’s “Othello”. The main character, Othello, faces many situations and tensions for reasons none other than his race. Another great example is Anne Moody’s, Coming of Age in Mississippi. In this story, Moody tells of experiences throughout her life, many of which, are based on her race. Both Othello’s and Anne’s race affect the relationships they have with their friends and families, by causing tension and discontent in their lives.