Superiority of Races in Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt Essay example

Jonathan Rauch’s essay, “In Defense of Prejudice”, explores the idea of pluralism. Rauch focuses on intellectual pluralism in which he states, “permits the expression of various forms of bigotry and always will”. Pluralism may bring different topics such as racism, sexism, and homophobia. Rauch Points out if misguided ideas and ugly expressions be corrected or criticized it would help public safety.

The history of racial bigotry in the United States presents a challenge in the teaching English literature. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn uses degrading terminology to portray the paternalistic nature of the South in the 19th century. The novel challenged African American inferiority in an era of unquestioned racial inequality, while simultaneously presenting an uncensored account of the treatment of African Americans. While Mark Twain commonly uses offensive Southern vernacular in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, removing the novel from school curricula negates the educational and satirical value of the book, which presents an unabridged illustration of racial discrimination in American history.

In his essay “ In Defense of Prejudice”, Jonathan Rauch explores a much talked about topic in the United States today, prejudice. As his title implies, he is in defense of prejudice, he makes it clear that he is not a supporter of hate or racism, rather a supporter of “intellectual pluralism” “which permits the expression of various forms of bigotry and always will.” (pg 1). Rauch defends the right to express all forms of bigotry. By utilizing specific examples where prejudice is at center stage, Rauch tries to convince his readers that the solution to prevent prejudice is not attempting to eradicate it, rather he believes if we, as a society channel prejudice more effectively we can make it “socially productive.” Ranch defends his

“Who would pretend that a history of a migration has immunized the United States against bigotry?” In Staying Put: Making a Home in a Restless World, Scott Russel Sanders uses this rhetorical question to convince his readers to think more logistically about migration. He pries open the eyes of Americans and shows them the damage that moving can cause, as opposed to Salaman Rushdie’s thoughts that it was only positive.

with black Americans, but it is also powerfully employed to both generously understand the perspective of white Americans, as well as unmask their ignorance. After Baldwin describes the hardships his brother faced in America, he addresses the "countrymen" that caused this calamity. Pointing out their ignorance, Baldwin states, "...they have destroyed thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it" (Baldwin 5). With the use of emotionally charged

The fight to eliminate prejudice in both the German and American workplace has made great strides through decades of activism and legislation but, we can still witness or experience prejudice today. Prejudice can take on many forms whether it's built around race, sexual orientation, religion, culture, gender, or age. Castles and Kosack’s Prejudice, Race, and Class interpret three different principles of prejudice against immigrants: the cause, high rate among the working class, and the three distinct functions.

Hatred for white society was a strong theme among the African American community during the 1950s. These emotions were conveyed through different platforms of the time, ranging from art and music, to articles and books. But James Baldwin, a popular African American writer during this time period, does not obsess over this subject that was so passionately conveyed by so many people like him. Instead of preaching about his hatred for white America, Baldwin utilizes his story of his childhood as well as his early adulthood to illustrate the destructive nature of the African Americans society’s hatred for white society in the very well known essay, “Notes of a Native Son.”

He later discusses how because of this type of repeated behavior he has been forced into changing his own habits and behaviors. He has learned to do little things to pacify the uneasiness that his presence can bring about, such as whistling while walking on the sidewalk. The nature of this fear comes from a shortcoming of tolerance towards the unknown and different. Similarly, is excerpt from the book The Race Card, by Richard Thompson Ford, in which he comments on the medias portrayal of a black man and again of a white couple during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Here the black man, seen with groceries, is being called a looter, while the white couple (in the same crisis), are simply referred to as residents wading through chest deep water returning from a grocery store. The inferences made are that the country and the former president do not care about black people as much as they do white people. The way to rid ourselves of these stigmas is to open our minds and recognize the fact that there are differences between us all, as individuals and as

Published by the New York Times under the Opinion section, the audience for this article is any interested reader. At the time it was released, November 18th, 2016, this article arrived during last year’s elections, in which a large, but surprising number of Americans voted for candidate Donald Trump, shocking many forecasters who had predicted otherwise. Therefore, after the election, many people may have been researching the demographics of the election, and this article, which briefly shared Brooks’ opinion on the nature of the election and how viewing others through the lens of a dominant identity influenced how the votes fell where they did, may have caught a keen reader’s eye. Also, this article came at a time where racism and prejudice caused many problems, leading some to view others as one-dimensional, represented only by a skin color or religion. Since prejudice and hate is still a large issue today, tackling this problem helps make this article relevant, nearly a year after its release.

Baldwin, however, describes his father as being a very black-like “African tribal chieftain” (64) who was proud of his heritage despite the chains it locked upon him. He is shown to be one with good intentions, but one who never achieved the positive outcome intended. His ultimate downfall was his paranoia such that “the disease of his mind allowed the disease of his body to destroy him” (66). Baldwin relates the story of a white teacher with good intentions and his father’s objection to her involvement in their lives because of his lack of trust for any white woman. His father’s paranoia even extended to Baldwin’s white high school friends. These friends, although they could be kind, “would do anything to keep a Negro down” (68), and they believed that the “best thing to do was to have as little to do with them as possible” (68). Thus, Baldwin leaves the reader with the image of his father as an unreasonable man who struggled to blockade white America from his life and the lives of his children to the greatest extent of his power. Baldwin then turns his story to focus on his own experience in the world his father loathed and on his realization that he was very much like his father.

The Smolinsky family soon discovers the difficulties that come with being immigrants in America. Discrimination is one such problem. The family lives in an apartment building and they encounter discrimination from the rent collector. The Smolinskys, because of financial problems, cannot pay the rent regularly and when the landlady shows up on their doorstep, she is upset and says, "The cheek of those dirty immigrants! A fool I was, giving them a chance another month" (17). These words are a far cry from the father’s expectation that "all America will come to my feet to learn" (9). Discrimination is certainly not what the family expects upon their arrival in America. They expect a welcome with open arms and what they receive is just the opposite.

Baldwin gives the impression that no white man has ever had to walk a mile in a black man?s shoes. While the Negro was getting shipped to America without a pot to piss in, the white man remained hiding behind beliefs in ?white supremacy? (Baldwin 133). The concept of white supremacy has separated two different races for years. For Americans, whose heritage came from Europe, acceptance of the Negro was not considered due to the ?jeopardy? it could cause among their status as men (Baldwin 133). Baldwin knows his rage must have limitations so he begins to question how this type of ignorance could have evolved. Baldwin tries to associate this stupid form of hate with the Swiss village but cannot because he feels that the villagers remain innocent by their ignorance to anything that does not affect them, in their village, directly.

Baldwin opens his argument acknowledging the distortion of segregation for the segregationists. According to Baldwin, people who, since birth, have been taught to think a certain way towards the African American race. “The white South African or Mississippi sharecropper or Alabama sheriff has at bottom a system of reality which compels them really to believe when they face the Negro that this

“When, beneath the black mask, a human being begins to make himself felt one cannot escape a certain awful wonder as to what kind of human being it is.”(4). In his essay, “Stranger in the Village”, James Baldwin writes about the major differences that African Americans experience in Europe and America. Throughout the essay, Baldwin describes how the Europeans are naive about the black man. The outrage and amusement that Baldwin feels throughout his visit causes the overwhelming realization of the history of the African American.

In “Going to Meet the Man” by James Baldwin the reader opens up with a scene that is considered one of the most horrific torture and murder scenes in history; or of the 1940’s. The story is so graphic that it takes you away from the main idea of racism, hatred and murder. Nevertheless, the theme of the story is a transformation of a young child into a stereotypical Black Southern-American hating bigot. Through dramatic detail Baldwin explains the mindset of a white southern police officer and how he came to hate Black-Americans. This was representative of the racial, violent black South because this exemplified what happens to most white-Americans and how they are brained washed unknowingly to hate anyone that does not resemble the same