The Bluest Eye Racism

‘ This is dirty out here, Mae Mobley. You’ll catch diseases!’”( Stockett, 111). Mae Mobley is one of Hilly’s children and accidentally used the bathroom that only the colored people could uses. Hilly yelled at her daughter and made her cry. Aibileen was mad, but there was nothing she could do. Aibileen said “I wanted to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain’t a color, disease ain’t the Negro side a town. I want to stop that moment from coming-and it come in ever white child’s life-when they start to think that colored folks ain’t as good as whites”(Stockett,112). Colored people were always viewed as dirty and it was due to racial prejudice. That was believe and it was passed on from every parent to their child. Soon their children would start believing the same way.

Starting her second education, she was forced to drop out to care for her ailing grandmother. With Jim Crow’s Law, heavily in affect, her childhood was greatly influenced by the segregation between white people and black people in almost every part of their lives.

“I was extra careful to pay attention to the other black boys sitting inside […] I studied their postures and their screwfaces, the unlaced purple and turquoise Filas on their feet, their mannerisms […] These boys would never be singled out and dissed the way I had been. I decided I wanted whatever it was that protected them”

She remembers small details like how her friend only had black dolls to play with. She didn’t realize this at the time because she was so young, but she thinks that the reason why her friend’s parents weren’t too fond of her wasn’t necessarily because she was white, but because they were probably afraid of what would happen to them for associating with a white person, or if something bad had happened to her while under her supervision. Like in Mosaic, Ida B Wells discusses some of the reasons why black people were lynched. A lot of those reasons included being falsely accused of committing acts against a white person. Even if the black person did nothing and just happened to be there at the scene, they were almost always punished for it. For example, when white landowner’s wives would get pregnant and the baby ended up being of mixed race, even if it was never the black worker’s fault, they were blamed for it. This is why a lot of the times many African Americans fled from where they worked and were never to be seen again. “The daily papers last year reported a farmer’s wife in Alabama had given birth to a Negro child. When the Negro farm hand who was plowing in the field heard it he took the mule from the plow and fled… In Natchez, Mississippi, Mrs. Marshall,... [gave birth to a child who was] unmistakably dark. All were alarmed, and ‘rush of blood, strangulation’ were the conjectures, but the doctor, when asked the cause, grimly told them it was

Racism was hard for Melba, her family, and every person who was one of the little rock nine. Racism brought hate between black and white people. Racism is a bad thing. Melba’s mother shouted the words “epsom salts and water”, as she raced down the hall, desperately searching for a nurse. The woman was in digant, saying yes, come to think of it, the doctor had said something about epsom salts. “ But we don’t coddle niggers.” She growled.(page3). Why people write “colored” on all the ugly drinking fountains, the dingy restrooms, and the back of the buses.(page3). Melba wanted to ride the merry-go-round but the white man said “there’s no space for you here.”(page4).

James’s mother knows that the time they are in was a time of segregation. She knows that she is a white mother with black children. To think that that situation was bad enough for the reputation of her children. She ends up sending them a white school where they stand out amongst the crowd. This quote bonds with the idea of Race. Race being that they are attending a white school. The connection this quote has with the journey in the memoir is that being that Ruth’s children were black caused James to ask all the questions leading to the journey.

With the arrival of the family in Welch, the sense of disconnection was furthered by the blending of family politics. The Walls family, dependent upon the charity of Rex’s parents for food and shelter now had to contend with racism and sexual abuse. The children who had been encouraged to speak freely about their opinions now had to keep quiet. Jeanette had visited a different neighborhood which her uncle had referred to as “Niggerville,” and this blatantly racist attitude was a shock (Walls 143). The grandmother accosted Jeanette that day, commenting “keep this up and people are going to think you are a nigger lover” not only was the word offensive to Jeanette, she told her grandmother “You’re not supposed to use that word, mom says they are just like us” (Walls 143). Her opinion was not appreciated; as a result, she was banished to the basement by her grandmother without food. There was no support from Rose Mary on the issue due to their dependence on the grandparents for food and

“Being the token Negro was something I was never entirely comfortable with. I was the only black kid in my fifth-grade class at P.S. 138 in the then all-white enclave of Rosedale, Queens.”

As Beals stated, “Step by step we climbed upward where none of my people had ever before walked as a student.” This quote explains that segregationist mobs “threw out” black people, because of the color of their skin, from white -high schools. It also shows that she was one of the nine black people/students that stopped segregation and discrimination in schools for her country. Also, to add to that, almost everyone was rude and yelled racial slurs, while the mobs were vet unhappy and gave threats; physically and verbally. As Beals stated, “Some of the white people looked totally horrified, while others raised their fists to us. Others shouted ugly words.” This quote shows how the white people (mobs) were rude and shouting “ugly words” and racial

In the autobiography “Coming of age in Mississippi” by Anne Moody known as Essie Mae in the book she writes in great detail the struggles her and other people of her color had to go through in order to gain their rights. From such a young age she saw the differences in the way people of color were treated in comparison to whites, things that no one should go through much less a kid. From the beginning you see that Essie Mae is such a brilliant kid and all the trials she goes through and the knowledge and fire instilled in her leads her to be such a powerful activist in the fight for black equality. I think that at such an early age she started to notice the differences between people of color and whites. One incident that happened that led to her to questioning was an incident at the theater where the blacks would have to seat in the balcony and whites could seat in the bottom level but when they were at the theater they sat her “white friends “there so Essie and her brother and sister followed them to the bottom level. While her mother was not noticing what was going on, when she finally noticed she began to start yelling and pulling them out the door later on Essie 's mother explaining to them how they could not do this or that with white children. After the movie incident happened they never played with them again. This incident put thoughts in Essie Mae 's at such an early age. This made her do a lot of thinking about the differences between people of her color and

The poem “Incident,” by Countee Cullen, was written in the 1920s where racism towards African Americans was extremely prevalent. Jim Crow Laws were heavily enacted in the South, and the mandate of “separate but equal,” was spread across the U.S. This segregated schools, public places, and public transportation, where African American facilities were almost always inferior. Though northern America was thought to be much more progressive, there was still an incredible inequality between blacks and whites. Alvin Ailey said that “one of the worst things about racism is what it does to young people,” and this idea is depicted through the speakers’ childhood memory where he recounts being called “N****r” by another child. The poem presents the power that words have, and how divisive they can be. Through the imagery, diction, syntax, and tone in “Incident,” Cullen powerfully depicts racism and the lasting impact that words have. Furthermore, this poem presents how racism has no boundaries and affects everyone even an innocent child.

Famous African American social reformer Frederick Douglass once said, “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” In other words, Douglass believed that a society that takes advantage of and devalues people of a certain class, including—considering Douglass was a civil rights activist—racial class, is perilous to the people living in that society because the oppressor will feel threatened by the oppressed and vice versa. With this in mind, it is relatively easy to relate the idea of class oppression to Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye through Mr. Yacobowski, a minor character and low-class, white immigrant, a member of one of the lowest classes in 1940s America. During the time era, discrimination was often used against immigrants as a way to separate them from native citizens. Said immigrants tended to see this discrimination with contempt and, when people are treated as the lowest, those people will want to find evidence of some sort that they are indeed not so. In The Bluest Eye, Mr. Yacobowski expresses subdued hostility towards the book’s young protagonist to improve his self-esteem about his own social status. He exhibits his sense of separation from Pecola’s position through the use of race, communicating, through the lens

In the play A Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry, a story about an African American family living in Chicago. The book illustrates what the daily problems of an average black family had to deal with while living in America in the 1950s and their struggle of overcoming obstacles to reach their “dream”. Hansberry use this novel to address topics such as racism, racial inequality, and racial discrimination. In 1954, many people during that time supported segregation. People perceived whites and blacks completely different and people wanted them to be separate. Everywhere in the south had “whites only” or “colored”, and many wanted to keep it that way. History will always repeat itself and people are not

The grandmother’s bigotry is also on display as the family rides past a black youth standing near his modest home. Her reaction to seeing him is like walking past an adorable dog; “Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!” (12). When her granddaughter June Starr comments on the boy’s lack of clothing, the grandmother explains that “little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do” (12). As the grandmother emits racism through her comments, she is also inserting such notion into her grandchildren’s minds. Nor Bailey or his wife says anything, so it can be suggested that they are used to such comments and may hold the same views as well. The grandmother does not see a reason to be empathetic; the boy waves and she does return the gesture. Instead she romanticizes the boy’s plight as a missed opportunity, suggesting that “If [she] could paint, [she’d] paint that picture” (12).

The speaker in the “The Negro Mother” is an African American woman who makes a promise to her children that she will be with them always in spirit as they fight for the same rights as whites. She says, “For I will be with you till no white brother / Dares keep down the children of the Negro Mother” (49-50). She wanted her children to fight for equal rights regardless of the barriers and