Theme Of Ruth Discrimination In Public School

Identify and describe the specific issues that Maalick encountered in the workplace. Do the actions of other workers at Trenton represent discrimination and harassment? What elements of laws are important for Trenton to consider?

The Kids at Ruth’s school truly didn’t like her just because she was Jewish. In high school, Ruth was cast as an ensemble dancer for a school musical, but due to the other students saying they didn’t want to have to dance next to a Jew, Ruth dropped out. (McBride P.105)

James’s mother provided the best education to her children. That meant attending schools that were located in Jewish neighborhoods. James and his siblings were often the only black children in their classes. I am unsurprised James felt uncomfortable in a class full of students with the same skin color. Students must have stared at him like he was an alien and made prejudice remarks. Yet, I understand Ruth’s decision for only wanting the best for her children. She is a mother and like all mothers around the world, she will do whatever she possibly

James McBride's mother was a very sweet and honest woman, but she never talked about her past. When James would ask where her parents were she would always avoid the question. She had troubles with her parents in the past and left home. During the time James was growing up, mixed children weren't

Before she became “Ruth”, she was known as Rachel Shilskey, a Polish Jew. James was constantly curious about his mother’s past life and when asked to talk about her family, Ruth stated “You want me to talk about my family and here I been dead to them for fifty years” (McBride Page 1). Ruth explicitly describes how her own family rejected her for turning to the black community for true acceptance. James said “It took me many years to find out who she was, partly because I never knew who I was,” (McBride Page 261) which explains how James had an identity crisis in response to not knowing his mother’s true “indentity.”

Throughout the book James McBride is looked at as second rate because he is black and wants to change how people look at him and his race, since he knows there is a better way. An example of early equality is when Jordan Hunter, a black man, marries Ruth and helps her with money and provides a fatherly figure to her children (Chapter DADDY). He helps Ruth out in ways, only known to loving relationships even thought it goes society. While James is looking for his mother in Suffolk he goes in to a synagogue where he is pleasantly surprised by the kind nature of the people there. He writes, “I found it odd and amazing when white people treated me that way, as if there were no barriers between us. It said a lot about this religion,” While this highlights how little James had experienced, it emphasizes that there is good in the world that will take you in and help you no matter your color. Later James’s mom explains to him that God is not black or white, “God is the color of water. Water doesn’t have a color. (Pg. 51)” This quote presents Ruth’s idea of a more perfect

Elliott gave an excellent example of prejudice and discrimination to her 3rd grade pupils. She split her class in two groups according to their eye color. She set up the rules since the beginning, where the blue eyes group was superior to the brown eyes group and uses a color collar to make the inferior team more visible. It is heartbreaking to see little kids discriminating against each other within that little time and being mean to their friends. Also we see that the kids who were appraised performed better on their tests and work in general. Elliott repeated the exercise to the employees of the Iowa prison system. The reaction to the employees was similar to the 3rd grade kids. They started to prejudice and discriminate

Gaining knowledge of her mother’s past, James realizes that “I feel privileged to have come from two worlds. My view of the world is not merely that of a black man but that of a black man with a Jewish soul” (103). They’ve

“Knowledge overcomes ignorance and was the best weapon in the fight against injustice.” Words as these were the only form of consolation for children who were separated but they remained to be “equal” because they were either worthless in society or they were inferior. But the inferior here were the whites, it was whom a black child “noticed were always in charge.” This inferiority was what caused black children like Moses attend schools were children who looked like himself attended. Moses had moved into an all-white neighborhood where a new school was being constructed across the street. Everyone wondered if he would be able to attend the school, the answer was clear: NO. Therefore, Moses had to wake up, pretend there was no school right across the street and walk or ride his bike two miles to the school where the law said he belonged. This was in 1958, four years after the Brown v. the Board of Education. By knowing what Brown v. the Board of Education was, the effects before the case and the outcomes, it is better understood why children like Moses did not have to walk long distances to attend a school when there was one right across the street. It was not fair.

James mother’s contradictions weren 't necessarily meant to cause any confusion between the reader’s nor her children, but it is to give her children a understanding of stability. “ White folks, she felt, were implicitly evil towards blacks”. She felt whites were evil to the blacks resulted from the times they lived in. Blacks and whites were not widely adopted by people in those times to have any relations because, between the two races there was a huge split in their times. Ruth insisted that her children attend predominantly white schools because they offered better

To start off, both James and Ruth were the minority in their own school. Even though Ruth was white, or light-skinned, she was Jewish and that’s what made her different because most kids in her school were not jewish. Since she was the minority, it was easy for kids to point that out and bully them for that. For example, one kid told Ruth, “‘Hey Ruth, when did you start being a dirty Jew?’” James was also the minority and bullied at school. He went to a Jewish school which mostly consisted of light-skinned people and since he was darker, kids took notice. One time, they were learning about Black

James McBride’s search for his racial identity intensified during adolescence. While his older siblings were earning college degrees, McBride out of all his siblings rebelled the most. He ended up on a street corner, hanging out with punks and stealing. His mother sent him to his sister, Jackie’s house. James was hanging out with people who had nothing better to do with their time While In their company, something finally clicked and he realized the street corner was a dead end. James suffered while searching for his identity. During his adolescence, he went through a period of uncertainty and anxiety it turned self-destructive. Although Ruth dealt with her negative memories of her past experience, she overcame it and was able to become a strong individual. Ruth believed that her own children should experience more freedom that she did. However, “she accorded with her parents' belief in the value of hard work, which she passed on to her children by reinforcement and example.” (98) She encouraged her children to embrace discipline and diligence from a young age. When James realized this about this mother he decided to approach his identity issue another way. James returned to high school, went on to college, and became a journalist.

A recent analysis was released based on 13 southern states where suspensions and expulsion rates are overwhelmingly higher for black students than they are of white students. The director of the Council of state Governments Justice Center, a nonprofit policy group, stated that “blacks are more likely to be expelled in situations where teachers or school leaders have discretion on deterring how to resound to behavior, such as when a student is deemed disrespectful or defiant or violates a dress code.” Educators are prepared for educating students but are not prepared to deal with personalities that they don’t understand. “People are doing their jobs or living their lives, and do not understand themselves as agents of oppression.”(Young pg.42) Studies have shown that students who are expelled or suspended are more likely to get into trouble and end up with criminal backgrounds, than students who are not removed from school. (New York Times)

Ruth and her son James both had terrible experiences in public schools, however some experiences were very different to each other. Ruth was a white Jewish girl who attended a white elementary school where Jews were hated. This caused her to change her name from Rachel to Ruth. She felt despised her whole childhood, “that feeling that nobody likes you, that’s how I felt, living in the South” (p. 81). Ruth did not have Jewish friends either because her father was a storekeeper for the blacks, her only friend was a gentile girl named Frances. Since Ruth wasn’t allowed to be anywhere near gentiles she snuck over to Frances’s house where she was always welcome, but she could not eat the food there because it was not kosher. At one point took

James and His Mother had two very different experiences in public school. Ruth was racially divided in her schooling and James went to a school that was racially diverse.”In Suffolk, they had a white folks’ school and a black folks’ school and a jewish school.” (McBride 79). Some people didn’t consider the jewish school to be an actual school. When Ruth was finding a school for her children, she would search for a primarily jewish public school. “We grew accustomed of being the only black, or ‘Negro’ in school and were standout students, neat and well-mannered, despite the racist attitudes of many of our teachers” (McBride 89). James did not feel like he did not belong in the school he was in. “The Jewish school didn’t really count with the