To Kill A Mockingbird: What Is Xenophobia?

Racism was a larger issue back in the 1930’s than it is today. During the 1930’s many Black Americans were unable to find jobs. With the Great Depression came the “last hired first fired” mindset. Many African Americans felt that this was targeted towards them (Racial 5). This along with Jim Crow laws kept most blacks in a level of poverty, which added to the discrimination (Racial 7). Throughout this time, all the way up into the 1960’s and 1970’s African Americans were under great segregation. During this thirty years, great strides toward social equality were made, but at the cost of numerous racial driven incidents. Many great African American icons were assassinated during this time. Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965 because he stood up against racial oppression as well as Martin Luther King Jr. who was assassinated in 1968. Both of these two men were part of the leading force in the desegregation of America (Rosenberg 1). This movement led to great tension between the African American culture and white culture, which led to many very violent cases between the races. A great

During the 60s, discrimination was very strong and took place during this time, when it came to the Jim Crow laws, blacks were excluded from what whites had the ability to do. In the South, and around it these laws were strongly enforced, African - Americans felt as if they would be safer by heading North. In 1810 whites thought that blacks were here in this world to be put to work. They thought blacks did not deserve any respect. (Jim Crow Laws n. pag.) For about 80 years, most of the United States, pushed towards Jim Crow laws . “From Delaware to California, and from North Dakota to Texas, many states could impose legal punishments on people for consorting with members of another race.” (Jim Crow… n. pag.) The laws kept both blacks and whites from sharing anything with each other. It caused a lot of hatred towards one another but all they wanted was to be treated the same. Although there were many laws, many of them had many reasons to them. Whites did not use the blacks names in a respectful manner, they called them by their first name. The blacks had to call them by their name with Mr., Mrs., Miss, sir, or mam. (Pilgram n. pag.) If blacks rode in the same car as a white and the white

During the 1960s a lot of white people discriminated African Americans. A lot of African Americans were mistreated and judged by the white. A lot of people, including African Americans were also treated badly have badly because they were poor,handicapped,or, of course due to their race.

|Xenophobia |A fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange.

The 1960’s was a decade riddled with racism and discrimination towards African Americans, especially in the Deep South. Blacks were barred from voting through poll taxes and literacy tests too difficult even for decently educated whites. All public places became segregated after the Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 and remained separated through the 60’s and even the 70’s. Groups like the Ku Klux Klan terrorized blacks, burning their homes and senselessly lynching thousands of black men, while many city and state governments in the South looked the other way.

In 1960-1980, many new advancements were out in the world. Still women were expected to stay home. Women were frowned upon when they got jobs or didn’t marry. African Americans were the poorest living in slums. Other races were treated the same. This was the time of the Civil Rights movement. Whites killed African Americans for doing what they considered wrong in the south. African Americans earned the rights they wanted, to the dismay of the whites.

Segregation and discrimination both happen to African Americans in Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. They are viewed as less, like they show be treated differently. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the town of Maycomb took Bob Ewell's word over Tom Robinson's because he was of a different race. Bryan Stevenson mentions that many young African Americans go to prison because they did something bad, but this then affects these children for the rest of their lives. Many African Americans are still affected today by the justice system and how they are treated by other people. Racial injustice has been a huge part of history and both, Just Mercy and To Kill a Mockingbird talk about racial injustice, that is still happening today.

African Americans were always outcasts, regarded as less-than, and seen as disgusting and unintelligent in the eyes of whites. The laws had simply made it legal. This is not to say, though, that things did not get worse for blacks. It had been violent before, but it was nothing compared to what it would be.

Despite this, they were not treated as well as they should be. An example to prove this is stated in the Ernest Green movie when Ernest Green who was African American got the opportunities to go to an all white school with better education to get a good job in the future but, when he got to the school he got the total opposite of a warm welcome. At the school there were now protests to try and stop the transfer of African American students from going into the school.(Laneuville) This proves how the white Americans still had a bad attitude towards African Americans but, they were starting to get better at respecting. Additionally, in Hidden Figures, there are women who worked for NASA. Nevertheless, because of the racism, they had their own little rundown building, and they didn’t get to work alongside the other people who work at NASA. To add to this, there was also more evolution of African American respect, when the director of the friendship 7 spaceship launch, Allan, took down the black and white bathroom signs and said, “we all pee the same color.”(Melfi) which was saying how it doesn’t matter what color we are, we are still made out of the same things, and have the same DNA. This proves how people in the 1950s-1960s were improving with treating African Americans with courtesy.

Before the 1950s, America made great progress towards social equality. Although America was called the land of the free, the African American community did not enjoy the same privileges as the white community. This is because African Americans faced hardships such as: segregation in society, limited job opportunities resulting in low income, numerous hate groups and mobs in protest to black rights, and many factors prohibiting African Americans from taking advantage of their voting rights. These factors and more are the reasons African Americans were disadvantaged during the 1950s and 1960s.

African Americans were still being treated like foreigners, despite the abolition of slavery less than 30 years prior. African American's were still denied the right to vote, as well as other constitutional freedoms, until the mid 1960s. Between 1890 and 1930, approximately 2,800 blacks were lynched.

Consider the years 1908 and 1939. They are roughly 30 years apart, and yet society’s views on African Americans we relatively the same. 1908 was approximately 30 years after the reconstruction era ended, where slaves were no longer slaves, but not truly free either. The segregation of African Americans and Caucasians made it challenging for them to find where they fit into society and reach their full potential as members of a new society. Now 60 years after the reconstruction era ended, in 1939, segregation was still occurring, world war two is starting, and African Americans are still through of as less. This negative outlook on African Americans did not just occur in everyday situations, but also in pop culture. This is especially evident

War causes Xenophobia. War is an armed conflict between more than two parties. Xenophobia is a behavior that promotes fear or hatred against different cultures.

The 1960’s were a rough, yet progressive stage in American history. African Americans were finally labeled as equal to white men and women after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. However, that bill was

In the past racism was something of the norm, from being treated like animals to also being taken as a joke. We as African Americans have gone through it all, and today I as a proud African American will talk about the uprising and the downfalls of my people. Anyhow during the uproar of segregation African Americans encountered degrading acts towards them as bad as seeing their moms, dads, brothers, and sisters being lynched. However such terrifying acts came to a minor halt when the murder of Emmett Till arose.