Racism In Thomas Paine's Rights Of Man

Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray. These are just some of the names of black individuals murdered in the past few years as a result of police brutality and racism. Evidently, racism is still prevalent in America today. In an excerpt from Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man, he claims that America is a melting pot of diversity where everyone is treated equally and respectfully. One could argue that racism has become a thing of the past, since slavery was abolished, segregation is illegal and everyone is given the same opportunities, but I would disagree. Although our society has gotten closer to becoming post-race, Paine’s claim still does not hold true today because of the stereotypes plaguing any minority group. While members of

The majority of Americans in 1791 did not “feel welcomed and ‘normal’ in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.” (McIntosh, 1), although that is the America Paine himself may have experienced. The ability to feel comfortable in nearly all situations is a privilege that white men, and no other group, have. A woman in Zeitoun also exhibits a prejudice that Paine would likely not pick up on, or simply choose to ignore. When a group of workers show up to paint her house, she calls Zeitoun to complain about their race. She blatantly states “I only want white people working on my house.” (Eggers, 36). This woman didn’t even attempt to hide her disgust and mistrust for non-white people. She was clearly taking advantage of the privilege she was born with, being a white person in the South. Specifically she was invoking her unconscious privilege of arranging to be in the company of peoples of her race whenever she wants. (McIntosh 1) She just assumed that if she expressed her unhappiness about the the race of people in her vicinity, the problem would be taken care of. If Paine’s claim was correct and everyone was treated equally, she wouldn’t care who her house was painted by as long as they got the job got