The Corruption Of Race In Literature

Race is in essence, an invention. Created during the beginning of African Slavery, race is a group of populations that share the same characteristics, mainly skin color. This idea was used to set the caucasian, or “white people” apart from the African American race. Race is a folk idea, “... a concept of human minds, not of nature,” Relethford writes. Although people have attempted to establish dozens of other racial groupings, there are only four or five commonly used ones.

Despite its origins, the idea of race continues to be a debate in the modern world. One motivation of the idea is its relevance in literature. Throughout history, most people’s idea of race belittled the African American race, and upheld the caucasian race by using racist ideas and creating a negative image of African Americans. Chinua Achebe's, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness’ was a response to Conrad’s racist portrayal of Africans in the well known piece “Heart of Darkness” .The main character of the novel, Marlow, retells his story in a way that made Africans out to be savages, with no morals, "other occupations besides merging into the

A franchise that became extremely popular and had a huge impact on people all over the world of all different ages, and backgrounds. The series began as a book, and later was reenacted as a play, and then a movie. The play featured African American actress, Noma Dumezweni playing the role of Hermione Granger. However, in the Warner Brothers movie portrayal of the book, the role was played by Emma Watson, a white actress. Critics felt no where in the book did it state Hermione was of the African American race, because of the idea that characters are default white “– the assumption that a character is white until otherwise explicitly stated”. This shows that the idea of race is not only a social problem, but remains prevalent in