Internalized Racism In Martha Southgate's The Fall Of Rome

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Chelsea is a foreign country. It is not just an elite private high school. It represents the white community and their dominance, controlling by the wealthy and privileged superior group of whites. Martha Southgate uses The Fall of Rome to reveal how institutional racism prevents the blacks from reaching success by limiting their opportunities. And by showing the relationship between Jerome Washington and Rashid Bryson, Southgate further explains the extensive damages that internalized racism has on a minority group. As the white people dominating every aspect of the society, institutional racism deeply affects both Jerome and Rashid but in different ways that Jerome chooses to escape from the harsh reality and purposely internalizes racism …show more content…

Moreover, institutional racism forces Jerome in fake reality as well as internalizing racism towards Rashid due to his own fear of accepting the reality and lack of self-awareness. As Jerome claims: "I firmly wrote a D- across the top. I hoped that this would begin to teach him the importance of careful thought and of being grateful for the chance he'd been given" (Southgate, 160), his intentional harsh treatment on Rashid's work reveals how internalized racism reflects a harmful consequence of the racially unequal society that people live in and how people of color feel powerless in the system that does not value them or their talents. In fact, Jerome does not have a clear self-awareness when putting the cross country stereotype onto Rashid as the thing that Rashid should do because of the fact that the definition of who he is is influenced by what the society tells him who he is. Longing for acceptance from the whites and escaping from the reality of institutional racism with outstanding talents, Jerome Washington internalized racism towards Rashid out of fear of the reality and lack of a clear

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