Racial Segregation and Prejudice in ZZ Packer's Brownies

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The short story, “Brownies” is written by author, ZZ Packer. It surrounds a group of African American Brownie girls in the fourth grade who journey to a campsite situated near the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, called Camp Crescendo. On the trip, they encounter another brownie group comprised of white girls, all of who are mentally handicapped. “Brownies” is told from a first person involved point of view, through a Brownie member from the African American troop, named Laurel. Because the story takes place in the 1960’s, ZZ Packer explores issues that are prevalent in that time period, such as racial segregation and prejudice.
Racism is considered to be the “systematic oppression of African-Americans and other people of color and the related ideology of white supremacy and black inferiority” (Bohmer 95). It expects a constitutional predominance or inadequacy on the premise of recognized societal characteristics (Pachter et al. 61). Racial segregation exists abundantly in the United States, especially during the 1960’s in the south where it was required by law. Laurel recalls that white people are rarely seen in the south suburbs of Atlanta, “it [is] easy to forget about whites. Whites [are] like those baby pigeons: real and existing, but rarely seen or thought about” (Packer 179). Packer conveys the reality of the times extremely well by creating a black girl scouts troop and the white girl scouts troop, but there is no mixing of the races in either group. Additionally, the two troops remain separated throughout the story and the tension generated between them is a reminder of the struggles that colored people experienced.
In the 1960’s, African Americans and white people do not share the same public facilities, including schools ...

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...Orval Totdahl. “Racism in Kindergarten?” The Elementary School Journal. 69.4 (1969): 184. The University of Chicago Press. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
Mendoza-Denton, Rodolfo Ph.D. “Racism Against Whites: The Overlooked Phenomenon.” Are We Born Racist. Psychology Today. 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.
Packer, ZZ. “Brownies.” Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 4th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2006. 177-94. Print.
Pachter, Lee M., et al. “Perceived Racism And Discrimination In Children And Youths: An Exploratory Study.” Health & Social Work 35.1 (2010): 61. MEDLINE with Full Text. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
Racism. Anti-Defamation League, New York, 2001. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
Wilkins, Roger. “Racism.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 572 (2000): 159. Sage Publications, Inc. Web. 25 Mar. 2014

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