Racism Exposed In The Help By Kathryn Stockett

1022 Words3 Pages

Racism Bentrock, a small town in Montana, in 1948 has a population of fewer than one thousand people and is very secluded from society. Don't get fooled because those one thousand people can cause more trouble than even a high population could. David and his family encounter a lot of misfortune and pain in this town. They all grow up knowing to be racist towards Indians and know that they are better than them. They think so less of the Indians that if anything would have happened to them, they would just brush it off their shoulders like it was nothing (Watson 25-40). They encounter a lot of racism taking place in Bentrock, Frank raping Indian women is a great affliction and much more that Frank did as well. Most of the white part of the …show more content…

Society and social interactions put a lot of pressure on people. That pressure weighs down people so much that it makes them think and feel certain ways that they really don’t. One of the compulsions, in this case, was “A bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the colored help…” (Stockett 32). The white families are seeing that the colored are forced to use a different bathroom causing them to think that the whites are higher than the colored, in a way of having more privileges than them. Not only does pressure from society change people’s perspective of things, but economic status plays a huge role in racism as well. Wealth has a huge impact on people’s views on things and how they treat colored people. The higher the economic status, the more racist people are. The ones that weren’t so wealthy acted way different; “...she has sat down and eaten lunch with me every single day since I started working here… Every white woman I’ve ever worked for ate in the dining room as far away from the colored help as they could…” (Stockett 295). Celia was less wealthy than the others and didn't really see the colored help as they did. She treated the colored help with respect and saw them rather as a friend than a maid because she didn't have to worry about showing off to keep her wealthy status. Social class is a big part of how people act and treat others, but racism could also be the result of being

Show More
Related

  • Racism In The Movie Crash

    765 Words  | 2 Pages

    The 2004 movie, Crash, involves stories about Caucasians, African Americans, Koreans, Iranians, Hispanics, rich, poor, criminals, cops, powerless, and powerful, and the actions and effects of racism. Funny thing is, all the characters are both victims and guilty of racism. These feelings of resentment and prejudice causes the characters to “crash” against each other, and the consequences are observed all throughout the movie. In the beginning, a black male, who is a detective, talks about how people need to “crash” into each other in Los Angeles to feel the sense of touch from people. The first scene involves Ria, a Latina woman, who gets hit from behind in a car accident, by an Asian woman. Both of them blame and makes racial

    Read More

  • Racism in the Movie, Crash

    1176 Words  | 3 Pages

    All through time, the world has been racist and intolerant of people different from themselves. Countless millions have suffered due to the bigotry of people that couldn't understand change or differences among one another. There was a time when any soul that wasn't blue eyed and blonde haired in Germany, anyone with darker skin where immediately classed as inferior and not human. Even now, when you are not aware, racism is still a considerable problem. But sometimes it isn't one person being racist against another, but rather one person being racist against them self. The movie crash shows good examples of how racism against oneself, caused by fear and misunderstanding, is just as malevolent and evil as racism against another person. Fear is what makes people act racist. Farhad is one of many examples in the movie of a person who recognizes his own race and paralyzes himself through his own fear. Farhad believes that since he is Persian he is immediately being persecuted against and cheated. He flips out at the gun shop when the owner was insulting him which just furthers his fear of Americans. After the events on 9/11, which are referenced a lot in the movie, Farhad thinks that anyone who is Middle Eastern isn't welcome in America. Even after the gun shop owner was rude; his shop was destroyed by racist people who hated him. It is this same fear of being cheated because of his race that makes him very untrusting to people he doesn't know. He calls a lock smith to come fix his door because it won't lock. He immediately thinks that Daniel is trying to cheat him and steal money from him just because of his past endeavors.

    Read More

  • Institutionalized Racism In Public Schools By Zz Packer

    1679 Words  | 4 Pages

    Institutionalized racism has been a major factor in how the United States operate huge corporations today. This type of racism is found in many places which include schools, court of laws, job places and governmental organizations. Institutionalized racism affects many factors in the lives of African Americans, including the way they may interact with white individuals. In the book “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere Stories” ZZ Packer uses her short stories to emphasize the how institutionalized racism plays in the lives of the characters in her stories. Almost all her characters experience the effects of institutionalized racism, and therefore change how they view their lives to adapt. Because institutionalized racism is a factor that affects how

    Read More

  • Racism Exposed In Coates's Between The World And Me

    636 Words  | 2 Pages

    Coates main message in his novel, Between the World and Me, was to warn his son of the racism that he will experience growing up. Racism is a major idea that is expressed in this memoir. Coates talks about all of the injustices towards African Americans throughout this memoir that are all due to racism. Racism is portrayed by teachers who avoid telling black children about their history or how people are killed because of their complexion. Because of racism, there is now a distinction between races. Coates stated, "race is the child of racism, not the father"(Coates 7). If white people never abducted African Americans from their homes and forced them into slavery, we wouldn't have ever needed to have this differentiation

    Read More

  • Film Summary: Racism And Race

    1749 Words  | 4 Pages

    Racism is a huge issue that has effected society and has caused division amongst races for many decades. Straight Outta Compton is a 2015 blockbuster movie on the rap group NWA. The film showcases the rise of the rappers and how they were treated differently based on their race. The film was directed by F. Gary Gray and starred Jason Mitchell who plays Eric “Eazy E” Wright, O’Shea Jackson Jr. who plays his father “Ice Cube”, Corey Hawkins who plays Andre “Dr. Dre” Young, Aldis Hodge who plays Lorenzo “MC Ren” Patterson, and Neil Brown Jr. who plays Antoine “DJ Yella” Carraby. As it can be noticed early on in the film, an approach is taken to address how some members of society were treated unequally. According to Batey (2015) to make the story

    Read More

  • Overcoming Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

    427 Words  | 1 Pages

    Is our society capable of overcoming racism? Sadly, no our society is not capable of overcoming racism. Race or racial ideology runs deep in our history and culture. Racism is at the core of our political culture. What is racism? Racism is a prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on their beliefs. It is the most important issue in Harper Lee famous book To Kill A Mockingbird.Racism cannot be destroyed,but it can be taught to be controlled.

    Read More

  • Cathleen Schine's 'I Was A Teenage Illiterate'

    1418 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many books demonstrate racial and sexist motifs, but the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett, makes readers view the perspective of both black and white woman in situations that the world should not have ever been through. One event, in particular, is when one of the main characters Aibileen, a black maid for Leefolt family, was babysitting Mae Mobley and her mother yells at Mae for using Aibileen's “colored” bathroom, “I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain't a color, disease ain't the negro side of town. I want to stop that moment from coming – and it come in every white child's life – when they start to think that colored folks are not as good as whites” (Stockett 95). This text teaches the world about the upsetting perspective of segregation, it makes people realize children are not inherently racist. It comes from the judgment and knowledge in education and family beliefs which are developed at a young age. Stockett makes one realize that people need to help develop a good judgment upon young ones so they can make smart decisions when they are older and be more accepting towards different people in society. Reading this text helps others recognize that racism is a difficult topic to approach but putting

    Read More

  • Kathryn Stockett's The Help

    488 Words  | 1 Pages

    Black maids often developed intimate relationships with the white families they cared for by the simple nature of their work. “I just want to show Constantine’s love for me began with missing her own child. Perhaps that’s what made it so unique, so deep. It didn’t matter that I was white. While she was wanting her own daughter back, I was longing for a mother not to be disappointed in me.” Racist whites were characterized well in the novel. For instance, separate bathrooms were strongly suggested for African American maids because whites believed that all African Americans were dirty and disease ridden. “All these houses they’re building without maid’s quarters? It’s just plain dangerous. Everybody knows they carry different kinds of diseases than we

    Read More

  • The Role Of Black Women In Kindred By Octavia Butler

    898 Words  | 2 Pages

    Octavia Butler wrote Kindred in order “to make others feel the history: the pain and fear that black people have had to live through in order to endure” (Fox). She drew on her mother’s experiences as a maid to tell the story that belonged to many Black Americans. Butler frequently wrote novels with strong, independent black woman protagonists. Kindred tells the story of a 1967 black woman, Dana, who travels back in time to antebellum Maryland to, time and time again, save the life of her white, slaveholding ancestor while also preserving her own. Butler’s usage of Dana as a modern woman travelling back in time where black folk were considered subhuman—black women considered even less so—was a powerful choice and examining the novel through

    Read More

  • Racial Issues And Inequality In The Help By Kathryn Stockett

    1091 Words  | 3 Pages

    “No, I couldn’t. That would be .. crossing the line,” (Stockett 104). Kathryn Stockett’s The Help is a dejected novel that depicts the racial issues and inequality during the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. The novel is a story that tells the stories of the African-American maids and their relationships with their employers and their views on life in Jackson through a white woman who chooses to go against the rules and norms of Jackson, Mississippi and their segregated ways. Told in first person, the characters expressed their perspectives on the race and segregation, bigotry, and feminism faced everyday in Jackson, Mississippi.

    Read More

  • Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    Various studies claim that racism still exists today. Throughout history, racism has corrupted the minds of leaders. Adolf Hitler represents a great example of one of the most frightening racist minds within history as he killed over six million Jews. Likewise, racism taints the minds of average people. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the residents of Maycomb, Alabama act with prejudice towards the black community. Under the influence of intolerance, a person can become blind to the truth. The theme racism presents itself as a theme in the novel through Atticus defending a black man, Calpurnia working for the Finch family, and the unjust conviction of Tom Robinson.

    Read More

  • Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1779 Words  | 4 Pages

    Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was set in the 1930s. During this time, one of the biggest problems that the United States was facing was the issue of racism. Racism is one of the main themes in Lee’s novel. The issue of whites versus blacks and the power that people who have white skin have over those who do not is a major part of the story’s plot. All of the characters were affected by racism in one way or another. The book is written from the perspective of a young girl named Scout. Scout’s father, Atticus, is determined to make sure that his children are not racist like all of the other people in their hometown of Maycomb,Alabama are, “I hope and pray that I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without

    Read More

  • Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

    361 Words  | 1 Pages

    In “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, racism among society isone of the key issue that was highlighted to the readers. While reading this novel, I have began to gain an idea of life among colored and white people in the early 1920s of South America. In Maycomb, there were strict social classes practiced. White people had their own social classes and, only, at the very bottom were black people. Majority of the whites did not mingle with the black people, this was a result of white people were brought up to be prejudiced against the black people. Racism was clearly shown from the plot of Tom Robinson’s trial. Tom Robinson was an innocent coloured man who was accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white girl. He was proven not guilty although

    Read More

  • Examples Of Racism In The Help

    1131 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, there are important conflicts that give insight to understanding characters. Racism is a strong continuous theme in the book that is part of all the characters’ storyline. It shows the type of person Hilly Holbrook is and what she as a character represents in today’s world. Conflicts in relationships also affect major characters such as Skeeter, Minny and Aibileen. These conflicts are what pushes them to move on from Jackson and find something better out in the progressing world.

    Read More

  • Racism Exposed in Cry, the Beloved Country

    1107 Words  | 3 Pages

    Racism Exposed in Cry, the Beloved Country. The purpose of Cry, the Beloved Country, is to awaken the population of South Africa to the racism that is slowly disintegrating the society and its people. The. Alan Paton designs his work to express his views on the injustices and racial hatred that plagues South Africa, in an attempt to bring about change and.

    Read More

More about Racism Exposed In The Help By Kathryn Stockett

Open Document