To Kill a Mockingbird Essay

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“Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong.” -- Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali puts into words the meaning of racism; it isn’t right, no matter who is doing it. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee there are multiple examples of racism and discrimination, such as gender, racial and social discrimination. People’s thoughts are their own, but once they act and speak on these thoughts, the troubles stir.
Social discrimination has been very prevalent in the world’s history and still occurs daily in the twenty first century. For example, Jem points out to Scout the different types of people in the world “There’s four kinds of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind like them and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunningham’s out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes.” (Lee 302) Jem points this out to Scout because she doesn’t get why people are treated different then her. She believes that there is only one type of people in the world and Jem is quick to fix her illusion. This type of racism is also present when Scout describes the Ewell house as a dirty, run down cabin behind the town garbage dump. Even Scout knows that the Ewells are Maycomb’s lowest of the low. The Ewells are only a notch higher than the Negros on the social ladder. This type of discrimination is seen in the world today, I remember a time when I was volunteering at a homeless shelter when a kid in my class asked me why I would want to help out drug addicts and alcoholics. That kid was wrong, most of the people at the shelter fell on hard times, sure some suffered from substance abuse, but he was discriminating against all homeless people, with...

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...imination and racism have been present in history for a long time, and they will continue being a part of life. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee racism is very present and not because the author intended it so much as it was reality back in then. Even in present day society there are flaws and it is because racism and discrimination go back, far back, and children were taught to think that way. Racism is deep rooted and ingrained into society, it will take time and love to heal and overcome it. “…What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.” ― Robert F. Kennedy.

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