To Kill A Mockingbird: Racism
Nyah, Mekenna, Hayley, Giana, and Ava
Movie: A Time to Kill
- Both the movie and the book convey strong ideas towards the effects of racism and racist citizens.
- Both of the main authority figures resist to give into these absurd views therefore, becoming the attorney of a black man.
- Jake Brigance is defending Carl Lee in "A Time to Kill" after he kills to white men who raped his 10 year old daughter. In "To Kill a Mockingbird" Atticus Finch is defending Tom Robinson who was falsely accused of raping a white teenager.
Painting: Ashley Milburn “Black Face”
It is clear what this painting demonstrates. The African American in the middle looking down to the ground as the two Caucasian people on the sides open their big mouths and make fun of and judging the colored man. Milburn interprets her painting as,
“Some social commentators have stated that blackface provided an outlet for whites' fear of the unknown and the unfamiliar, and a socially acceptable way of expressing their feelings and fears about race and control. Writes Eric Lott in Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class, "The black mask offered a way to play with the collective fears of a degraded and threatening and male Other while at the same time maintaining some symbolic control over them."
The painting supports the theme of our novel by showing that judging and giving someone a negative reputation based off the color of their skin is foul and disheartening.
- Both movies reveal to the reader the struggles of blacks in the south. They show how the black population was mistreated and used for the pleasure of the whites.
Current Event:NC police: Unarmed man shot 10 times in weekend encounter with Charlotte officer
- Have your surroundings and past expirences led you to becoming racist?
- As well as showing the reader the black's struggles, both "A Time to Kill" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" show us the struggles of a white male going against the majority.
- both of these pieces wanted to show everyone that yes these men were seen as crazy in their time but they were dedicated to an important cause that more people should be aware of.
- A man from North Carolina, looking for help after a car crash, was shot 10 times.
- A local police officer fired 12 shots at 24 year old, Jonathon A. Ferrel.
- Ferrel was unarmed during the encounter.
- Connection to the book: Tom Robinson was shot 17 times while attempting to escape from prison.
- It is unnecessary to shoot a man with one arm with seventeen bullets.
- Prisons should have other plans of action rather than just to shoot when an inmate attempts to escape.
- While a reader can assume he was shot simply to try to stop him from escaping, one may think that it is possible he was shot 17 times instead of once or twice, because he was black and was accused of rape.
Song "Accidental Racist"
Poem "Still I Rise: Maya Angelou
Song "Accidental Racist": Brad Paisley
- TKAM also touched on other aspects of racial discrimation.
- "Still I Rise" talks more about how Blacks feel with the inequality.
- The line "You may tread me in the very dirt, But still, like dust, I'll rise"(PoemHunter).
- Even though this was a hard time for the blacks, they perservered through the situation.
- Blacks had trouble forgiving whites becuase of the horrible treatment they were given throughout the book.
- In the book, Scout and Jem were taken to a black church by Calpurnia (their maid), and many individuals in the church did not welcome them.
- This poem allows readers to see the emotions of blacks while they were treated unfairly and inequally, and the book allows the readers to see what blacks did or said in response to this treatment.
- Many racist comments throughout TKAM.
- Brad Paisley explains growing up in the south with racial discrimination.
- He sings about why people treated blacks unfairly only to fit in with their surroundings.
- The connection to the book: Ms. Dubose (a neighbor) calls Atticus a "Nigger-lover" and trash.
- Atticus was a lawyer who wanted to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, in a court trial.
- Many people judged him although they did not understand exactly why they disliked blacks.
- Overall, people act out and treat others cruely to fit in with their surroundings.
Theme
- In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Jean Louise Finch, nicknamed as Scout, a 6 year old girl, and her brother Jem are exposed to the evils of racism and stereotyping when their father, Atticus Finch, a lawyer, defends a black man, Tom Robinson, who is falsely charged with the raping and beating of a white 17 year old girl.
- Scout questions the very apparent and recurring racism and discrimination all over town.
- “I don’t care one speck. It ain’t right, somehow it ain’t right to do ‘em that way. Hasn’t anybody got any business talkin’ like that-it just makes me sick”-Dill
- possibly these are the feelings of Lee herself, for she believes that society discriminates against those that they believe to be inferior, yet it is covert racism.
- Atticus, throughout the entire story, tells his child that in order to understand someone you must walk in their shoes, and as Scout grows older, she begins to realize that many people just judge others based on appearance without attempting to comprehend their circumstances or situations.
- Harper Lee wants the reader to leave with realizing that ignorance breeds racism.
- http://poemhunter.com/poems/racism/page-1/33053/