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African Americans In Boyle's The Arc Of Justice

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Why would an enraged mob form outside the home of a new neighbor who is a well-educated and a well-mannered medical doctor, his gracious young wife, and their 18 month old baby? It was 1925, Dr. Sweet was black, and the neighborhood was an all-white working class section of Detroit. “When Dr. Ossian Sweet bought a house in an all-white section of Detroit in the summer of 1925, he knew his move might trigger white violence. “Well, we have decided we are not going to run," he told a colleague a few weeks before taking possession of his new home. “We’re not going to look for any trouble, but we 're going to be prepared to protect ourselves if trouble arises." (Walter P.Reuther Library, Wayne State University) Dr. Sweet knew he entered a territory …show more content…

The Ossian Sweet story detailed in The Arc of Justice, written by Kevin Boyle, is not a story of racial prejudice, but it is an excellent accounting of humans exhibiting basic instinctive territorial behavior through racial …show more content…

I believe the natives’ efforts to keep blacks out of their communities is clear example of what I referenced above, territorial behavior. The native’s reactions to the immigrants and migrating southern blacks were like the animals trying to mark and defend their territory and protect their resources. Some territorial signs animals have been notorious for doing are giving warnings and making threatening actions. (britannica.com) the white mobs showed a clear example of how humans exhibit a basic instinctive territorial behavior when the white mobs decided to throw rocks at Ossian Sweet 's house trying to scare him out of the white neighborhood. The Irish, Jewish and black immigrants were all viewed as outsiders by the native whites. The whites had a great thing going living in the cities. Territoriality is used to protect a healthy population from the threat to the continued success of the healthy population by protecting the resources necessary to survival of the healthy population. “The study of social behaviors such as territoriality in animals may help us also to understand human society, and to learn how individual behavior affects human populations.”

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