Bigotry In American Culture

Eli Whitney’s invention helped give slavery a new life in the 1700s and 1800s (11). Eli Whitney was a mechanical engineer, who was the first to invent the cotton gin. The cotton gin is a machine that quickly and efficiently separates cotton fibers from their seeds (2). His machine moves like brush like teeth through the raw cotton, which makes the hard task go by faster. The cotton gin grew to produce a thousand pounds of cotton a day in the 18th century (11).

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois once said, “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line.” He refers “color” as race and how race is a social category used to assign human worth and social status using whites as the superior race and the minorities as the inferior. That’s what America is facing during Reconstruction. When the Reconstruction Era transitioned into the New South Era, the lives of Freedmen changed socially, economically, and politically for the worse. Although southern whites were still unpleasant to African Americans during Reconstruction, it got more severe socially in the New South Era.

As soon as she sees the boy, she asserts, “oh look at the cute little pickaninny!” (439). Following that explanation, the author clarifies that she points to not just any youth, but a negro boy. When this is said, the audience is given context clues that she is using a racist slang. Later in the story, the

This was a clear insult to the slave because they were working like an animal, however, there were strong like one, but will you really treat a human this way. Throughout the article, he justified that African men were basic savage in Africa with a native way that brought to the nomad age and when American troops brought them to America, some were born here, to become the property of a slave owner. During this time of age, it was considered right, even if it wasn’t.

Since Atticus takes on the duty of defending Tom Robinson, he is called a “nigger-lover” (Lee 117) and told that he is no better “than the trash he works

Whites felt the need to stay in their own race while blacks do the same. The blacks however did not feel the same as they wanted all men to be equal. The Jim Crow Laws got its name from a white actor named Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice, who played as a fictional character named “Jim Crow”. Jim Crow was a dimwitted black slave that was a caricature of a clumsy person. Many people found this as entertainment as Jim Crow aka Rice would sing a song called “Jump Jim

It is truly evident that the fundamental focal point of the whole motion picture is bigotry. Bigotry is characterized as the conviction that all individuals from each race forces attributes or capacities particular to that race, particularly to recognize it as substandard compared to another race, which prompts preference and oppression somebody of an alternate race. The film determines its attention on bigotry in the unified states. As we clearly all know, prejudice has been one of the greatest issues that american culture has looked since its establishing and even previously.

Soul food is just what the name insinuate. It is richly flavored and cooked food that is cooked from the heart with love. Some people might say soul food is a home cooked meal, but to my family soul food is a tradition, a way of life handed down from generation to generation. During the era of slavery, blacks were often given the undesirable cuts of meats that slave owners would not eat. Although slaves were given the undesirable cuts of meat, such as pig feet, tails, intestines, chicken livers, and necks they were creative and resourceful, turning these foods into delicious dishes.

Atticus tried to explain about the name calling. “Scout,” said Atticus, “nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don’t mean anything like snot-nose. It’s hard to explain.. Ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody’s favoring Negroes over and above themselves. It’s slipped into usage with some people like ourselves, when they want a common, ugly term to label somebody.”

In the book To Kill A Mockingbird made by Harper Lee , many different people are discriminated against, for their color or gender like Tom Robison and even Scout.. But one character is discriminated against very early in the book, Walter Cunningham, who was discriminated by class. To start with, Walter Cunningham is from a family of farmers. This means he is a class below the citizens of Maycomb. But this also means that he(and all other farmers) got hit hard by the depression and are very poor.

Through the lesson Atticus tries to teach Scout, she learns that people will follow biases and prejudices rather than the truth. Within the book To Kill a Mockingbird the main character, Scout, her father is defending a black man in court. During his time defending, he is called name foul names by people in the community. This is a quote from the

People of the town including children refer to black people as “Niggers”, and raised to think of black people as lower class individuals. “To Kill A Mockingbird” has a strong message towards racism, this is learned from Scout & Jem as they mature throughout the novel and are constantly being exposed to demeaning segregation in Maycomb County. In giving Scout a lesson about racism, Atticus also does the same for the readers of the novel. This happens when Scout asks Atticus what the term ‘Nigger-lover” meant, after being insulted several of times and not knowing if it is an offensive word or not, but had a slight feeling it was when Atticus was being called at. A quote from the novel: "nigger-lover is

A problem that is occurring in today's countries is ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is using your own culture norms and values to judge the behavior of people from another culture. To summarize the definition in clearer terms ethnocentrism is making fun of less advanced or less superior culture. One problem that comes with ethnocentrism is the feeling of superiority. For example, if the United States had more nuclear powered weapons than Russia superiority could be created.

Racism is defined as the poor treatment of people based on color. For as long as humans lived, millions of people have been treated poorly because of their skin color. Racism has carried throughout the many years of American history. Since the abolishment of slavery, a huge spike of racial discrimination flourished the United States and it still does. Stereotypes, racial profiling, and discrimination are signs of racism that still are shown to many people today.

Ethnocentrism and its prevalence in U.S culture Ethnocentrism is judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one’s own culture. Individuals who are ethnocentric judge other groups in relation to their own ethnic group or culture. I think The United States likes to refer to themselves as the “big mixing pot” of cultures. I would agree, we do have a wide range of different cultures, but that does not mean that we do not “evaluate and judge other cultures based on how they compare to our own cultural norms.” I think us as Americans feel this way, because we are too scared to change what we have learned and known since birth.