Summary Of Alex Haley's Roots

Racism has been, and continues to be, an issue in our American society. Multiple government and social issues have stemmed from hateful bigotry, including Mr. Dred Scott. He was seen as ¨property” not as a ¨person¨ just because of the color of his skin, and that he was not a free man, even if he resided in a ¨free¨ state. This caused an outrage in abolitionists nationwide and changed America forever. Dred Scott was a slave, owned by John Emerson in Missouri (a slave state).

This quote showed how they don’t care about Jim and how they just care about the money. Another quote “While slaveholders profit from slavery, the slaves themselves are oppressed, exploited, and physically and mentally abused. Jim is inhumanely ripped away from his wife and children. However, white slaveholders rationalize the oppression, exploitation, and abuse of black slaves by ridiculously assuring themselves of a racist stereotype, that black people are mentally inferior to white people, more animal than human.” (LitCharts).

When Huck and Jim first encounter each other, Huck plays many pranks on Jim because he believes what society has told him about slaves. As the story unfolds, however, Huck goes against society’s rules and

She draws parallels between the war on telephone poles and the racism towards the African American, criticizing the American civilization and society. She says that the war on telephone poles was powered “by that terribly American concern for private property and a reluctance to surrender it to a shared utility”. The Whites’ dislike of the poles is possibly a symbol of the dislike towards the African American. The typical white American of this period is portrayed as evil and close minded and the telephone poles are interfering with the white territory – just like the African American. A “fear, that distance, as it had always been known and measured, was collapsing” which can be read as if the white Americans of that day feared that segregation at one point might collapse and evaporate.

Since beginning to learn about black history, I have heard many stories of how racism has been used by white people to make it acceptable to mistreat blacks and other races of people. Even after slavery ended and blacks were set free, whites refused to accept them as equals. We all know about how racism led to many innocent

The final ty0pe of racsim is secret racism. Secret racism is when you are actually a racist but you try to hide it. These are all different types of racism but they all promote the same meaning, racism, which is offensive to everyone. ' '

Around the 1930’s and 1940’s there was extreme racial judgment against the African American community. They would immediately be put down and racially profiled by many. By Being different from the White people it held them back from living their lives freely. Socially they were led to live a failed lifestyle because of the racial and economic forces that helped mold and poked at the African Americans like Bigger to live up to the typical stereotype. Wright puts Bigger in a hostile , brutal social environment which helps shape Bigger Thomas, and also puts a harsh eye on the Whites of the community.

Angelou does that by questioning and specifying the blacks “broken” (l 13), “Bowed head” (l 14) and “lowered eyes” (l 14), by doing that we interpret the hatred and violence towards the black people. The broken, bowed head and lowered eyes is a sign of not being able to withstand the movement that is being progressed. Angelou wants us to realise the struggle that the black people have gone through. Moreover, the white people’s hatred of the black people have influenced them in a way, where they see the white people as brutal. “You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes” (ll 20-21) is an implication for the amount of torment they’ve gone though.

Moreover, Judge Stevens explicitly uses “nigger of hers” to describe the relationship between Miss Emily and Tobe. The word, “nigger” is a derogatory term to insult a black person to make one feel inferior. He also added that Tobe belongs to Miss Emily, much like how slaves were considered property to a master in the pre-civil war era. Tobe represents the old days in Southern society where slaves belonged to a family and was identified with them. Tobe would not want to stay in a town where people clearly think lowly of him, so it makes sense for him to leave the town full of racists when his master, Miss Emily

Asagai is from the country of Nigeria and because of this he also has Nigerian culture. This very different black culture does not fit in with the black culture of south side Chicago and is even shamed by many such as George. Despite this Asagai confides in Beneatha about avoiding assimilation. Asagai represents the culture of blacks before their slavery in and oppression in America. Everything from his music and clothes that he gave to Beneatha to his attitude towards American black culture suggests that he disapproves of the new black culture he is engulfed in.

There weak argument is that the flag symbolizes hate and discrimination. They say that many racist people and groups use it, so it is a hate mechanism. Supports of the flag being taken down want try and erase the history of slavery and the civil war. I reject that the flag symbolizes hate and discrimination. So many people lost their lives for the flag and we are supposed to ingrown that?

Throughout the period of the Reconstruction, the northerners and southerners viewed and treated blacks differently. For example, the southerners did not have any respect for blacks at this time and treated them terribly. The Southern Black Codes were significant in defining the rights of the freedmen and many of the rights were restricted due to these specific codes. The codes prevented blacks from achieving their own occupation, from voting, and the codes limited any freedom that the individual may have. The blacks had no rights as a citizen due to the southern rules.

It challenged the preconceptions that slavery was a dark chapter and did not contribute anything useful for the future. Instead, the Hortons showed that slavery was a huge influence on American history. From integrating their culture to fighting in wars, slavery has left a legacy in America. Unfortunately, while African American culture has survived through the decades, so have racial prejudices. This book was daring to shine a light at this sensitive topic.

One of the events take I had to take off my binoculars is how the colonist viewed the natives Americans. They saw the natives as demons, which is a hard concept to understand in this culture. I thought this because people now in days do not see a new person and scream “demon” and try to kill, reeducate them, and take their land from them. The other event that I had to take off my binoculars is the slave trade and slaves. The morals the slave owner has are very different than today’s accepted morals.

The emotion of caring was given little to none. They were used until they were seen as useless, as if they had expiring dates stamped on them. Various slave owners saw slavery as not only a beneficial empire, as well as, a religious factor of society. On the contrary, in today’s society slavery is morally wrong