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Walter Dean Myers Monster Racism Quotes

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Racism in the book Monster
“Don't tell me you believe that “innocent until proven guilty””(Walter Dean Myers 52) the jury said. I believe in the book Monster by Walter Dean Myers while in jail and going through court sessions there is a lot of racism that the character Steve faces even while innocent unless proven guilty.
An innocent black child was put on trial by the American legal system for a felony murder that was not his fault. And steve was being trialed as an adult but Steve was just sixteen so the justice system is also very biased /racist also we can see that the way people talk to him depicts racist behavior like when the prosecutor called Steve a Monster and a number of different times in the book. Another problem is the portrayal of black characters as criminals and thugs since they looked at Steve as guilty even before proven guilty instead of looking at him the fair way which is innocent until proven guilty. And this is very clear in the different dialogue in the book like the one at the top of this paper. …show more content…

the book states “I don't know why we are wasting time. He’s as guilty as when I first laid eyes on him”(Walter Dean Myers 52) we can see that the jury in the story is extremely racist and he has no chance of winning his case, my point is backed up by the statement made by a black jury who stated “Dont tell nobody I said this but a young black kid on trial… don't stand a chance.”(Walter Dean Myers 52) a black jury stating such a statement is really showing how racist the justice system is an unfair and steve is a 16-year-old going up against a 23-year-old adult James King which is another flaw in the justice system

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