Examples Of Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

Children Will Not See the World as Black and White, But Adults Do
In the 1930s, in which the Harper Lee’s iconic To Kill a Mockingbird is set, de jure and de facto segregation was common across America, especially in the deep south of Alabama. Black Americans were constantly told that they were inferior to white people and deserved to be treated as so. The majority of America’s white population found nothing erroneous with their derogatory actions and environment of mistreatment that they helped curate. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the atmosphere of segregation and discrimination affects Scout and the other children through their interactions with Dolphus Raymond, Tom Robinson and his trial, and the Ewells. The way that the white population of
Maycomb outcasts Dolphus Raymond because of his wife’s skin color highlights the common mindset of citizens that black Americans deserve to be treated with less respect. Although he comes an old,rich white family, Dolphus Raymond is completely cut off by the majority of Maycomb’s white popula because he decided to marry a black woman, an act that, in their minds, deserves punishment by exclusion.Scout and Dill expect him to care that he has been cut off, and he does care, just not in the way that they had expected. He is proud of the life he has chosen and finds nothing wrong with it, but when he comes into town when white people can see him, he does something to appease their fears that someone could truly want to marry a black person. He pretends that he drinks heavily, so “folks can say Dolphus Raymond's in the clutches of whiskey—that's why he won't change his ways. He can't help himself, that's why he lives the way he does (Chapter 20 268)." The fact that Dolphus Raymond feels that he has to lie changes the way that Scout and Dill view Maycomb; they begin to see that the treatment of people of color is much different from that of white people. These white people treat Dolphus Raymond with the same disrespect that they do the rest of the black people in the town, and they readily accept that he must have been “sorta drunk (Chapter 16 215)” to have chosen to marry his black mistress. Although they do not mistreat Dolphus Raymond, they deliberately eschew him and make no effort to understand him. The way that the town views Dolphus Raymond uncovers a new side of Maycomb to the children; it shows them that the people of Maycomb do not accept people who are different from them and have no problem outcasting those who associate themselves with people who look unlike them. The response of Dolphus Raymond to Dill’s distress over the discriminatory behavior in the the court case opens that children’s minds to the idea that adults do not see the world the same way that children, that adults tend to draw lines to separate themselves. He tells them that when they grow up and become adults that they will no longer “cry about the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they’re people, too (Chapter 20 269).” He gives them the idea that everyone does not always think about why things are so unfair when they do not affect them; he makes them realize that the first step in creating equality is remembering that everyone is a person. Dolphus Raymond changes the way that the children view their home, and he highlights the ways in which people do not question tradition.
Tom Robinson is more than just the black man the Ewells used as a scapegoat for their household problems; he is a test for the town of Maycomb that shows Scout that her neighbors are not as fair as she had hoped.
Scout and the other children’s interactions with Tom Robinson teach them no issue is black and white; except in the case of a black man versus a white man, in which the white man will always win. Tom Robinson says something that is seen as inherently wrong when he being cross-examined. He says that he helped Mayella because he “felt right sorry for her (Chapter 19 264).” This shocks Maycomb’s white populous because the idea of a black person feeling sorry for a white person is completely unknown to them. They cannot understand how a black person, who is intrinsically “less than” in their eyes, could ever show pity for someone who is white (and therefore better.) Scout sees the way that the white viewers erupt when they hear that a black man felt sorry for a white women. Even though the Ewells are at the bottom of the Maycomb social pyramid, they are still seen as better than an honest, kind black man. Scout and the other children realize that no matter what in the majority of the white people in Maycomb will never be able to see black people as anything but less than them. When Scout, Jem, and Dill cannot find a seat in the white ground floor, they sit in the colored balcony with people who they met through their visit to Calpurnia’s church. Even though they are
children who arrived late, people sitting in the front row leave their seats for them. They, white children, are prioritized over the black people who arrived early enough to earn front row seats. Simple acts of traditional respect for children because they are white go unrecognized by the children because they have always been treated this way. However, the white citizens of Maycomb do not ignore that the children sat in the colored balcony. They all assume that the children sitting in the balcony was meant to make a dramatic statement because there is no other way that they would choose to sit in the colored balcony. The idea that “separate but equal” facilities must only remain separate if a person of color attempts to use white facilities, but not when a white person uses colored facilities highlights the de facto segregation that plagues Maycomb to the children. When the children learn that the jury found Tom Robinson guilty despite having nothing but circumstantial evidence, they are shocked and disgusted. Atticus, however, is not surprised because he understands that some people are unable to be fair in trial and unable to put aside the preconceived prejudices, so he is able to console the children in their distress and sorrow. Jem is particularly shocked by the jury’s decision because he had trusted the people of Maycomb to by just and fair, but they failed him. Atticus is forced to tell the children that “when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins (Chapter 23 295).” This new information makes them see Maycomb differently, and they can no longer view their neighbors as the equitable and unbiased because they know that they are not. The trial of Tom Robinson opens that children’s eyes to stereotypical assumptions that lie in the minds of Maycomb’s white popula.
The Ewells are the “disgrace of Maycomb”, and consequently are treated as the town’s trash; they live by the dump and near Maycomb’s black community even though they are white, and all of the children -there are too many to count- do not bathe or attend school for more than one day a year. People only visit the Ewells when it is obligatory and absolutely necessary. Church groups make yearly visits and they receive money from the state -all of which goes to her father’s bar tab- because they feel sorry for them, but no one bothers to do more than that. They are the loneliest people in Maycomb; no one wants anything to do with them. It is the worst for Mayella because she tries her hardest to make due with what she has, but she is truly alone; “white people wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she was white (Chapter 19 256).” The fact that she is outcasted throws Mayella into an enamourment with Tom Robinson, the first person to speak to her as a person, and she mistakes this friendliness for love. When Tom Robinson does not reciprocate her endearment and she is caught throwing herself at a black man by her father, she decides to get rid of the evidence of her love; that evidence is a person, Tom Robinson. She is not only embarrassed that Tom Robinson did not requite her actions of affection, but she is also ashamed that she had these feelings. It is not right for a white woman to tempt a black man. Consequently, she must pretend like it never happened, and because she is a white woman -even if she is part of the lowest social sanctum of Maycomb- everyone believes her. The Ewells lie and say that Tom Robinson forced himself onto Mayella, even though Mayella was the one who loved him, and that Tom Robinson gave Mayella the bruises her father gave her as a punishment. The Ewells refuse to let a black man, who he believes that his family is better than, destroy their “pride” and credibility, so he lies and forced his daughter to do the same. The jury decision and their belief of the Ewells solely because they are white reveals to Scout, Jem, and Dill how simply racist their town is, how hard it is for some people to not believe that people can be inherently good or evil based upon the color of their skin. Atticus is a dedicated believer in equality, but even he has determined that the Ewells are trash; both because of their unwillingness to work for positive change and because of their abusal of their white privilege. Atticus rarely uses derogatory names toward anyone, so when his children, Jem and Scout, hear him refer to the Ewells as trash they automatically know that there is not a single doubt in his mind about the family’s inherent immorality. Their reluctance to try to create better lives for their family makes the Ewells outcasts to the town, and the children see how this loneliness can fuel discriminatory hatred.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, the atmosphere of segregation and discrimination affects Scout and the other children through their interactions with Dolphus Raymond, Tom Robinson and his trial, and the Ewells.
The atmospheres in which children grow up shape who they will become in adulthood. A culture of systemic racism and oppression does not begin with a single person but with an environment that regards mistreatment as traditional and okay. Racist tendencies are not something that people are born with; they are taught behaviors. Some people manage to break the cycle of oppressing and discriminating, but if the environment in which racism is taught never existed than with it racism would cease to exist. Children’s minds are malleable and shaped by the world around them; the best way to raise children who are strong enough to stand up to injustice is to raise them in an environment in which injustice is seen as wrong and equality is prioritized. The atmosphere of discrimination and segregation that the child in To Kill a Mockingbird are raised in affects them, just as any child’s environment
would.