The Role Of Race In Ann Petry's Like A Winding Sheet

From the 1950’s Jim Crow Laws to today's police brutality, race has always played major role in American society. Throughout American history, African Americans have been subjected to tremendous hardships which has shaped the way that we interact with one another, specifically between white and black individuals. This is demonstrated by Ann Petry’s 1945 short story, Like a Winding Sheet. Such as present in Petry’s story, racism has and continues to appear in American culture in the form of institutionalized oppression and is further reinforced in the media and microaggressions.
Since the beginning of the United States, race has been a dividing factor. After the civil war, \the struggles of the African American community were just beginning.
For example, within the story, the “n-word” is utilized by white individuals, which infuriates the black main character of the story. However, this is still a common occurrence in today's media. Similar to the blanket apology given by Mrs.Scott, in which she proclaims “I didn’t mean nothing by it. It slipped out. It was an accident,” many influential white media personnel utilize the “n-word” and provide similar apologetic statements without any action actually occurring, such as in the case of the singer Madonna. In addition to exploiting the speech of the African American community, white individuals are also often the culprit of cultural appropriation. For instance, one of the trends common in the black community is to lay edges, or gel down the edges of your hair that frame your face, however, as it is now a trend, many white individuals are benefiting off of these trends, fueling racial disconnect as black individuals were mocked for the trend that white people have now deemed acceptable and fashionable, thus portraying their white