Racism And Discriminatory Events Throughout History

Mohannad Alkhatib TKM Paper Millions of humans have suffered at the hands of racism and discriminatory events throughout history. The majority of these racial and discriminatory events are the basis of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel references Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, as well as the issues of racism and discrimination in that period of time. To begin, the first topics inspired by real life events in the novel were the Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow was a set of laws that aimed to discriminate against African Americans in every aspect of life. First, white people believed that the laws were necessary because they thought white people were superior to blacks. They felt black people must be placed below whites to satisfy these†¦show more content†¦Furthermore, the picture shown represents how the Jim Crow laws interpreted black people because it shows a dirty man with torn clothes looking exaggerated and thoughtless. This concisely shows that the Jim Crow laws treated black p eople as if they were animals emotionally and physically (V.). Next, the citizens of Maycomb obeyed and enforced the Jim Crow laws. When Tom Robinson stated he felt sorry for Mayella, the white folk in the courthouse reacted with distaste. They were appalled by Tom’s comment, as they believed it implied he felt superior to Mayella (Lee 264). Likewise, Mayella was forced to say Mr. Robinson raped her because it was looked upon with disdain to develop feelings for a black person. This was believed as white people thought blacks were below whites (Lee 272). In addition to this, during Mr. Gilmer’s cross-examination of Tom, he spoke to Tom in a condescending tone. The manner in which he spoke to Tom implied that Mr. Gilmer thought Tom to be no more than an animal (Lee 263). As shown, the book contains a plethora of examples of Jim Crow laws, but it also contains multiple examples of mob mentality. Second, mob-mentality is a vital topic in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mock ingbird. Mob mentality is the way people react and behave when they are in a large group. Some instances of mob mentality in our present day society are large crowds at sporting events, a large quantity of shoppers rushing to make a