Ethnic Minorities Essay Example for Free

Ethnic Minorities Essay We have no choice over what color were born what we do have is some choice over what we make of our lives once were here. This shows us that she feels the same way as Cassie does in that she thinks that blacks are treated unfairly, but she thinks that we just have to get on with it. From this and throughout the whole book we can see that Mama is a very caring woman, but she does believe that people should take things as they come and get on with their lives, even if it means having to live with the violence and hatred towards the blacks from the whites. The second incident that I am going to write about is in chapter eight where Mama is fired from her job as a teacher. In this episode, Mama is giving a lesson about slavery when Mr Wallace and Mr Granger walk in and say that they, Been hearing bout your teaching, Mary, so as members of the board we thought wed come by and learn something. When they walk in Mama is teaching a lesson in history. The unlucky thing is that she is teaching the history of slavery. She speaks about how cruel slavery is and how the country profited from the slaves who were paid nothing and still not free. Then Mr Granger sees the books that Mama has pasted over and acknowledges that all the things Mama is teaching are not in the books. Mama says that she cannot teach what is in that book because, All that is in that book is not true. After this remark, Mr Granger tells her that she would be better off not teaching if she cannot teach what is in the book. This storyline probably originates from Mildred Taylor herself because as mentioned earlier, she says she used to hate the history of blacks at school because she felt that it was all completely false. I dont think that Mr Granger and Kaleb Wallace would have been so willing to lose a good teacher such as Mary Logan because of her views if she hadnt been black. It shows what the whites thought of the blacks having their own view on things. It also confirms the suspicion that the Whites always thought that they were right and that was the end of it. Because Mama loses her job, it puts an even bigger stress on the Logan family because they have an even smaller income. Papas reaction to the news of Mamas unemployment is, Well get by Plant some more cotton maybe. But well get by. From this I think it means that he was worried but didnt want Mama to feel bad because he also believed in what she had been teaching. During this episode, even Mamas boss Mr Wellever doesnt stick up for her, because he is too petrified to stand up for what he believes. This shows how much power the whites had over the blacks and also that the blacks rights to stand up for themselves and be able to say what they wanted to were completely dismissed because they knew what the consequences would be if they didnt do as the whites told them too. Teaching in the 1930s was very different to teaching now especially in the southern states of America. It used to be illegal for blacks to go to school and there were many illegal black schools taking place in peoples houses. Two other options were to have home schooling, which was quite hard if your parents were not very intelligent or to have education at your local church. In 1866 it became legal in the northern states for blacks to go to school with whites but in the southern states such as Mississippi, where Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, is set there were separate schools for blacks and whites. The black schools were over-crowded and poorly equipped compared to the white school. We see this in the book when the black children at Great Faith are handed down books that were in some cases eleven years old and were given to the white children first. The slave trade was authoritatively abolished in 1807, but the Southern states of America continued to trade the slaves illegally. Effects were so bad that stud farms were set up where the most clever/strong humans were used to produce the model slave. In 1861-85, the American Civil War took place where the Northern States of American battled against the Southern states. The North won and finally put an end to the slavery trade in the Southern states. At this time large numbers of blacks left the South and headed for the North knowing that there was not as much poverty and chaos there. Even so, many blacks were left behind. As we see in Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, slavery was a very big issue. There was a short phase where the blacks and whites tried to make peace with each other but it didnt work and soon the Northern states allowed the south to begin slavery once again. The North didnt help the newly freed slaves to protect their rights and let them have their freedom once again. Before I first began to read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry I had no idea how much I would learn about racism. To me that word just meant when people made cruel jokes about blacks, but I didnt realise just how badly the blacks were treated at the beginning of last century and before that. I think that the book is very interesting to read when you have never thought about racism properly before and also very interesting when you already know about these subjects. I think that the incidents I have described definitely describe the persecution of the blacks. After reading Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, I am undeniably thankful that these sorts of acts do not still go on today and I hope that they never will. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Mildred Taylor section.