According to Rob Wile, a reporter for Business Insider, said, “35% of black adolescents between ages 10-12 have thought about death, whether their own or death in general.” This statistic relates to the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee because in this book, institutional racism leads to Tom’s death. To add on, the statistic shows how kids today are still being affected by unfairness. To clarify, institutional racism is when policies, companies, government officials, or other organizations produce outcomes that gives a racial group a disadvantage or favors another race further. Additionally, they have a system in place. Hence, this can happen with the group knowing or not. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the other type of racism shown is…show more content… Also, both of these types of racism are very harmful, but one more than the other. While it may be true that individual racism is beyond harmful for the reason that it can put others at risk, the real point to consider is that institutional racism is more harmful considering it can have an enormous negative impact on a person.
Some disagree with institutional racism being more hurtful and instead claim that individual racism put others at risk. When the trial ended, the jury found Tom convicted. The next morning when Jem, Scout, and Dill went outside, the neighbors were looking at them like they did something mischievous. After, they went to Miss Maudie’s house to eat cake and went back outside. The neighbors were still talking outside when Miss Stephanie mentions to Jem and Scout that this morning “Mr. Bob Ewell stopped Atticus on the post office corner, spat in his face, and told him he’d get him if it took the rest of his life” (Lee 290). This is individual racism for the reason that it is one person, Bob Ewell, spitting on Atticus’s face intentionally that expresses enmity considering that Atticus was defending Tom. This is unsafe since it is putting Atticus at risk for something he believes in. Also, Bob is a type of person who doesn't
