Roll Of Thunder Hear My Cry Research Paper

Words: 1093
Pages: 5

Racism Towards Blacks Racism is the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. It is used to make a specific person or race feel better about themselves. The book Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor, shows some of the many ways racism affects African Americans decades after the Civil War. A few impacted ways of life are the way violence is dealt with, how much respect the victims receive, and how people make money. The Wallaces kill a black man and they are not punished. The blacks in the community want justice, so they are refusing to shop at their store. Mr. Jamison says to Papa:
“’But even more important than all that, you're pointing a finger right at the Wallaces with this boycott business.
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Many blacks make money by sharecropping on rented land such as Mr. Avery does. The Averys stop shopping at the Wallaces store so, Mr. Granger decides to raise his price. Mr. Avery says, “’Mr. Granger making it hard on us, David. Said we gonna have to give him sixty percent of the cotton, ‘stead of fifty . . . now that the cotton’s planted and it’s too late to plant more. . . . Don’t s’pose though that it makes much difference. The way cotton sells these days, seems the more we plant, the less money we gets anyways—“’ (203). The white men who own the land charge whatever they want and change their charge whenever they want. The shift or raise in price can lead a family to starvation or cause them to lose their home. There is no warning given to the Averys and it is too late to plant more cotton so they are hoping that they can get through the coming year on their smaller income. Not many job opportunities are open to blacks so many became cotton farmers which lowers the price of cotton and with taxes, it makes being wealthy an impossibility for blacks down in the