The discrimination found in To Kill a Mockingbird that impacts the most is institutional. I believe this because discrimination in Maycomb is built into the laws. There may be cultural discrimination in Maycomb, but there is also a lot of people who are fine with black people but in the courtroom, you can really tell how much racism is ingrained into the courthouse. "The Colored balcony ran along three walls of the courtroom like a second-story veranda, and from it we could see everything." (Lee 186) This shows how much institutional racism is put in place, the blacks aren't allowed to sit with the whites, and to put the icing on the cake, they are above the white people on a balcony so they can't interact with each other, implying that they don't even want to talk or look at them.
Reading this book, I believe the discrimination that impacted this book the most was definitely Cultural discrimination, I feel like the segregation in this time period really impacted how the story turned, I feel that the norms and how society treated black people really impacted the result of trail and how Tom Robinson died. "My folks said your daddy was a disgrace” (Lee) Cecil is saying this about Atticus becaues obiously he is defending a black man in court and at that time, that was almost unheard of. THe stigma and segregation of black people is very serious, and the fact Atticus is defending Tom in court, leads to a lot of people not liking him.
After reading the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird," I've come to the conclusion that cultural discrimination is more prevalent in impacting the story. The people living in Maycomb county agree to the societal norms of segregation. This includes going to different churches, living in different areas of the town, and sitting in different spots in a courtroom. Along with this, the people of Maycomb also have discriminatory views based solely on the race of others. "the evil assumption - that all negroes lie, that all negroes are basically immoral beings, that all negro men are not to be trusted around our women..."(Lee, 232) This quote represents the racial stereotypes in Maycomb county, and how blacks are labeled liars strictly for the color of their skin. This goes back to the murder of Emmet Till, who was talked about in the video. It is was likely a similar scenario to the Tom Robinson case, where he was convicted for the rape or assault of a white women and was punished with no solid evidence, and only off of words.
I believe from what I have seen and read that it was impacted by Cultural discrimination. When Calpurnia was bringing Jem and Scout to Church and Lula had said to Calpurnia "You ain't got no business bringin' white chillun here- they got their church, we got our'n. It is our church, ain't it, Miss Cal." (Lee 136) To me this is Cultural because it was normal to have the churches separated and it wasn't a really big deal because to society it was the norm. This could also be Institutional because t was the law that blacks and whites had to attend separate schools and churches so technically they were just following the law, which would make it institutional discrimination.
I think that in the book To Kill a Mockingbird that Institutional Discrimination is more prevalent. I believe this because the time line that all this takes place in was when this kinda discrimination was happening the most and I think that this is a reason that the author wrote this the most. To support this "Now don't you be so confident, Mr. Jem, I ain't ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man."(Lee 179) This shows that back then as they say that basiccly back in the day there was no hope for black people in court even if they show they are truly innocent. This also shows that black people back then also had life harder because finding a job just off from there color was also gonna be just as hard if possible at all.
cultural discrimination is really popular in how to kill a mocking bird. although cultural discrimination is the most predominant there are still a lot of examples of institutional discrimination but cultural over powers it, it does this with everything everyone does its kinda built into how they live act and engage with others
After reading, I think that Cultural Discrimination is the most common throughout the book. An example of this is the language they use when talking about a snowman. “Jem, I ain’t ever heard of a n****r snowman,” (Lee 75) This type of language is used throughout the book and was common at the time but still had the same meaning as it does now. I think with how common the word is in the book it shows how people who used the word thought of black people. This connects to the videos we watched because those cases like the scottsboro boys and Emmett Till discrimination was also involved.
I feel cultural discrimination was more prevalent in To Kill A Mocking Bird. Like with Tom's court case, even though Atticus had stronger evidence that tom was innocent the court still ruled otherwise. And it is cultural for the reason being that the case was seen to be ruled otherwise due to tome being African American. "In our courts, When it's a white man's word against a black mans, the white man always wins" (Lee 251-252)
During my reading, i have developed an interpretation that there is a high level of cultural discrimination, and not as much institutional discrimination. I can see this because of the societal norms that are perceived, with the blacks living in their own community by the dump, not as much by choice, but more from being not socially accepted in the white part of Maycomb. This is shown in the novel during the scene where Calpurnia brings Scout and Jem to her church, instead of their church. They see a black woman telling Calpurnia that bringing white children to the black church was not okay, although there is no law stating that bringing children to the other church is illegal, they are treating it as though it is illegal.
This is emphasized even more when Tom Robinson, a black man, is brought to court for supposively raping, and beating a white woman. Normally, a case like this would not even be brought to court, because of the social discrimination, everyone will believe the white man's word, without any trial.
Cultural Discrimination is the most frequent discrimination to be found in To Kill A Mockingbird. "Cal, I asked why do you talk ni**er-talk to the--to your folks when you know it's not right. Well in the first place I'm black-- That doesn't mean you hafta talk that way when you know better (Lee 143)." "It's right hard to say," she said. "Suppose you and Scout talked colored-folks' talk at home it'd be out of place, wouldn't it? Now what if I talked white-folks' talk at church, and with my neighbors? They'd think I was puttin' on airs to beat Moses (Lee 143)." I believed this quote showed a lot of Cultural Discrimination because it talks about how Calpurnia has to hide he knowledge he her other voice while at church to avoid any disrespect and use her civilized voice when working for Atticus.
"Lula stopped, but she said, "You ain't got no business bringin' white chillun here—they got their church, we got our'n. It is our church, ain't it, Miss Cal?" (Lee 158)
I think the most prevalent form is cultural discrimination. This quote shows that people are so used to having separate churches for different skin colors that someone can and will easily tell you off for not being at the one you are supposed to and tell you to leave it
It’s not an easy decision, but I would say it’s cultural. There’s a lot of institutional discrimination in the courtroom scene, but I would still call this book culturally racism-heavy. "Scout," said Atticus, "n**-lover is just one of those terms that don't mean anything—like snot-nose. It's hard to explain—ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody's favoring N*es over and above themselves. It's slipped into usage with some people like ourselves when they want a common, ugly term to label somebody." "You aren't really a n*****-lover, then, are you?" "I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody... I'm hard put, sometimes—baby, it's never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn't hurt you." (Lee 109) This quote is Atticus telling scout how the n-word doesn’t mean anything, that it’s just people trying to be nasty. Then he tells her how unlike everyone else he loves everyone no matter what they look like.
I think cultural discrimination is more prevalent throughout the book. "My folks said your daddy was a disgrace an that ------ oughta hang from a water tank." (Lee 87) People are not happy about what Atticus is doing since he defending an African American and now they think he is a disgrace simply because of color. Harper Lees town when she was younger wasn't very accepting of African Americans and they weren't generally welcome so she portrayed that feeling onto Maycomb so you could understand what it was like when she was growing up.
I think that the more dominant type of discrimination in the novel is cultural discrimination. this shown through a large portion of maycomb using slurs towards african americans and the the same portion of people categorizing african americans as a different group separate from themselves and possibly thinking of them as less human. a time in the story where this is seen is when the tom has just been moved to maycomb and he is in a waiting cell outside and some of the men from town have come to finish tom off for themselves even though he is innocent till proven guilty and even then he was still innocent. "'you know what we want,' another man said. 'get aside from the door, mr. finch.'"(lee 172) the men that approached atticus while he was defending tom had come to kill him simply because he was a african american incarcerated man that had been blamed for the attack on mayella. mr.erwell thought that it was fine to blame his crime on the african american man because he was more likely to be charged without a second look.
I think that Cultural discrimination impacted To Kill a Mockingbird. For example "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 198) Bob Ewell only did this because Atticus defend a black man. Even though Mr.Ewell won the trial and got what he wanted he still felt like need to do that. This shows that how racist people were back then. An how easy is was to get away with being racist.
Based off what I've read and seen I believe cultural discrimination impacted the book the most. "He liked Maycomb, he was Maycomb Country born and bred; he knew his people, they knew him, and because of Simon Finch's industry, Atticus was related by blood or marriage to nearly every family in the town" (Lee 5). This quote shows how Atticus was born and raised in Maycomb, he is a well-known guy and he is well liked by most since he was related to everyone in the town. With this quote it also shows how Atticus stood up for his family when racism and discrimination were so impactful and such a big issue, even when tings got brutal he kept his head high and stood up for what was right.
Based on what I've seen, I feel that cultural discrimination had the greatest impact on To Kill a Mockingbird. “...but now he’s turned out a n**-lover we’ll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb again. He’s ruinin’ the family, that’s what he’s doin’.” (Lee, 94). Scout's cousin Francis accuses Atticus of being a n**-lover for protecting Tom Robinson, and now his children, particularly Scout, are experiencing problems with children at her school and within her own family as a result of her father's actions. Her cousin claims that they will never be able to walk the streets again since they are related to Atticus, who is defending an African American man and would be frowned upon. Lee Harper grew up during a period when African Americans were heavily targeted. These attitudes toward African Americans were impacted by culture. Culture influenced how white people treated African Americans, how everyone was racist against black people, and how Black people had to live with this every day on top of the Great Depression.
I believe cultural discrimination is more prevalent in TKM. "She was white, and she tempted a N----. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: She kissed a black man."(Lee 231) In this society having any interaction with a African American was frowned upon. If you did you were ridiculed and treated as if you have done everyone wrong. It is fair to say in this time African Americans were very discriminated.
I think that it would be cultural discrimination. one example is when Mrs. Dubose stopped Jem and Scout and said "'Yes indeed, what has this world come to when a Finch goes against his raising? I'll tell you! she put her hand to her mouth." When she drew it away, it trailed a long silver thread of saliva. "your fathers no better than the n**** and trash he works for"' (Lee,117) this shows how people in the town didn't like Atticus for helping colored people
I believe that in To Kill A Mockingbird Cultural Discrimination was used the most. Atticus was defending a black man who was accused of raping a white woman. This for the culture was a big issue. Defending a black man was very frowned upon back then and it was a huge issue. Everyone looked down on Atticus because he did defend a black man in court because those were his morals. "In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life"(Lee, 251-252) This is a great quote to explain cultural discrimination because it is explaining that in the court system nobody will ever believe a black man just because of their skin color.
