Blog #5

Both Monster and Incognegro are novels that show mistreatment of African Americans and white privilege. In Monster, Steve and other Black characters were automatically labeled "monsters" before the trial even began and I think that made them seem like they were below the White characters right away. In Incognegro, a similar situation occurs. With all the hangings, murders, and threats, the Black characters were also put onto the bottom of society. Power is shown to belong in the hands of White people especially in Incognegro. The uneven and unfair distribution of power led to a lot of bloodshed simply because the Whites thought they were better and therefore deserved to "rule" over everyone else. Monster is showing racism in a more modern time period. Just because someone is of a minority, doesn't mean they should automatically be labeled guilty or a "monster" for instance. The novels show that from the earlier time periods of racism, as shown in Incognegro, to more modern situations shown in Monster, the level of hatred and unfairness may have diminished, but it is still definitely prevalent and hopefully we will be able to see racist actions lower even further in our lifetimes.

Blog #4

I believe that hatred is learned. A child cannot simply be born already hating someone. They would have to learn it from their parents or other people, or their surroundings. As seen in "A Class Divided" the children very quickly learned and imitated their teacher's ideas about how the other eye colored children were better. They immediately turned on their friends, and began fighting with them and putting them down. It was amazing to me how quickly this process happened. As also seen with the experiment with the adults, after being insulted, they also became very defensive and began badgering their colleagues of the opposing eye color. If an experiment such as this can produce these results, imagine what would happen if discrimination were to become more prominent again. I personally wouldn't want to be around to see those results.