Racial Boundaries Webquest

Despite the advancements our country has witnessed in racial equality, there is still not the equality that there should be in the present world. Minorities, blacks in particular, are discriminated against. Racism is so existent in today’s society that affirmative action has to get minorities more opportunities in both the workplace and in education. Our society has developed too much since the 60’s for us to have to worry about equality in today’s time.

I read Native Son by Richard Wright. The story discusses the hardships a black man faces in the south and describes how Bigger (the main character) faces them. Bigger gets a job with a white family (Dalton’s) and they treat him very nicely, almost too nicely compared to the way Bigger has been treated in the past by white people. Bigger goes out with Mary Dalton and her boyfriend Jan, who are communists and support blacks. Bigger gets too close to Miss Dalton and ends up having a “fling” with Mary. Mary’s blind mother walks in on them and Bigger to save his job, suffocates Mary to death. He then burns the body and tries to cover everything up. In the end though, Bigger got way to greedy and tried to use his girlfriend (Bessie) in to getting ransom from the Dalton’s who think their daughter had merely been kidnapped. Bigger then kills his girlfriend when she refuses to get ransom money. Bigger is ultimately charged with his crimes and the community is outraged and calls for his head. In the end, Bigger was sentenced to death and killed.

My delicious page has links to stories about the racism in today’s society. Just like in Native Son, there are boundaries between different races, boundaries that cause animosity between separate races.

There have been many instances recently where race has been deemed an issue between a white cop and African American. Read this article and think about if this was a racial problem or if it was just bad luck and had nothing to do with race. A very similar story occurred around New Years when a black teen was shot after being pulled over for a false allegation of grand theft auto. Again, decide if this happened do to continued racism in today’s world or if it had nothing to do with race.

The book has some very interesting quotes regarding this issue of racial boundaries and problems minorities face:
1. "He was black and he had been alone in the room where a white girl had been killed: therefore he had killed her. That was what everyone would say, anyhow, no matter what he said."
2. "They regarded him as a figment of that black world which they feared and were anxious to keep under control."
3. “Though he had killed a black girl and a white girl, he knew that it would be for the death of the white girl that he would be punished.”
4. “Anger quickened in him: an old feeling that Bessie had often described to him when she had come from long hours of hot toil in the white folks’ kitchens, a feeling of being forever commanded by others so much that thinking and feeling for one’s self was impossible.”

Explore the links I have on my delicious site and read the blog posts by fellow classmates and outsiders. Also there is a database article on racial issues. To view a podcast on itunes search for racism and go to the podcast section. Once there, view the podcasts on Black Talk Radio Network I BlogTalkRadio Feed.

After reading all these articles you should have a pretty good idea on some of the problems that still exist in today’s society that also existed when the book was written. The final assignment is you should make a PowerPoint or some sort of other media presentation outlining other instances in today’s society how racism is still a problem and compare these cases to other instances back in the 1940s, when Native Son was written.