Racism and Discrimination - Essay Example

The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963

The text is built on racism and discrimination, developing concrete scenes and instances where the themes are well projected through a growing character on a family trip. The social approach of the article is based on the fear created among the blacks and whites in the era before the reconstruction dawn, where things had been made amicable (Williams, p.22). The Blacks had lived in the pain of slavery and deprived their rights by the whites that show an emergence of the Black activists like Martin Jr. as common figures to demand Blacks equality. The blacks' pain and grief are mirrored through the eyes of the young family setting up a journey to Birmingham, where they are depicted to possess notions and fears linked to what they are to find. The Curtis develops his works showing the family preparing a meal as a takeaway meal to overcome the urge to grab anything along the way in fear of encountering the Black people's responses.

Racism is drawn through the family worries where they claim to meet people who are hostile and violent as a perspective of the people on the southerners (Williams, p.22). The brutality of the Black people can be felt in the eyes of the narrator through the terror in what meeting a Black man would end up like this drawing the urge for vengeance and the theme of racial discrimination. Social life is marked by cases of having social gatherings and freely meeting people despite knowing each other and being free to talk and associate with new faces, but in this age, the works of Curtis give a new approach. He introduces a new phase of anti-social society that is divided by race and pain through color, which holds them from having joyous meetings as the whites are viewed as the oppressors by the blacks.

Diversity should be celebrated and embraced in the modern setting appreciating what we have in common and majorly praising what we have indifference. To the Birmingham residents, Curtis gives a new approach to how they perceive diversity levels. Before the family departs, they are aware that racial division and tension between the black and white people exist in their destination area, thus instilling the greatest fear in the trip (McNair, p.210). Diversity would bring home-sharing common opinions and ideas, but there cannot be the same voice spoken to a warring race. The division on the Southerners against whites is depicted rather than embracing the diversity for the good of all.

The division among the people in terms of racism is so profoundly evident that the public facilities were to be used independently by the people of the same color. The Blacks did not share the toilets, hotels, and even bathrooms, and the Whites and the Black people facilities were always poor than the conditions the white people received (McNair, p.210). The level of racial discrimination attached to the people is deep that the only change was through civil rights where the people received almost equal rights with the blacks having a chance to cast their votes and be engaged in the public opinion. The civil amendments brought change on the Black people allowing them even to acquire better jobs, housing, and people allowed to vie for public votes to govern them under the civil laws.

The point of view has major impacts on the recounting of the traumatic events, as Curtis's works table several terrifying events and scenes that are aligned with his major theme. Curtis upholds so much worth in the white man's facilities by bringing up a dialogue between Kenny and Byron to highlight an immoral and traumatic event resulting from Byron's viewpoint. Byron tells Kenny that things are never going to be fair and draws a case of two grown-up men who are consumed by so much hatred for the Negroes that they would kill some kids to stop them from going to school (McNair, p.210). The worst of all he denotes is that the cops who are locally assumed to take guard and charge of the authorities would realize such a case and do nothing about it. Death is perceived as a traumatic event, but in the case of racism and discrimination, the weight is lowered as more value is directed to school as a facility that a white man cannot share with the Black people. Justice that is in the modern entirely a right for every citizen is administered through the police force, but at the era of the Curtis works, the police judge a Negroes death as a moral, upright case, or rather disregarded as a demeanor. The viewpoint presents its strict approach that the authorities were out to uphold only the rights of a white man but never to guarantee any for a Black life (McNair, p.211)

The novel is built on historical events and realistic themes that use the racial discrimination approach to achieve its approach. The family in Curtis picture used effectively to bring out the face of reality reflects the family's dad. The latter is not only a partial preparation for the Birmingham trip but also more to get ready for. He is seen practicing to gain the Black's accent as a way of survival in the land that could be predicted to be brutal for anyone unqualified to be freely walking in the land ((McConahay, 29). Curtis further gives an image of why one would have the urge to prepare with the accent as he points out the facilities at their trip destiny where things could be predicted through the dad to be troublesome to attain without the accent of the area residents. A change of the accent would prove one is a stranger, and maybe none would show any interest to guarantee any services in the South as that is their way of identity and the pride of their origin.

Curtis shows a wealthy implementation of stylistic elements to capture the readers' attention and make his ideas easier to understand. The creativity in his work creates a workflow and an order which is depicted through his book format, where he makes his points and approach evident from the beginning. His story is developed through the family traveling to Birmingham, the perfect instrument that has been developed through its various components: the sons to bring up the theme of racism in his work. He further depicts his wit in the dialect and language as he edits his work from formal English and adapts the Black man culture language accepted by the southerners (McConahay, p.29). Curtis also uses humor to glue the reader to his workflow and transition in various incidences like the presentation he gives between Byron and Kenny. Byron warns Kenny that if they caught him in the open, they hang him and eat him later (Barker, p.123). The use of humor gives us and gives u hands up that there was an existing threat in the 1960s era between African Americans, which was nothing close to a bluff but the pure reality.

The themes that best build the works of Curtis are depicted as prejudice and racial discrimination aimed at drawing the true relationship between the Whites and the Blacks in the South. The different approaches presented on racism and the levels to which it consumed the people are the perfect tools that Curtis has used to develop his storyline to the very end. The image of the white men and women, the black people, and their color is the real reflection of diversity in Curtis' works and how volatile their relationship has turned to be in the face of social relationships. The chance to read through this work is a perfect opportunity to stream ideas on the diversity in life and the general requirements for survival when different challenges are thrown to you. The work also lets you weigh your ideas and responses in different scenarios through the writer's eyes, determining his plan, and how much it is in line with personal perspectives. Curtis puts the reader in an ethical beam to weigh how good the ideas traumatic events and ideas are and how better the participants would have responded to them.