Race-Discrimination and Prejudice

Secret Life Of Bees: Race-Discrimination and Prejudice

        In this blog, Usman, Hanis and I were involved in a new assignment. Today we will be talking about the race-discrimination and prejudice in the Secret Life of Bees. Prejudice and discrimination have been prevalent throughout human history. Prejudice has to do with the inflexible and irrational attitudes and opinions held by members of one group about another, while discrimination refers to behaviours directed against another group. In this blog we'll be talking about the evidences and situations based on this race-discrimination and prejudice placed in this novel. 

        One of the first situations is when Rosaleen was passing by bystanders and one of the three bystanders was obliged to say something rude to Rosaleen. The evidence can be seen in chapter 1 where one of them said "where’d you get that fan nigger”. This shows that bystanders we’re using foul language and it was inappropriate to say such a thing. The sentence also shows that the bystanders were implying that Rosaleen stole the fan just because she was black. 

        The next example was when the dealer was being rude and abusive to Rosaleen when she was at the police station. The evidence can be shown in chapter 2 where "The dealer lifted the flashlight over his head, then down, smashing it into Rosaleen’s forehead. She dropped to her knees." This shows how the people in the south treat the african americans. Other than that, they were violent and abused Rosaleen and expected her to apologize to them. Eventhough the police were there, they didnt even bother to help her when she was beaten down. In conclusion it shows that how much power a white person can have over a black person and can just get away with anything. 

        The next evidence was, "Over on the white side of the hospital I found a pay phone next to a waiting area. I got the hospital number from information and dialed it up asking for nurses’ station in the colored". At that time in South Carolina, they were still using the Jim Crow law where even hospitals are divided into two sections which are the whites and the coloured. Jim Crow law is where the whites and coloured rights are divided- to make sure that the whites are more privileged than the coloured. The evidence shows that even at the hospitals the patients were divided into different sections where the whites were seperated from the coloured. 

        More over, another evidence can be shown when Lily said “I’ve just never heard of a negro lawyer, that’s all. You’ve got to hear of these things before you can imagine them”. All Zach’s wants is to be a lawyer, but he gets all this hate about how they’ve never heard of a african american lawyer. It also shows how the whites thing that african americans aren’t suited to become a lawyer and Zach for example is more suited to playing american football. The colour of the skin doesn’t determine our profession and ambition of what we want to be when we grow up. These people like Zach should have the rights to chase their ambition and their dreams whether it’s impossible or not. 

        A conversation between Lily and Rosaleen when Rosaleen said “Lily, child, there ain’t gonna be any place that will take a colored woman. I don’t care if she’s the Virgin Mary, nobody’s letting her stay if she’s colored”. We can tell that at this point of time at South Carolina was a truly horrific and troubling time for the coloured people such as Rosaleen. The whites had this mentality where the coloured were totally different from them just because of their skin colour and they didn’t even bother to know the type of people they are. The people who were working at the hotel had the same mentality and Rosaleen knew that she won’t be able to stay at the hotel.

        Lastly, there was a line where the shopkeeper said “I know what you mean. A lot of folks won’t buy it cause it’s got the Virgin Mary pictured as a coloured woman, but see, that’s because the woman who makes the honey is coloured herself ". This implies how the shopkeeper is saying that nobody would buy the honey just because it is from a black person. The whites don’t even trust to buy the honey just because it was made from a coloured person. 

         That's all from my blog for today. I hope you all will enjoy reading it and see the examples and evidences from today's topic and understand about it in more depth. Thank you.