Godinez 1

R.J. Godinez
Prof. Jackie
English 101
December 9, 2015
Everyones A Little Bit Racist
Blondes are dumb. Gingers have no souls. You can find any Armenian at the Americana.
Every Hispanic person is considered Mexican or has crossed the border illegally. Asians cant
drive. Women dont get jobs. All Muslims are radical extremists. Jewish people are good with
money. White girls love Starbucks. Being gay is wrong in the eyes of God and everyone. All
black people get arrested. These are all stereotypes that exist in todays society. Even though we
live in a world where everyone tries to be politically correct, everyones a little bit racist and
everyone makes judgements or prejudice about a person based on the way they look. The book
Angry Black White Boy by Adam Mansbach is an extraordinary whirlwind of the positive and
negative reflections on racism and stereotypes.
Racial stereotypes in the novel start near the beginning, when the main character, Macon
begins driving a taxi. He robs some guy of his wallets and neckties. The people he robbed
believe that Macon is, in fact, black because of the way he sounded and because of their slimy
prejudice of making their taxi driver out to be black due to the robbery. For a while, this fools
New York citizens because they are looking for the robbera black taxi driver. But, Macon is
white, for a while he gets away with it. I think the purpose of this stereotypethat a black person
would commit robberyis to show the strange implications that something like this would only
happen when a black person is involved. This stereotype is an excellent example of racism and
just goes to show how quick to judge people can be about the way a persons actions can
represent something or someone else. What makes this whole scene funny is that, something like
this isnt exaggerated. People really go to these lengths to make it known that something
happened, even on false prejudice.

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The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee deals a lot with racism and the sensitive
subject of race. Atticus Finch is the model white man in this story; he is a hero and stands up for
a black man against a white familys word. I do my best to love everybody, Atticus not only
say this, but he also does this. He shows everyone compassion and love, that others dont
understand. In a way, Macon is showing the African-American race that he wants to be accepted
by them from acting like them. Macon doesnt love everyone, like Atticus Finch, but Macon does
his best to make a black man feel equal. You never really understand a person until you consider
things from his point of viewuntil you climb into his skin and walk around in it. Both Atticus
and Macon see this with black people and try to understand what its like to be in the other
persons position.
Macon is white, but his persona is looked upon as black. He wears a Malcolm X T-shirt and is
questioned for it. Although, Malcolm X once said that the American Negro never can be blamed
for his racial animosities he is only reacting to 400 years of the conscious racism of the
American whites. Macon was heavily influenced by Malcolm X, and this quote by him is giving
people of color a reason to be mad and a reason to think that performing an action is alright
because of the previous generations that enslaved the blacks and took it upon themselves to
racially isolate them form all other races.
Racial hatred has been seen throughout history in many places. For example, Hitler was
trying to make the perfect race, by slaughtering Jews, gays, blacks. Hitler thought that by having
an Arian race, consisting of only white, blonde people, the world would be a better place. Boy
was he wrong. And although slavery predates America, black slaves were prominent from
generation to generation after people came to the New World. If this was supposed to be the
land of the free and the home of the brave, how come when we started out, blacks werent free,
they were enslaved by the white men of this country.

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These days, children are raised with the notion of not judging a book by its cover. This phrase
can have double meaningthe first of which being the literal. A books cover may not be
something that is particularly pleasing to the eyes and the title might not make sense at first, but
when you actually read the book and get to know the characters and the story, it makes a
difference, and soon, you start to see the cover differently, and begin to appreciate the beauty of
the cover because of whats on the inside. The same thing goes for the psychological reasoning
how to not judge a person by his or her name or by the way that he or she looks. Getting to know
the person and their story and how they feel about certain things is important because everyone
has a voice and everyones opinion matters. And who knows, maybe by getting to know a
person, even if theyre butt ugly, youll start to see them in a different light. Some features that
you may not have seen before will suddenly bring out the beauty in a person because of their
feelings.
Macon is admirable because he doesnt care about what his race has done in the past, he
wants to make a future, where blacks and whites are united and act the same and are viewed as
equals. Macon has a certain empathy for the black race and he makes it known that he recesses
his own race to join the blacks in the long haul. Stereotypes and prejudice are not friendly and
are not only looked upon in a bad light, but straight up make a person look bad for doing. If
everyone had enough courage as Macon or Atticus Finch or Malcolm X, the world would be a
better place. Accepting people for who they are and not only embracing their journey but living it
with them. Why, thats one of the greatest gifts that God could give someonethe gift of trust
and friendship.

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Works Cited
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Warner, 1982. Print.
Mansbach, Adam. Angry Black White Boy, Or, The Miscegenation of Macon Detornay: A Novel.
New York: Three Rivers, 2004. Print.