Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is not only an American classic but also a book filled with lessons that people in today’s generation may not understand. The book takes place in 1930’s Alabama in a small town and is set around the life of a young girl who watches her dad, Atticus Finch, a lawyer, take on the whole town in a brutal fight for justice of a black man. One of the main themes in this book is racism as the majority of the town is white and the reader can even notice that when the man is brought to trial he goes before an all-white jury. That there is a perfect example of racial biases and when one does research on the topic of racial biases the results are quite intriguing. The general idea of racism is thought by many to be a ploy to allow the elite to dominate the social arena and maintain their status as elites. However, after looking into it more using the article Racism Revised by Paul Frymer it can be seen that racism is much more psychological than social. People, for whatever reason, are racist because they are scared and are too cynical to believe that others that are not just like them are safe to be around, live with, go to school with etc. Therefore, they create a false sense of fear to prove to themselves that what they think is real even though there is no evidence to support it. Racism can be implemented in the mind by others, however, it is also a natural tendency in some people out of fear of the unknown. To Kill a Mockingbird depicts this precisely, however, at the same time it also shows, through the protagonist Atticus Finch, that humanity can overwhelm the natural tendency to be racist and people can still look at others as another human being and not different based on their race.

Racism Revised describes racism on its most foundational level which helps to identify why racism plays such a major role in To Kill a Mockingbird. One of the main parts of the plot is when the court session is in hearing and the whole jury is white while the victim is black. It seems there is no way for him to have a fair shot at any justice because of this. The court system in this town at that time did not have any regard for the justice of black folks because as a whole the town was in fact racist. The reason for this is that combined with the way these folks in this small mainly white populated town were raised, they also have natural tendencies to be racist and cannot help it. Even though some may know that it is wrong they cannot help but feel that they are more comfortable with others of like skin tone than those of color because it turns out that racism is actually psychological and to a certain extent not a choice (Frymer 3). For that reason, this small town stacked the odds against the black man who was accused of committing the crime. Despite the fact that he was actually innocent, it was easier for them to accept that a black man had committed the crime rather than a white man because they were simply more comfortable with white people like themselves as a whole. 

The people in this town are looked at as racist and rightfully so, however, what is interesting is that in that town at that specific time in history if one was to be asked if they were racist they would most likely say they had no idea. They might admit that they don’t like people of a different race as much as their own but they most likely would not even regard that as bad. There is a difference in whether or not something is morally wrong and whether or not that’s just the way things are. Meaning, the people in this small town in Alabama may have been racist and known that but that’s all they knew so they didn’t necessarily see it as being wrong or immoral, that’s just how things were. What may have changed their opinion on that however is when others, such as Atticus in the story, use their natural sense of humanity to combat their natural sense of racism and realize that how they viewed others of opposite skin color was wrong. Today many look at those who still express racism as being ridiculous and even criminal; however they do not realize that it is something that is in them. They need help from those who are humane enough to realize it is wrong to guide them away from those terrible ways

Racism knows no boundaries and no matter where in the world it will occur. In some areas more than other perhaps but non-the-less it cannot be extinguished. For example, during the time period that To Kill a Mockingbird takes place there was a movement starting in Europe. The Nazi party was gaining momentum and soon after would conduct one of the largest genocides the world has ever seen. During the 1930’s however the Nazi party actually reached out to affluent members of the South in America because they had similar mind sets (The Nazis and the American South pg.3). The Nazi’s wanted a world where everyone was of the Aryan race and Christian faith and wanted no outliers. Similarly, white affluent men in the south wanted to make where they lived nearly a mirror image to what the Nazi’s wanted except their main concern was black people. The article The Nazi’s and the American South is quoted saying “Every Gallup poll during the 1930’s and 40’s showed overwhelming southern support for segregation and white primaries clearly reflected white opposition to genuine political democracy since it ‘would have meant majority black electorates in many counties and sizeable black minorities in many more counties’” (The Nazis and the American South pg. 2). For some it may be hard to believe that the Nazi’s ideas were essentially the same that many citizens of America had at one point in time and that some even have today but it is true. Those who choose not to believe that it is in fact true are the very people who suffer from a lack of humanity to be able to shun their natural tendency to be racist towards those who are different than them.

The culture in the American south during the time that Harper Lee wrote her famous story was one that many today may look at as being made up or not totally true at least but unfortunately that is how it was. The key thing to remember are that the people during that time were not aware that what they were doing was wrong and their inclination to be racist was a natural tendency that was fueled by the fact that others were different than them. To prove that this is a natural human inclination the fact that the same thing was taking place thousands of miles away in Nazi Germany goes to show that it does not matter where because racism is everywhere. However, in the sea of hate fueled racism there are those like Atticus Finch who stand up against the masses because they realize that it is wrong and unjust and that is the battle that will forever rage in our civilization. It is a battle between those who may have been born racist but are cultured and humanized enough to realize it is wrong and those who are unable to change. 
