Race and the American Novel Project: Part 2 of 4

Contemporary Connections:

I chose to use the Ferguson, Missouri riots after the shooting of Michael Brown as an example of racial issues that exist in America in 2015 (even though it was in 2014, it's pretty relevant). 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30190224

In connection to Beloved, I see the history of slavery/racism between white Americans and African-Americans impacting the reactions of events like the shooting of an African-American by a white police officer. But in this case, and similar cases, African-Americans fight back. Whereas, in the time of Beloved, African-Americans couldn't or didn't choose to fight back. 

Currently in 2015, racism still exists. And it's too excessive nowadays. Everyone is blaming actions of others on race. Like the Ferguson shooting, no one can tell the story of what really happened, and one isn't going to believe the other because of the race issue. Nobody really takes the time to think that the police officer did what he had to do because it's part of his job. It's not racist, it's the fact that someone was hostile and the instinct was to shoot. I'm in no way defending the killing of someone, nor am I saying the kid deserved to die. It could've ended differently on both sides of the argument. Racism is taken to the extremes nowadays, whereas in the times of Beloved, racism was...not accepted but it was normal. People were used to it. The people in 2015 should be used to it as well. But the race-card is played too many times.