Racism
Racism
Racism
Minanyiles Quintero
Professor Batty
English 113A
21 October 2014
Racism Has Never Vanished
The Holocaust was an event during 1933, where Germans and mainly Hitler thought as
themselves as superiors and Jews as inferior. In this time, Hitler was president and he was the
reason for discrimination against the Jews race. Since Hitler and other Germans thought Jews
were a threat to their racial community, they began to send Jews to concentration camps and also
kill them. They had complete power over Jew race because more and more Nazis joined and
overpower them. Around 11 million Jews were killed. The Holocaust is a historical issue. Rawls
and Keith Temple political cartoon have both intended to strive for racism because on group of
people has a different perspective because of their race and beliefs.
Jews experienced a tragedy that no race should pass through. S.C Rawls political cartoon
shows racism against other races except Jews. Which, is ironic by the way he is expressing Jews
will only think of themselves if the Holocaust or another similar event ever happen again. Jews
can be careless of what might happen to others because they did nothing to help them enough
when they were in danger. Rawls illustration is not every detailed. The cartoon is a flat
horizontal that gives us a sense of calm and stability. It shows calm and stability because of the
way the picture is not all over the place. Although, the Jews that are behind an electric fence look
as if they have frown faces because they are all the center of attention. In some sort of way Rawl
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drew them with angry or sad faces to feel pity. Pity because it was a big conflict that happen to
them with Hitler and many died. The faces makes me feel emotional, for the fact that I know the
history behind what happened to them and I would not have liked it if that ever happen to
Hispanics or any other race. He uses two phrases, We must make sure that this never happens
again... and At least not to us to give his overall message. Rawl intensions for his cartoon is
that people hold grudges and it makes them bitter. This connects to the color of his cartoon. His
illustration is black and white because of the emptiness they have and black for the experience
they went through, but also how little and dark they feel inside. They might feel dark because of
Hitler might have killed a family member or close friend. Even though, not everyone believes in
equality we should strive for it so that everyone can support one another.
The Time-Picayune published the political cartoon Just in Case He Goosesteps Too
Much by the cartoonist Keith Temples. His illustration goes more into details than Rawls
because it has a stronger message. It shows Hitler has the man and the weapon as Nazi Theories
because they believe that the Jews should not be alive and are ready to kill them. The weapon is
diagonal, which shows tension and danger. Nazi's were dangerous because they also believed in
Jews as being a threat to them and followed Hitlers orders to kill. However, Hitler represents the
Nazi's in the picture because he is marching the same way Nazi's march. Which explains for the
title Just in Case He Goosesteps Too Much because if Hitler goes beyond of what he does
consecutive leaders are waiting for them to take over of what Hitler was doing. The bottom half
of the picture feels more threatened and heavier than the upper half because the bottom half
shows the knife and the way a huge rock ball is connected to a chain with Hitlers leg. The
illustration is also black and white. Often, black and white backgrounds feel safer but in this
cartoon is the total opposite. These two colors show the way they are. In other orders, the way
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Hitler is heartless and only cares to satisfy him. Furthermore, this cartoon has a sense that it is
showing racism against Jews because of the way Hitler is holding the Nazi's sign and his
intensions against that race. The Big woman is the center of attention because she is larger than
Hitler and any other thing on the picture because she represents Germany. It seems as if the big
woman and Hitler were both husband and wife. The background shows a window of a house and
they are both in the front yard. Temples designed the big woman, which is representing Germany,
as a fancy homemaker mother because they let only one man control them. Someone so little like
Hitler can have complete power over everyone else in a huge country like Germany. Consecutive
leaders in the German political and industrial communities wanted to overpower Hitler.
In Black Men and Public Spaces, Brent Staples, talks about the way people assume all
black race are the same. In other words, people who are not black tend assume that they are
criminals or muggers. Staples gives examples of several events in his life where he got accused
of something several times just because he was black. The first event he talked about was when
he was walking in the dark and in front of him was a white woman. The lady assumed that he
was a criminal, mugger or rapist; she began to run away from him. Another event, was when he
was a journalist working on a story, in Chicago, around 1970s and late 1980s (Staples 185). His
story had a deadline, so he rushed into the magazine office and next thing you know he was
getting arrested because he was mistaken by a burglar (Staples 185). Staples writes about these
personal events because it is showing how people often misjudge others by the way that they
look. This happens because people everywhere judge one person for their actions and then think
that specific race all others ones that belong to that race are the same. This connects with Rawls
cartoon because of the way people view others. We usually tend to judge others before even
knowing them or their story. By this, I mean by knowing who they are and where do they come
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from. The way someone is judge is by their appearance and not of their personality. People are
quick to judge because they are not satisfied with themselves and their life. Even though,
between the cartoon of Rawls and Staples story they show another side of how people judge
others. They judge by the way other people have talked to them about a specific race. So, they
assume that everyone who is the same race are going to be and act the same. These type of
problems that some races face and we usually ignore. People may ignore these type of problems
because they have gotten used to, it then becomes natural.
Racism has never vanished and has kept alive for over centuries. Its a problem that
cannot disappear immediately but if more people would pay more attention we can make the
world a better place. I would not expect for many people to try to change this but little by little
we can change the way others view people of different races and treat them as equal. Thinking
we are superior to others can only show so little of someone. Rawl and Temple have the same
purpose to show racism and how others view it.
Works Cited
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Staples, Brent. Black Men and Public Space. One Hundred Great Essays.Third ed. N.p.:
Joseph Opiela, 2008.182-86.Print
Temple, Keith. "Hitler Cartoon." Algemeinercom RSS. 4 Feb. 1933. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.
Web. Sep 29, 2014. < http://www.the40yearplan.com/img/Political%20Cartoons/holocaust.jpg>.
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