Life Stories

Espinal 1

John Espinal

Professor Regan

ENWR 106

24 April 2012

Racism

Racism is one of the biggest issues that affected the United States since its existence. “Racism is the hatred by a person of one race pointed at a person of another race” (Webster). The United States has grown up to improve as a whole but this process is a long way away from completion. There still may be a few people that believe in slavery, but they are probably the minority. In the 1950s, whites and blacks were segregated to a point that they could not go to the same schools or even use the same bathrooms. Chief Justice Earl Warren abolished the segregation of schools in May of 1954. The desegregation of schools has helped people of all races grow up together in a non-hostile environment where they can develop relationships with people of other races. Throughout the play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry criticizes the racial and discriminatory climate of America in the 1950s. The racial and discriminatory that took place in this time has helped shape the United States to what it is today.

It becomes obvious to the reader that the racial tension Hansberry experienced growing up reflected on the way her literature is written. Hansberry experienced many of the situations she placed the Younger family at first hand. Hansberry’s father, Carl Hansberry, was put in a similar circumstance when he moved his family into a predominately white community at the opposition of the white neighbors. He eventually won a civil rights case on discrimination. 

Espinal 2

The clear primary theme of A Raisin in the Sun has to do with race and racism. The Younger’s live in a segregated neighborhood in a city that remains one of the most segregated in the United States. Virtually every act they perform is affected by their race. The Younger’s are limited to their poorly maintained apartment in part because they have low-paying jobs.

One of the first major allusions to...