Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Attainment of the Degree of
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE STUDY PROGRAM ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
LANGUA
YOGYAKARTA STATE UNIVERSITY A Thesis
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Attainment of the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Literature
By
Aloysius Windriyanto Tyasadi 07211144003
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE STUDY PROGRAM ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
LANGUAGES AND ARTS FACULTY YOGYAKARTA STATE UNIVERSITY
2015
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Attainment of the
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DEDICATION
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MOTTO
“Stand! Set your body on your feet and keep your head still. A heartbreak will never be a rock. As long as the victory is ours, I will be very happy.”
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Without God’s guidance, I would have never finished writing the thesis. I believe without His guidance I cannot even find the theme of my thesis and begin to write it.
Special recognition and gratitude must be given to my consultants, Sugi Iswalono, M.A., Ari Nurhayati, M.Hum, and Dr. Widyastuti Purbani, M.A. whose guidance lead me to the completion of the work. I also wish to thank to my parents Valentinus Sugito and Anastasia Mursiti, my brother Adven Darma Satya, my dear Sesilia Usha Mallini, and my big family for their endless support.
During the process of writing the thesis, I have received much support and care too from my second family at BFC, Valley Street Crew, English Literature 2007 and Soulmate 2007. I would like to thank all of them.
Finally, I realize that this work is far from perfection. Thus, it is open to all criticism and suggestions.
Sleman, 25 September 2014
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ... i
APPROVAL SHEET ... ii
RATIFICATION ... iii
PERNYATAAN ... iv
DEDICATIONS ... v
MOTTO ... vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... viii
ABSTRACT ... xi
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ... 1
A. Background of the Study ... 1
B. The Research Focus ... 6
C. Research Objectives ... 8
D. Research Significances ... 8
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ... 9
A. Ku Klux Klan As a Racist Organization ... 11
B. Fanon’s Postcolonialism... . 12
1. The Use of Language ... 14
2. Discrimination Towards the Blacks ... 16
C. Racism ... 19
D. Southern Life in 20th Century ... 23
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F. Framework of Thinking ... 26
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ... 28
A. Research Type ... 28
B. Data Type ... 28
C. Data Sources ... 29
D. Data Collection ... 29
E. Research Instruments ... 31
F. Data Trustworthiness ... 31
G. Data Analysis ... 32
CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ... 34
A. The Forms of the Ku Klux Klan’s Racist Actions towards the Blacks and their Defenders... ... 35
1. Violence... 37
2. Intimidation... 39
3. Provocation... 41
B. How Racism Shown in the Southern American Society... ... 44
1. The Use of Language... ... 44
a. The Use of Derogatory Terms ... 45
b. Deployment of Images ... 48
2. Discrimination towards the Blacks…..…... 52
a. The Society’s Custom Relates to Injustice ... 52
b. Unfairness in Law Enforcement ... 54
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RACISM OF KU KLUX KLAN AND SOUTHERN AMERICAN
SOCIETY AS SEEN IN JOHN GRISHAM’S
A TIME TO KILL
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Klan’s racist actions towards the Blacks and their defenders and to identify how the racism shown in the southern American society based on Franz Fanon’s postcolonialism theory.The research employs qualitative study. The subject of the research is a novel by John Grisham entitled A Time to Kill. The data were sentences related to the description of the forms of racism. The key of this research is the researcher himself, with the concept of forms of racism drawn from Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, and the Ku Klux Klan’s racist actions, all illustrated in the analytical construct. The researcher collected the data by using systematic and scientific manner in the process of identifying the themes and the meaning of the data. The data analysis was conducted through organizing and preparing the data, reading through all the data, coding the data, giving a description, interrelating description and interpreting the meaning of description.
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Studying culture is important.People can learn and finally understand about anything that isconnected with itlike ideologies, values, and people’s way of life.As culture varies in people’s life and in different places,it has different characteristics or meanings. By studying cultures, hopefully people learn the varieties of the culture and respect the culture differences.
According to Perry (2007: 4), culture is about people’s customs and beliefs.It is a product of collective human minds, but rarely has social and cultural patterns arisen as the direct result of conscious invention.According to American anthropology (in Tylor: 1), culture can be defined into two meanings. The first, it is about human’s capacity to classify and express experiences through symbols. The second is the ways of people living in different places classified and represented their experiences.
As the place of freedom, it means America is the place wherepeople’s individual rights are appreciated. The concept of place of freedom is that people live equally with each others. However, in the contrary of that fact, America also experienced a hard time in appreciating differences in the cultures. Racism is one of the examples of it.
Since the early history in the United States, the Native Americans, African-Americans and European-African-Americanshave been known as different races. During the 19thcentury, races can be distinguished from the personal appearance, the fraction of non-White ancestry, and the social circle (Perry, 2007: 2). The concept defines the idea of physical appearance such as nose, head, or any other characteristics just to ignore the range of variation that exists in any population.From this point, that conceptmakes people from different parts of the world feel different from the other parts, as the racial difference was strengthened by theconcept.
system. Merely, the immigrants were treated as slaves because the landlord did not provide them with appropriate payments or proper living.
As the discrimination grew up, the black people in the US expected the Declaration of Independence. At first, this declaration wasdesignedas a manifesto for human rights and personal freedom. This idea was supported by the black people who were oppresed by the white. They demanded to be free, and slavery to be over. However, the discrimination kept going on. The black people were still treated as slaves. Thus, this condition led the separation of the country into South and North. Both of the sides had their own ideologies. The north’s concept was to give the equal right for the black people. The north put an end to discrimination, and they abolished slavery. However, the north’s idelogy was tried to counter by the south.The south’s idee was to legalize the slavery.
The southern ideology to legalize slavery was caused by the prospect of industry. In the 1800s, the southern cotton industry was in good condition, as the industry could produce in a great number. Thus, they could also export the product to other countries. From this stand of point, the reason why the southern legalized slavery was clear. The southern viewed slavery as having economic benefits. The plantation owners did not need to spend extra cash for the job, but they could get maximal product.
southern presented the idea of a doctrine about proslavery. The pamphlet manifested an idea that the black peoplewere constitutionally lazy and prone to vice; and that their mind were heavy, dull and not ambitious. Furthermore, according to the pamphlet, the Negro was destined to be slaves—that becoming slaves is the natural consequence of the inferiority of Negro character. Clearly, the white people made a stereotype about the black, that the black is inferior to oppress them.
The white’s oppression toward the black was also reflected in Jim Crow laws. With the laws, the racism in the US in the 1900s was very serious. Jim Crow’s laws were the segregation based on race in the south.The law dividedsome public areas into two parts:for the white and for the black. For example, streets or restaurants had to be separated in two sides. With the separated places for the black and the white, itforbade the black to cross the white line, and it was uncommon for the white to come in the black area.
According to the law of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 racism was banned. The law prohibited discrimination in employment, labor unions, and public accommodations. In other words, the point was that the discrimination or racism ended with that law. However, in realitythe law was not strong enough to defend the rights of the black people. The same as in American colonialism era, the black people were violated, murdered, and raped.The condition was worsened with the existence of theracist group, Ku Klux Klan who violated the minority races.
The Klan holds the value of white supremacy, that the whites are the most superior race among other races. Thus, they see the black people as the inferior so that they can oppress them. Ku Klux Klan was established after the civil war by the Confederate Army in 1865.
Literature is the mimetic of the real world. It means that the world existed in literary work is based on the real world. The word ‘mimetic’ is meant that the world in the literary work is existed because it is copied from the real world. Endraswara (1999) thinks that literary works are the reflection of the good and the bad of society.Based on that, the matter of racial oppression also can be found in the literary works.
In John Grisham’s A Time to Kill the portrayal of slavery is not stated, but the discrimination in American South is clearly told. In the novel, the reflection of the southern American society is truly reflected, such as with the existence of the racist group, Ku Klux Klan who violated the black people. Holding the ideology of the pride toward their own white races, the Klan started to raise the tension between white people and black people in the south.
Given the name of land of freedom, the existence of racism in America actually becomes an interesting point to analyze. The matters of racism in the US in the research are essentials to analyze. Racism has shaped the standard that outclassed the black people from having a proper life just like the whites. This was reflected by the stereotype and the boundaryby the white people to limit the life of the black people. Racism also brings injustice to the black people’s life. This is seen from the artifact of racism that can be traced in today society in the Southern US, such as the prejudice to black people. As a matter of fact, it means that racism has put a long scar into the face of American society.
B. Research Focus
This research focuses on the analysis of racism happening in the American South in the 1970s. Racism in the United States hasstarted since the colonial era, as slavery was the factual evidence of how racism happened.Racism brings effects to everyday life to minority people living in America. The racism in the US could be seen in the train, prison, restaurant, hospital, recreation facility, and job. These places were separated into two parts, for the black and for the white. Black people were not allowed to visit the place for the white, and it was uncommon for white people to visit the place for the blacks.
prejudice towards the blacks is likely to happen. In other words, probably some southerners—who in the past legalized slavery—still have the racist perspective.
The researcher analyzedthe novel written by John Grisham entitled A Time to Kill.The aspects that become the focus were the racism in the story, and the
relation of the black and the white. The storyclearly states the relationship between people with different races, black and white, and the discrimination to a race.
Accordingly, the researcher focuses on how the racism happened throughout the southern American society based on the story from the novel. The researcher also focused on the identification of the characteristics of society that discriminated other racial groups based on Franz Fanon’s theory of colonialism and postcolonialism. The researcher alsowanted to reveal the Ku Klux Klan’s racist actions towards the Blacks and their defenders.
The analysis focuses on two cases. The first is toreavealhow the racism happened in the southern American Society. The second oneis the revelation ofthe Ku Klux Klan’s racist actions.
C. Research Objectives
The purposes of this study are as follows:
1. to revealthe forms of the Ku Klux Klan’s racist actions towards the Blacks and their defenders in John Grisham’s A Time to Kill.
D. Research Significances
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portrayed in John Grisham’s “A Time to Kill” and to analyze the belief system regarding interactions between blacks and whites in the Southern America revealed in the novel. To get the answers, this chapter is focused on the related theories used and background information that can assist the process of the analysis. Analyzing racism in the Southern American society, the researcher uses Fanon’s postcolonial theory which is focused on racial difference in postcolonial societies and the concept of racism. The background information includes the condition of the American South in the 1970s or in the Post-Civil Rigts era.
these come into being. The legacy of the European discrimination is by creating the stereotype based on the race they belong.
In the early modern era, scholars tend to think that the Europeans were superior race. This thinkingis based on some scientific researches that they have conducted before. For example, they found that the volume of the European people’s brain volume is bigger than that of theblack people’s. Thus, they viewed themselves as superior in their race classification. They saw some other races, such as blacks or Jews, as the lower ones. Hence, the scholars’ idea is in accordance with racial stereotyping. But this is not a real proof that the blacks are worse than the Europeans.
According to Loomba (1998: 105), the racial stereotyping is actually a legacy from the Greeks and Romans periods. These two periods gave some subsequent templates of European images as ‘barbaric’. This given-idea was reworked in the medieval and early modern Europe age, whereas at that time Christianity believed it as ‘the prism where all world knowledge was refracted’. Though it was stated on the Bible that all human being were brothers descended from the same parents, the ideas of racial differences were still reworked.
ideas into a simple and manageable form. He thinks that racial stereotyping is to perpetuate an artificial sense of difference between ‘self’ and ‘other’.
Loomba (1998: 113) thinks that such racial stereotyping is in accordance with the aim of colonial rules. She figures that the ideology merely reflects economic and material factors. Moreover, she tries to underline about the enslavement of the immigrant from Africa, which is supported with racist stereotypes which were obsessed with colour. Thus, these kinds of stereotypes provide an ideological justification as a tool to exploit and dominate. For instance, the practice of slavery in the American South can be mentioned as a tool to gain benefits on economical needs. Vividly, it was also marked as a tool to dominate other races too. Furthermore, racial stereotyping marks a racial domination too. In a colonial world, a society with racial domination built into it has worked an ideal of racism into many ways of individual lives along with racial apartheid in many areas of life such as education, politics, and religion, bars on advancement upon members of nonwhite races (Foot inBulmer & Solomos, 1999: 134).
A. Ku Klux Klan as a Racist Organization
pure white, native born Anglo-Saxon Protestants; white supremacy; separation of Church and State; and the upholding of womanhood.
The very first emerging of Ku Klux Klan was after the end of the American Civil War. The Klan was founded by veterans of the Confederate Army (Newton, 2010: 3). The Klansmen adopted the violence in their action. There are three waves of incarnation founded in the Klan. The first is to create reconstruction. The second is to preach about racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism to the local group in or order to take part in lynching and other violence activities. The third is to stand against Civil Right Movement and desegregation.
KKK is a powerful and holly organization. The identity describing KKK is only a persona or a mask or camouflage to hide their fear of black consciousness of their power and also from the intimidation of white people’s changing perception. The Klan tries to convince people of the identity as a dominant organization through the costume, the flag, and also the activities whichwere toprove that they werethe destroyer of evil.
B. Fanon’s Postcolonialism
Marx, he also shares Marx’s abiding prejudices: opposition to the exploitation of man by man (Smith, 1973: 1).
He underlines the nature of pre-capitalist society, which is well explained by Marx, to be considered again. He urges Marxist analysis should be employed every time people deal with the colonial problem. In analyzing the consequences of colonialism, he uses a psycho-social analysis while Marx uses socio-economics. Marx is a Euro-centric, while Fanon is an African-centric. Thus, Marx concerns with the liberation of European proletariat. Fanon addresses himself to the liberation of non-Western colonials. Marx’s focus is on class conflict, while Fanon is on the dual questions of class and race conflicts (Smith, 1973: 2).
The matter of colonialism is the objective historical condition and human attitude based on that condition. In his book entitled Black Skin White Masks, Fanon (2008: 62) figures that colonialism deals with the relation among the society within a region. He underlines that the problem of the black people is not because of living among white men, but because they were exploited, enlsaved, and despised by a colonialist, capitalist society that is only accidentally white (Fanon, 2008: 157). Furthermore, he states that the black people were alienated not only because of their skin color and community, but also because of the dynamics of racism caused by colonialization.
based on the first chapter of the book entitled “The Negro and Language”. The second idea is about the Blacks and discrimination. The idea is referred from threechapters entitled “The Negro and Psychopathology”, “Black and Recognition” and “The Fact of Blackness”. The two aspects are explained below.
1. The Use of Language
Language is a part of cultures. Language and culture are actually two things connected to each other. Fanon believes that language is a component of culture, the most important among others. With language, the contact and the social intercourse between cultures becomes possible.In colonial society, languageplays its part as a communication breakdown between the Blacks and the Whites.
Fanon believes that the black people have double dimension. It means that they have two dimensions in language terms. A black man will speak differently to a white man and to another black man. Fanon calls that a self-division as theeffect of colonialist subjugation (2008:8). Furthermore, he adds that language supports the weight of a civilization, so that to speak means to be in a position where a speaker uses a certain syntax to grasp the morphology of some languages (Fanon, 2008:8).
black man who masters French language becomes more French, more white, and less black. Thus, the black peoplewould tend to think that the native language is somewhat below standard.
Dealing with language, Fanon (2008: 19) believes that theblack people always encounter problems. He states the colonial environment product is a thing called ‘arsenal of complexes’. It is such as how Whites behaves to Blacks. Whites always make the Blacks talk in their own language, as the white people call it ‘to make the Blacks look good’. Fanon (2008: 22) thinks to make the Blacks talk pidgin is to fasten him to effigy of him, to snare him, and to imprison him.
The language of the colonizer is a parameter of civilization, unlike the colonized ones. The colonizer does not want the Black to fluently speak their language, so the colonizer treats them merely as foreigners and surely the standard must be different. A black man who is able to quote a scholar’s saying should be watched. It means that having a smart black man in a colonized area means it is a threat to the colonizer. Finding a well educated black man with a proper education harms the fixed concept created by the colonizer: the fixed concept is that the Blacks must be uneducated no other than that. “They are the instances in which the educated Negro suddenly discovers that he is rejected by a civilization which he has none the less assimilated.” (Fanon, 2008: 69).
matter. For the Whites, the Blacks must remain on the mindset that they are nothing, and they need to put an end to the narcissism on which they rely in order to imagine that they are different from the other Blacks (Fanon, 2008: 12). A black is forever on the dignity as a slave of her or his own appearance, and acquiring the language of the colonized only showing inferiority. A black man who adopts a language different from that of the group into which he was born is an evidence of dislocation, a separation (Fanon, 2008: 14). He views that the change of the use of language is a personality change. However, this also brings the rejection from his own group.
In a colonized region, there is always a Black who talks politely to a white man, and the white man answers him rudely. “A White man addressing a Negro behaves exactly like an adult with a child and starts smirking, whispering, patronizing, cozening” (Fanon, 2008: 19). The Whites figure the Blacks as a group of people having no civilization and deserve no respect. It seems to be a legimitation of Whites’ conduct towards Blacks from years.
2. Discrimination Towards Blacks
The Whites treat the Blacks as the object to get their needs fully satisfied. By creating some standards the Whites start to subjugate the Blacks to a lower position. The Whites, as the colonizers, treat the Blacks as what they want. They need to rule the Blacks’ life so that they make the Blacks as if they were uncivilized and inferior.
In order to make the Blacks become inferior, the Blacks’ voice is sealed up. The Whites grow fixed status between Blacks. Whenever the Blacks have felt inferior, the Whites continue to press the Blacks. Although the Blacks realize that they can rule themselves, the standards created by the Whites have made them become less superior even to themselves. Their own desire is locked down. Blacks need to pay attention to the Whites’ standards.
The Whites, according to Fanon (2008: 82), view that the Blacks among their own have no occasion, except in minor internal conflicts, to experience their being through others. The Blacks have no ontological resistance in The Whites’ eyes. The initial identities from the Blacks such as their metaphysics, customs, and sources were all deleted because they were in conflict with a civilization that they did not know. In other words, the Blacks were forced to leave their identity and theywere faced with new cultures from the Whites. The Blacks become desperate to discover the meaning of black identity as the Whites’ civilization and European culture force an existential deviation on the negro.
stories. By doing it, the Whites create the Blacks’ frightening persona. This image is actually violation of the Blacks. As Fanon (2008: 84) states:
“I could no longer laugh, because I already knew that there were legends, stories, history, and above all historicity...”
Fanon believes that the so-called myth created by the Whites about the Blacks is not all historically true. The Whites create a misconception about the Blacks’ history. However, this is viewed as a means for the Whites to conquer the Blacks’ life. Furthermore, Fanon views that it is not just the difference that is constructed based on history. He adds that the social signifieds, the system of devaluation, are associated with that difference. The poor material associated to the black body is merely a “historico-racial schema”. It is not based on the inferiority status. Based on this schema, the standard created by the Whites points out with that narratives of the blackness.
The Blacks are responsible for themselves, for their race, and their ancestors. They start to discover, examine about their blackness, and ethnic characteristics. They reject all immunization of the emotions. Black people want to be men, nothing but the men that they desire to be. They realized that one of their ancestors had been lynched or enslaved, but they accept it. Still, the white world really hugged them into a cage. A man is expected to behave like a man. Whenever a black man tries to do that, the society vanished him out of the place (Fanon, 2008: 125).
to follow their own desire is a freedom. A white man can go everywhere unnoticed because they come from the race who since at the beginning of time hasnever known cannibalism. Fanon thinks that there is just a solution for the Blacks since the Whites started to hesitate recognizing them: to be known.
“I resolved, since it was impossible for me to get away from an inborn complex, to assert myself as a BLACK MAN. Since the other hesitated to recognize me, there remained only one solution: to make myself known.” (Fanon, 2008: 87)
Fanon (2008: 163) thinksthat being black iscomparison.That is the truth. A black man is comparison: that the Blacks are constantly preoccupied with self-evaluation and with the ego-ideal. Thus, whenever there is a contact to the Whites, the question of value, of merit, arises.
For a Black man living in a racist society, according to Fanon (2008: viii) there will be much pressure to the black’s identity. There is a tendency, that the black will be like the colonilizer. Society is created by values of man. Fanon (2008: 4) views a Black man living in the racist society will be ignored and the black will resent on the identity. Fanon continues, if a black man is overwhelmed by the wish to be white, it is because he lives in a society that makes his inferiority complex possible, in a society that proclaims the superiority of one race.
C. Racism
strenghtened by the claim of such differences such asimmutable genetic factors but not environmental or even historical circumstances.
The concept of racism is crucial to describe the trend in Western between the late eighteenth and the twentieth century that has shown one kind of rationale for racially repressive social systems. At times, nonwhites have been treated as inferior in the United States. It is commonly used as a blanket term for all discriminated actions or policies directed at groups thought to be physically distinct from a dominantor major element.
While according to Fanon, racism is an organizing principle of society. It is not merely a superstructural effect of a determinant economic base. Fanon thinks class and race gain meaning from one another, both of which are co-constituted as opposed to causally related. Neither class nor race predeterminesis a consequence of the other; rather, each is dialectically co-produced (Kane, 2007: 4).
Fanon’s race and class co-constitute one another through processes of differentiation that form specific kinds of spatial barrier between (poor) people of color and (rich) white people. The borders within colonized regions, according to Fanon, not only divide the richand the poor, but also produce clearly demarcated racial formations. He views that the world of the colonized is not a world of white folks, but a world whose “belly is permanently full of good things” (2004:4). In a different side,the black’s world is a “sector of niggers, a sector of towelheads” that is hungry for bread, meat, shoes, coal and light (2004: 4-5).
the whole field of racism (Guilaumin: 29). History proves the evidence of racism, starting from slavery, Greek concept of barbarian people, the status of foreign people in ancient societies, up to the status of the Jews in Europe and Arab world. Since the European expansion into the other parts of the globe, the scholars have started to pay attention to the rise of the racism. Basically all those facts resemble one characteristic in which there is a widespread tendency to reserve the attribution of human status to one’s own group (national, religious, or social). Furthermore, it was in the US after abolition of slaveryas the place of scientific racism and the empirical investigation of psychological race differences were enthusiastically examined (Augoustinos and Reynolds, 2001: 5).
The tendency to use the word prejudice and racism happens in literature. Prejudice tends to be believed as an individual phenomenon, while racism is a broader construct that links individual beliefs and practices to wider social and institutional norms and practices (Jones in Augoustinos and Reynolds, 2001: 3). Another difference between them is whenever it relates to power. While racial prejudice is displayed by an individual to an individual or to a group, racism is shown by a group over other groups.
conscious belief and ideology and can be distinguished from prejudice, which is a matter of attitude or feeling, and discrimination, which is a description of behavior.
Racism is a universe of signs which connects the social practice of western society as it became industrialized. This practice is actually far more extensive than just a manifestation of theory, as it was crystallized in the course in the nineteenth century (Guillaumin, 1995: 35). The theory that underlines human differences and inequalities and also affirms the superiority and inferiority of group of people makes a connection between the mental and physical facts. This facts are deducted into theories to rationalize the differences (Guillaumin, 1995: 35).
D. Southern Life in 20th Century
Slavery was the actual reflection of the racism in the history of the United States. It was began soon after the English colonist first settled Virginia and lasted until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865. By the 18th century, court rulings established the racial basis of the American version of slavery to apply chiefly to Black Africans and people of African descent, and occasionally to Native Americans. The 19th century saw a hardening of racial situation in the US.
Racial situations were often found in the Old South. When a white got caught smiling at a black woman, society would regard the situation as normal. On the contrary, when a black man caught smiling at a white man, that would create a sense of disgrace towards white community (Ayers, 1998: 95). A white woman who let herself fall in love with a black man would risk her reputation. Relationship did not have to end in intercourse or even physical contact to be categorized as intimate and dangerous to a white woman’s reputation and self-respect. The more closely linked to sexuality, the more likely segregation happened (Ayers, 1998: 96).
segregation on the other hand, and tremendous reliance and creativity on the other.
Racism in the United States was worse during this time than at any period before or since. Segregation, racial discrimination, and expressions of white supremacy all increased, and so did anti-black violence, including lynching and race riots (Bang, 2012). Southern migrants were often treated in alliance with pre-existing racial stratification. The rapid influx of blacks disturbed the racial balance within cities, exacerbating hostility from both black and white Northerners. Stereotyping schemas of Southern blacks were used to attribute issues in urban areas, such as crime and disease, to the presence of African-Americans.
According to Bang (2012), the 20th century marked the peak of American Civil Right Movement with the desegregation of schools in 1954 and the organization of widespread protests across the nation under a younger generation of leaders. Many nonviolent protests in the 1960s led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The act prohibited discrimination in public facilities, in government, and in employment, invalidating the Jim Crow laws (which mandated segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans and other non-white racial groups) in the southern U.S. It became illegal to force segregation of the races in schools, housing, or hiring.
to exclude blacks from their neighborhoods. Segregation also took the form of redlining, the practice of denying or increasing the cost of services, such as banking, insurance, access to jobs, access to health care, or even supermarketsto residents in certain, often racially determined, areas. It is argued that there exists a color blindness or an "understanding that cultural differences rooted in racial identities are irrelevant for peoples' prospects and their overall well-being".
E. Previous Research Findings
Dina Oktaviana has conducted a research entitled “The Truth Behind Ku Klux Klan’s Supremacy in John Grisham’s Novel: A Time to Kill”. The research was published in a journal in 2009. The researcher applied the theory of Frantz Fanon’s blackness consciousness and whiteness in Black Skin, White Masks to analyze KKK’s respond to discrimination and racism. She analyzed deeper case of KKK’s regeneration in the story, the truth beneath the superiority of KKK.Compared to this research, the researcher employed Black Skin, White Masks to analyze the racism in the society, while to analyze the Ku Klux Klan’s
Western’seye.Compared to the current research, the researcher analyzed the Black’s stereotype in Western’s eye.
F. Framework of Thinking
The researcher employs postcolonial theory by Frantz Fanon as a means to answer the two research objectives mentioned in the previous chapter: to reveal the Ku Klux Klan’s racist actions towards the Blacks and their defenders, and to identify the racism shown in the southern American society portrayed in Grisham’s A Time to Kill. The theory is focused on the relationship between races in the colonial and postcolonial society. This can be seen in two aspects: the use of language and the discrimination towards blacks. The racial problem betweenthe Blacks and the Whites living in the American South during the 20th century was
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This research is a qualitative study. According to Bogdan and Taylor in Moleong (2010:3) qualitative method is a research way to gain descriptive data based on people’s own written and spoken materials and observable behaviors. Thus, unlike the quantitative study, the object of this research is described in words instead of numbers.
The technique of analysis used in this research is qualitative content analysis. It is an approach of empirical, methodological, and controlled analysis of texts within their context of communication, following content analytical rules and step by step models without rash quantification (Mayring, 2000: 5).According to Burns (in Mayring), content analysis is employed to identify themes, concepts, and meanings. Furthermore, he points out that it is a form of classifying contexts.
B. Data Type
According to Given (2008: 185), data refer to a collection of information that will be used in the research. In a qualitative research, the form of the data is usually in nonnumeric taken from many reliable sources. The data in this research were in the form of sentences expressed in John Grisham’s A Time to Kill and related tothe Ku Klux Klan’s supremacy, in theforms of racist action towards the Blacks and their defenders and thehowracism shown in the southern American society portrayed in A Time to Kill.
C. Data Source
The main source of this research is A Time to Kill, a novel written by John Grisham. The book was first published in 1989 in the US. The researcher used the digital edition from VK. The book consists of 275 pages.
D. Data Collection
There were four steps in the process of collecting data: reading, note taking, interpreting, and categorizing. Basically, reading and note taking are the most important ways in data collecting technique. In this research, the researcher first read John Grisham’s A Time to Kill. In order to get the clear understanding of the content of the text, the researcher had to perform the careful and comprehensive reading. Second, the researcher collected the data by making simple notes or rewriting them in the form of main words, phrases, clauses, and sentences related to the racism. Third, the researcher re-read carefully the data in order to have the clear interpretation. Fourth, the data were categorized into three main aspects of racism practice that suitable with the topic of discussion: thelanguage of the whites to call the Blacks, the discrimination towards the blacks, the Ku Klux Klan’s racist actions. During the process of the data collection, the researcher used a particular form of data sheet to easily see the progress of her research. The form of data sheet is presented in the figure below:
Table 1. The Form of Data Sheet
No. Data Page Sub Category Category
1 “We’re not sure, but the Klan most likely will get involved. We need to flex our muscle a bit, and this could be a good opportunity.”
74 - Violence
2 “Go to hell, nigger.” 9 The Use of Derogatory
E. Research Instruments
One of the qualitative research characteristics is that the researcher acts as the key instrument by collecting data by himself. He may use a protocol to gain the data collection, but actually the reseachrer is the one who gathers the information. The key instrument of this research was the researcher himself using the concept of form of racism based on the theory of postcolonialism by Franz Fanon as illustrated in the analytical construct presented in the chart at the end of chapter II. It means the researcher played all the roles in the research, from finding the theme, collecting the data, and analyzing the data.
F. Data Trustworthiness
To show the generalizability, internal validity, reliability, and objectivity, trustworthiness is the key in a research (Given, 2008: 895). The strength of a qualitative research can be seenfrom the validity, whether the findings are accurate from the researcher standpoint, the participants, and the readers. Reliability means the dependability or consistency, which shows that the same thing is repeated under the identical or very similar conditions.
During the process of collecting the data, the researcher implemented a collaborator, a peer debriefer (Cresswell, 2009: 192), to review and to ask questions in order to get the similarity between the researcher’s interpretation and the peer debriefer’s interpretation. The researcher asked some friends who wereliterature students as reviewers, to check the data of this research and give their interpretation. The discussion with reviewers was conducted to get the same interpretation to achieve validity of the data. Besides, the researcher also consulted the data to his consultant, Dr. Widyastuti Purbani, M.A., who was competent in analyzing literary works. Those processes were done through the whole data.
G. Data Analysis
Data analysis is the crucial part of a qualitative research because it includes gathering and linking the data into a concept (Given, 2008: 186). Furthermore, there are six steps in data analysis: organizing and preparing the data, reading through all the data, coding the data, giving a description, interrelating description and interpreting the meaning of description.
Six steps to analyze the data are explained below.
1. The first is identifying the data from the novel by making some notes.
3. The third is coding and categorizing the data in the data table into some categories related to the forms of the Ku Klux Klan’s racist actionand also related tohow racism shown in the southern American society based on Fanon’s theory, such as: language, and the discrimination towards the blacks.
4. The fourth is sorting the data by selecting the relevant data and excluding the irrelevant data. The selected relevant data were classified and interpreted according to its thematic meaning.
5. The fifth is making the interrelation between the description of the data and the theory to get the findings based on the objectives: the forms of the Ku Klux Klan’s racist actions towards the Blacks and their defenders and how the racism shown in the southern American society.
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researcher uses the data to verify and clarify the discussion. The aim of this reseach is to reveal the forms of racism in the southern part of the United States seen from the story of a novel entitled A Time to Kill. This chapter focuses on the discussion of two points: 1.) the revelationof the forms of the Ku Klux Klan’s racist actions towards the blacks and their defenders in John Grisham’s A Time to Kill, and 2.)how racism shown in the southern American society portrayed in John
Grisham’sA Time to Kill.
To understand this research, it is important to know the characters in the story. Two rednecks, Billy Ray Cobb and Pete Willard, are the men who started the racial tension in the South. They viciously raped a young Black girl, Tonya Hailey. The tension was rised since the Black girl’s father, Carl Lee Hailey took action. He murdered the two rednecks. A white lawyer, Jack Brigance appeared to support Carl Lee’s jury. Thus, the appearance of the racist group, Ku Klux Klan who attacked the Blacks and also the Whites who supported the Black brought the situation into more serious.
through those two points. Through the dialogues and story in the novel, racism and the interactions between blacks and white can be found.
A. The Forms of the Ku Klux Klan’s Racist Action towards the Black People and TheirDefenders
Ku Klux Klan is a racist organization in the USA. The Klan is based on the christian belief which holds the value of white supremacist ideology. Thus, they view their white race as the most superior one, while the others are the inferior. This organization kills, lynchs, abuses and murders people based on their skin colour. Having sentiment with the black people, the Klan tries to vanish the Blacks from the land because of their belief which involves religion in their acts. From 1866 to 1867, The Klans began breaking up black prayer meeting, and invading blacks’ housing at night to steal fire arms.
Ku Klux Klan’s ideas in the past were to control political and social status of freed slaves. Ku Klux Klan’s strongly influenced with the concept of White Supremacy. The Klan attempted to rule the life of the Blacks, from their education, economic, and political rights. The portrayalof the Klan’s action in Grisham’sA Time to Kill (1989: 74) was mentioned below.
Based on the quotation above, the Klan uses violence concept to shape their identity of superiority. Besides, they also use intimidation and provocation, too. This superiority image is created only because they want to hide their incapability, weakness, and intimidation – apart from the idea of struggling. The Klanconsisted of the Whites who have the same thought of White Supremacy, that being white is a pride and it is above other races. The Klan provokes the society by marching down the street. By creating the provocation to the Blacks, the Klan wants to show that they still alive and have potency to bring down the Blacks.
Ku Klux Klan was the organization that was created to legitimate the imperialism thought of the colonizer and the colonized (Newton, 2010). That means they acted as the ruler and they ruled the people. As mentioned before, the Klan held the idea of “White Supremacy”. They believe that Whites rule over the world, while the others are unconsciously forced to accept the idea of whiteness imagery. The Klan’s vision of “White Supremacy” makes the members in the organization agreeing the idea that the land is supposed to be ruled by the Whites. Blacks have no power to avoid that concept, and they deserved to be vanished.
1. Violence
The Ku Klux Klan uses violence to declare its superiority. However, the members even are not afraid to use physical violence to other people with different gender or races. However, the Klans’ violence is reflected to the Whites too—who supported the Blacks as their defenders.
Grisham (1989: 246) pictures the Klan’s violence act belows.
"They yanked it and cut it with a dull knife, she said. They also cut her clothes off, and at one time threatened to bullwhip her. The head injuries are self-inflicted. She thought they would either kill her or rape her, or both. So she banged her brains out against the pole she was tied to. Must have scared them."
Based on the sentences above, Ellen Roark, a colleague of Jack Brigance—the black lawyerwas suffered because of the Klan’s violence. She experiencedphysical abuse done by the Klansmen. The Klansmen have followed her from the office. They began their violence act when Roark arrived at a silent hill place where nobody can hear. Then, she was brought by the Klan. The least thing she remembered was that she was tied in a pole. It reflects that the Klan’s violence is tough towards the blacks and their defenders.
Besides, the Klansmen love to get busy in a riot. Violence is the biggest reflection of their hatred to the Blacks. In the novel, in a march, a group of Klansmen met a group of black young men. The groups clashed. Each of the group fought with another group. The Klansmen lost control in the riot. As a reporter bumped into action trying to take a news report about the riot which is broadcasted live, a member of the Klans hit her and her cameraman with his nightstick.
Long way before Cobb’s—the redneck—generation, the Klans had more than enough members. In the old south, the Klans violated the Blacks to show their power. They thought they hold power, so they were able to do everything to the black people. The Klan lynched people and hung them under big trees, so everyone in the county could see that. They also burnt down the house and raped the black women. This is reflected in Grisham (1989: 47).
Cobb's grandfather had been in the Klan long before his death, the cousin explained, and when he and Billy Ray were kids the old man would tell stories about hanging niggers in Ford and Tyler counties. Another Klan’s violence is reflected through the quotation below.
They didn't wait long. From his vantage point somewhere deep in the shrubs in front of the house, Ozzie saw him first: a lone figure walking casually down the street from the direction opposite the square. He had in his hand a small box or case of some sort. When he was two houses away, he left the street and cut through the front lawns of the neighbors. Ozzie pulled his revolver and nightstick and watched the man walk directly toward him. Jake had him in the scope of his deer rifle. Pirtle crawled like a snake across the porch and into the shrubs, ready to strike. Suddenly, the figure darted across the front lawn next door and to the side of Jake's house. He carefully laid the small suitcase under Jake's bedroom window. As he turned to run, a huge black nightstick crashed across the side of his head, ripping his right ear in two places, each barely hanging to his head. He screamed and fell to the ground. (Grisham, 1989: 147)
Based on the quotation above, he Klans start the violence by making bombs as their terror to the society. The Klans’ bombing action is a part of violence surely. This bombing is aimed to the Blacks’ defender. Jack Brigance’s house, once, was tried to blow up by the Klan by setting a bomb in his garden.
2. Intimidation
Klan also takes action to everyone who defends the Blacks. The Klan’s intimidation is objected to create a situation of fear.
The Klan’s action is a real threat to the society. Klansmen want a piece of action, and it is for real in order to influence the society about the idea of their superiority. They want to show that by doing this kind of action that the Blacks deserve to be unsupported and they do not belong in the society. Influenced by the White Supremacy’s idea, the Klans are blinded by their ambition.Grisham (1989: 96) portrays the Klans’ intimidation in his novel below.
It's a warnin'. Means stop what you're doin', or the next time we'll do more than burn a little wood. They used these things for years to intimidate whites who were sympathetic to niggers and all that civil rights crap. If the whites didn't stop their nigger lovin', then violence followed. Bombs, dynamite, beatings, even murder. But that was a long time ago, I thought. In your case, it's their way of tellin' Jake to stay away from Hailey. But since he ain't Hailey's lawyer no more, I don't know what it means.
One of the ways to intimidate people is by burning cross. This is aimed as a warning for the people to stay away from particular issue that the Klan trying to get in. The warning was not only for the blacks but also for the whiteswho try to help the blacks. This burning cross is commonly placed near the house of the intimidation target. Burning cross is actually one of the identical characteristics of the Klan’s intimidation. As they are influenced by the Protestant Christian, the burning cross refers to the light of Christ. Light is white, and white means holy. Another example of the cross burning is found in Grisham’s A Time to Kill (1989: 74) below.
altercations, the disruptions. And at night they could intimidate with burning crosses and threatening phone calls. The targets would be easy and unsuspecting.
The Klans do the intimidation towards the Blacks mainly, and also towards their defenders, which are the Whites too. As white supremacist, the Klans wanted to abuse the Blacks. Pure hatred has blinded them. The Blacks are the target, and also the Whites who defend the Blacks. The Klans decide that they will take action to them, too. They set a couple of actions in their plan. The Klansmen are not so happy with the news that the black man who killed one of their members’s relative is going to be set free. The Klans’ intimidation based on the novel can be seen in the quotation below.
Cobb was not sure, but he had heard the trial would be in late summer, or early fall. What concerned him most was all the talk about the nigger pleading insanity and getting off. It wasn't right. The nigger killed his brother in cold blood, planned the shooting. He hid in a closet and waited for his brother. It was coldblooded murder, and now there was talk of the nigger walking free. What could the Klan do about it? (Grisham, 1989: 73)
The Klans tend to use mail and telephone in order to send their intimidation towards the society. This can be seen in the quotation below.
"Said you was a shame to the white race for being that nigger's lawyer, and that he didn't see how any lawyer could represent a nigger such as Hailey. And that he hoped the Klan got ahold of you, and if they didn't he hoped the bar association looked into it and took away your license for helping niggers. Said he knew you were no 'count because you were trained by Lucien Wilbanks who lives with a nigger woman." (Grisham, 1989: 199)
a black defender is a shame for the Whites race. From their view, the Blacks do not deserve anything in their society. Because of that, they gave pressure to the Black’s lawyer.
3. Provocation
Provocation is also the thing that the Klan employed as a means to shape their supremacy towards the Blacks. The targets of their provocation are the Blacks surely, and also the Whites who support the Blacks. Provocation is the act just to get the attention of their targets. This act will be suceeded if the target took an action first. The function of the provocation can be to stir to action or feeling, to incite anger, or even to stimulate a fight. Thus, the situation will be the Klan plays as victim. With the provocation, the Klan tries to collect many supports from the people in the south about their white supremacist’ idea.
The white hood, for decades a symbol of hatred and violence in the South, was back.
The Klansmen use Carl Lee’s trial as a provocation in order to gain supports, to finally give pressure back to the Blacks. Grisham pictures the horrified moment of a provocation done by the Klan below.
All the laws favor the niggers, and the liberal nigger-loving politicians keep making more laws against white people. Somebody's got to stand up for them. That's why he called the Klan. With the trial several months away, there was time to plan a rebellion. They could march during the day around the courthouse in their white robes and pointed, hooded masks. (Grisham, 1989: 73)
The Klans really understand how to provoke the situation so that violence will rise. That the expected result is the clash between the Blacks and the Whites. Furthermore, Ku Klux Klan is a highly organized group. The group existed not only in a particular area, but also in other states of the nation. It means all of the group in the states are connected to each other. Giving the situation like that, a Klan group based on a state can ask help from other groupson different states. For the Klans, wearing white robes during a marching in the city is viewed as a pride. Grisham (1989: 74) told the situation in the novel below.
They knew how to provoke it. They fully appreciated what the sight of marching white robes did to crowds of angry niggers.
The Ku Klux Klan’s provocations are done in many ways, to the Blacks and their defenders. In Grisham’s A Time to Kill (1989: 181), a Klan man ‘speaks’ in front of the public. The speech is mentioned below.
and gettin' by with it. We demand justice, and we demand that this Hailey nigger be convicted and his black ass sent to the gas chamber!" The Klans do have a subtle way just to provoke the situation. Klansmen always have a person, commonly their leader, as the representative to speak in front of the public. With this representative, the Klans voice their hatred to the Blacks in public.Their White Supremacy’s way shapes their racist attitude. They are not afraid of the constitutions that protect other people from different races. This is to show that the Klan tries to shape an image as if they were fighting for the white pride, and that the existence of the Blacks in the society is merely annoyance and disgrace.
The Klansmen like to provoke the Blacks directly when they meet up in a march. This provocation is merely a verbal abuse to them. As mentioned before, this is aimed to get the Blacks’ attention, so that the situation will look as if the Blacks started the fire first. This is reflected quotation found in Grisham’s A Time to Kill' (1989: 181)
"You niggers were not invited to this rally!" Stump screamed into the microphone, pointing at the blacks. "This is a Klan meetin', not a meetin' for a buncha niggers!"
"You heard me. Calls himself Mickey Mouse. He called me at home Sunday and told me that he saved your life. 'That nigger's lawyer' is what he called you. Said the Klan has officially arrived in Ford County. They've set up a klavern, whatever that is."
The Klans create a label to the Blacks’ defender. They call them as nigger-lovers. This label is a strong proof to the attitude of the Blacks, pure hatred towards the Blacks. Even to the white race, the Klansmen are still cruel. Thus, by marching towards the city, the Klansmen try to show their existence. This action is aimed to catch the Blacks’ attention, so whenever the Blacks are provoked, they would take a reaction. The Klansmen think this reaction as the Blacks’ fightback. They believe Blacks actually do not deserve to fightback, so the Klans will counter this fightback with chaos.
B. How Racism Shown in the Southern American Society
Based on Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, the researcher concludes that the Whites use some kinds of weapon in the form of language and discrimination to conquer the Blacks. To identify the how racism in the story, both of Fanon’s concept are occupied to gain the data. According to the researcher, Fanon’s first idea is the use of language, and the second is the discrimination towards blacks.
1. The Use of Language
creating that standard, the colonizers want to make the Blacks remain uneducated. The use of courtesy titles resembles a situation where an adult treats a child. Whites are the adult and Blacks are the child (Fanon, 2008: 19). The adult can do everything, while the child can do nothing. However, this condition is worsened by the emergence of some derogatory items which is considered as the worst racial phenomena.
a. The Use of Derogatory Terms
Whites use some addressing terms used in conversation to Blacks in the American South. A normal word to address the Blacks is “boy”. Also, Whites create some particular termswhich are considered as cruel, such as “negro”, and extremely derogatory such as “nigger” or “negress”. The use of the words can be seen as depicted in part of John Grisham’s A Time to Kil (1989: 1) below.
Willard said, "It wasn't my idea. You're the one who's good at killing niggers. You do it." He thought for a minute while he finished a beer. "Let's throw her off a bridge."
The use of ‘nigger’ is applied to all of the Blacks, no matter they are men or women, child or adult. In the Old South, the word “nigger” is coined by Whites to remind Blacks that they are slaves. This word is considered as offensive. Blacks feel it gives them the memory of slavery and violation just like in the past.
Another example to show the use of the word “nigger” in the South is reflected in Grisham’s work (1989: 3) below.
Ozzie walked to the table and grinned at Cobb.
Ozzie is a black sherrif in the county. He approaches the rednecks trying to ask some questions regarding to the rape. As he arrived, the redneck men call him a “nigger”. The White can do everything to the Blacks, including to call the Blacks who is a law officer as nigger. In the Old South, the word is commonly addressed to the Blacks as low race and donot deserve high job. The word “nigger” used by the redneck men more or less reveals the caste of Blacks. The Blacks’ position in the society is still low although he is a sheriff. That the Blacks tend to have a low position still exists. Moreover, in this sentence the Blacks are portrayed to have lower position than in the newer era: “the men drank whiskey and talked about the good timeswhen niggers knew their place.” (Grisham, 1989: 16). The redneck views that Blacks do not deserve something high.
In some occasion, the Blacks also call themselves as “nigger” too. It is shown by this sentence: "Lemme ask you this. If it was your little girl, and if it was two niggers, and you could get your hands on them, what would you do?" (Grisham, 1989: 7). The sentence is said by Carl Lee Hailey, a black man when he speaks to his lawyer, a white man Jack Brigance. Whenever a black man call himself “nigger” that does not mean that they accept the addressing. This is seen as a means to mock the Whites.
"I'll say 'nigger' if I wanna say 'nigger,' and there ain't a damned thing you can do," replied Rita Mae.
"Please don't use that word," said Frances McGowan. "I find it personally offensive," said Wanda Womack.
"Nigger, Nigger, Nigger, Nigger, Nigger, Nigger," Rita Mae yelled across the table.
"Come on," said Clyde Sisco. "Oh boy," said the foreman.
offensive to many people, and I think it'd be a good idea not to use it during our deliberations. We've got enough to worry about as it is. Can we all agree not to use that word?” (Grisham, 1989: 263)
According to the quotation above, it is common for Whites to say offensive words to Blacks in the south. Even, it happens at the court session. During a meeting of jury in Carl Lee’s trial, Rita Mae says this offensive words. Because of that, she makes the situation between the blacks and the whites becomes serious, as in the session of the jury members there are also some black juries. The jury members however consist of whites and blacks, but mostly whites.
"Shut up, you wild niggers!" Stump shrieked back.
"Shut up, you animals!" His troops stood facing him, frozen, with their backs to the screaming crowd. Ozzie and six deputies moved between the groups. (Grisham, 1989: 181)
The quotation above reflects the situation in the south. Stump is a Klan man. Along with the Ku Klux Klan members, they march along the county to gain support. They face some black men in their ways. As a white supremacist group member, Stump begins his provocation. For the Whites, this offensive word is a reflection of their belief that the Blacks are still perceived as inferior. By repeatedly saying that word, the Whites is trying to figure a position, where the Blacks as inferior. Also, this is to show their superiority.
Niggers could march and demonstrate all day long and no one cared. But let white folks try and march and it was dangerous. (Grisham, 1989: 180)
supports. The society tends to ignore them, as the society has also their product: the whites who also march on the street wanted Carl Lee to be in the gas chamber. The Whites’ march can be more dangerous, as they march in a white world, the place they think they own.
b. Deployment of Images
Murfin and Ray (2003: 209) said that images are commonly shaped to make a representation of something or a mental picture of some visible things. Images can be used to mean “idea” or “vision”. While according to Cuddon (1999: 413), in a simple way images are treated as media to help people perceive things. Many images are conveyed by figurative language, such as metaphor and simile. In the case of Blacks, Whites usually refer them to portrayals that can make them inferior.
The analysis of the deployment of images in this section deals with the situation of the county, as mentioned in Grisham’s work (1989: 1) below.
They drove past Lake Chatulla, a large, man-made mud-hole in the far southwest corner of Ford County, looking for a place to throw out their unwanted passenger. At each bridge they approached, they saw blacks fishing in the muddy water.
Ozzie Walls was the only black sheriff in Mississippi. He was proud of this, especially since Ford County was 74 percent white and the other black sheriffs had been from much blacker counties.
The word “only” shows that there is just a small chance for the Blacks to have a high position in the society. Ozzie Walls is the law officer though he is black. The Blacks are still figured as passive and inferior. More or less this is because of the system created by Whites, where the Blacks do not stand many chances to stand up in a good position in the society or even in job opportunity.
She did not move. Willard asked Cobb if he thought she was dead. Cobb opened another beer and explained that she was not dead because niggers generally could not be killed by kicking and beating and raping. It took much more, something like a knife or a gun or a rope to dispose of a nigger. Although he had never taken part in such a killing, he had lived with a bunch of niggers in prison and knew all about them. Some of the whites were beaten and raped, and some of them died. But none of the niggers. Their heads were harder. Willard seemed satisfied. (Grisham, 1989: 2)
Blacks are portrayed to have good physical appearance. The sentence “it took much more” seems to underline that. Blacks cannot be killed just by kicking, beating or even raping. It takes more than that. The image of the Blacks is to have strong physical power, and the Whites view this as a threat. By slavery, in the Old South, the Whites are able to use Blacks’ physical ability to work in their plantation.
that Blacks are never virgin. Back in the old south, a black girl working in a plantation always tends to bea sexual victim from the masters. For the Whites, raping a black girl is merely a sport. The Whites do not feel anything but fun whenever it comes to abuse the Blacks.
“He's laughin' about it, Sheriff. It's a big joke. Said he finally found a nigger who was a virgin. Somebody asked how old she was, and Cobb said eight or nine. Everybody laughed. "Yep, they're both laughin' about it...”
The image of the Whites is created by themselves. They regard themselves high, that they are the stereotype. Whenever it comes to stereotyping, any person of races who does not look fit like the stereotype will feel different. Surely, the Blacks are not the stereotype of the Whites. This is reflected in Grisham’s work (1989: 61) below.
"Can Carl Lee Hailey receive a fair trial in Ford County?" "Why couldn't he?" Jake asked.
"Well, he's black. He killed two white men, and he will be tried by a white jury."
"You mean he will be tried by a bunch of white racists."
"No, that's not what I said, nor what I implied. Why do you automatically assume I think you are all a bunch of racists?"
"Because you do. We're stereotyped, and you know it."
For the White racists, they will never take the Blacks’ side in a court. It implies that the values in the south are influenced by the racist spirits. Furthermore, this racial spirits become hatred so that whenever it comes to contact with the Blacks, the Whites are eager to ignore them.
