You may heard about slavery and racism, and felt the frustration and sadness coursing through your bones and heart but, as in The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead you experience more. You’ll feel like you’re actually one of the characters in the novel and feel their pain, both physically and mentally. The characters in the novel each explain a different story whether it was a good story or bad story during the late 1800s slavery era. Within those stories they all still had something in common that affected their status in society which was their skin color. These African-American enslaved people couldn’t do anything that they pleased without being directed to do. The protagonist Cora what fled from the South to the North where slavery and racism did “not” exist explained both sides and witness the same exact thing in the South the only difference is that she wasn’t technically enslaved in the North. This novel took place in the late 1800s and now that it is 2019, you still can witness racism although many would say that racism doesn’t exist anymore. The Underground Railroad provides us with both historical and contemporary socio political critique that relates to current society today in the aspects of brutality, employment discrimination, and the living conditions in particular communities.
Brutality is savage physical violence or great cruelty. In the late 1800s where The Underground Railroad took place, brutality was the number one option to keep the enslaved from protesting and continue to work for the white slave owners. In the novel Lovey was killed for trying to escape with Cora and Caesar but, she was caught and brought back to Randall, the place where she was enslaved. They hung her up and beat her with a large metal spike. She was supposed to only get punished but her punishment led to her death. All the enslaved African-Americans in Randall had to watch and experience the brutality that took place and watched her die. “ The young girl was installed in hers, hooked through her ribs by a large metal spike and dangling. The dirt below dark with her blood. The other two gallows stood waiting. “ If I hadn’t been detained upstate” Ridgeway said. “I’m sure I’d have scooped up the three of you before the trail got cold”” (Terrance 134). The white slave owner states it was a lesson to be learned in case someone else wanted to escape. Brutality was first established when slavery began and still continues today. Just because the government states that there are “equal rights” for all doesn’t mean the people have changed. There are many cases where African Americans are beaten down or even killed for a misdemeanor while when the supremacists commit crimes that are above and beyond, they’ll most likely be called “mentally ill” or easily just taken away to jail. “In the U.S., African Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white people. That’s according to a new study conducted by Frank Edwards, and Michael Esposito, The researchers used verified data on police killings from 2013 to 2018 compiled by the website Fatal Encounters, created by journalist D. Brian Burghart. They found that roughly 1-in-1,000 black boys and men will be killed by police in their lifetime. For white boys and men, the rate is 39 out of 100,000”. This quote was researched by a man named Frank Edwards and written by Brentin Mock. Burghart conducted this research over a span of a five-year radius to examine the increase and decrease of police brutality by race. One such case that touched every news broadcast in the United States was the Eric Garner case. His death was caused by a policeman named Daniel Panteleo holding him in an illegal chokehold while arresting him for selling cigarettes illegally. Multiple policemen arrived and all trying to arrest him in a chokehold Garner’s last words was “ I can’t breathe”. This death was part of the movement for Black Lives Matter. That accusation wasn’t justified nor a reason for a man to be killed. There are many protocols in approaching a person to be arrested. The policeman that killed Garner had no arrests made nor no charges, the only thing to policeman received was unemployment, but the police officer can live his life and find another job. His case was never justified according to law. While on the other hand, many supremacists had cases where they committed deadly crimes but are being listed as mentally ill and not killers or terrorists. One case that is well rounded is the Parkland shooting by a young man named Nikolas Cruz. Cruz is facing 34 counts of attemped murder and the massacre of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School back in 2018. When he finished shooting 34 people and out of those 34 people he killed 17 people, he was still able to live his life after being sent to jail and still his case still hasn’t come to a verdict. Between the Eric Garner case and the Nikolas Cruz case, you can easily identify the differences between race and who does the law applies to.
“Each thing had a value and as the value changed, everything else has changed also. A broken calabash was worth less than one that relinquished its bait..In America the quirk was that people were things..If you were a cart or a horse or a slave — your value determined your possibilities” (Array 10) In the novel, this quote was written to show how Cora was struggling to reclaim her humanity and seek freedom to be more than her value as a slave. The reason why Cora didn’t have a decision to become who or what she wanted was because of the color of her skin.Race has played a major role in The Underground Railroad because it affected the outcome of the jobs that you will receive. In the novel, when Cora finally got to the North, she thought that life would be completely free and everyone was equal but, even there there were some parts that remained the same such as employment discrimination. Employment discrimination was enforced on the title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it unlawful to discriminate in hiring, discharge, promotion, referral, and other facets of employment, on the basis of color, race, religion, sex, or national origin. This law is enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). This law is still enforced today but, there are still many cases in which, races other than white, are being discriminated against in their employment sites. If anyone experiences employement discrimination should report it to the EEOC but according to new studies, not even the EEOC responds to those cases immediately or even close imcomplete cases. “Of those 1 million, nearly 930,000 cases had been closed as of January 2018, when this data was obtained…in 82 percent of these cases, the worker did not receive any form of relief. Relief from employment discrimination can mean monetary compensation, either through a settlement or court action, or a change in work conditions, like providing physical accommodations for a worker who uses a wheelchair.”. This quote reveals how the agency that created this law, doesn’t even help those who were affected by it. Most of these cases were left alone as if these cases had never existed. As time keeps moving on, so do these cases.
In the novel The Underground Railroad Cora travels to numerous places and every place symbolizes something different. The South is where slavery is being taken place and the North is where there is “freedom” and “equality”. The South was a place where they discriminated against whites and enslaved people. The enslaved usually lived on the Plantation field where they worked many hours with no pay while on the other hand the whites would live in these big luxurious homes. In the north, people claim that the land is free for all but, there are still areas in which there are whites dominate and African-American dominate. This issue is still evident in today’s society. “ They stopped niggers they knew to be free. For their amusement but also remind the Africans of the forces arrayed against them whether they were owned by a white man or not” (Ridgeway 52). This quote reveals that no matter what the African Americans thought freedom was about, they will never receive it based on their skin color in both the North or the South. African-American has been told a lie on the definition of being free and equal. Freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.. Equality is the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities. After all these years, African Americans are still being affected by these terms. An example is discrimination from living in certain communities. According to an article written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, He informs the audience on how America is still tied to racism and the history of slavery. Coates starts off with a story about a man named Clyde Ross, an African American man that moved from Mississippi to Chicago in 1947 during the Great Migration. After experiencing the racism of the Jim Crow law in the South, Ross began moving north, and is taken advantage of by a speculator who sells him a home on contract, a predatory way that sellers would take advantage of the lack of legitimate options available to Black homeowners. In response, Ross joined an organization called the Contract Buyers League, which among other things, sought restitution for the money lost through buying homes on contract. That law prevented many African-Americans from moving into better neighborhoods because the contract gave them only limited options in places they can live at. “ Ross had bought his house for $27,500. The seller, not the previous homeowner but a new kind of middleman, had bought it for only $12,000 six months before selling it to Ross. In a contract sale, the seller kept the deed until the contract was paid in full—and, unlike with a normal mortgage, Ross would acquire no equity in the meantime. If he missed a single payment, he would immediately forfeit his $1,000 down payment, all his monthly payments, and the property itself.”. This kept both races in their separate communities whether they’re in the North or South.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead gave a more visual, in depth presentation of what types of issues were present during the slavery era. The novel also allowed the audience to identify the same issues shown today. Brutality is one of the issues shown today through policemen, Employment discrimination is shown through job sites and applying for a job. Living conditions in certain communities that prevents people races from being mixed. There are many issues involving our communities right now but, it’s up to us to change those issues into resolutions.
