Racism in To Kill a Mockingbird

Examples of Racism

Character	Example of racist attitudes
The Sheriff	When he arrested Boo Radley (suspected of stabbing his father in the leg with a pair of scissors) he "hadn't the heart to put him in the jail alongside Negroes".
Mrs Dubose	She tells the children: "Your father's no better than the niggers and trash he works for!"
Aunt Alexandra	She doesn't like to talk about important matters "in front of Calpurnia and them".
Scout's cousin Francis	He claims that Atticus is "ruining the family" by taking on the Robinson case.
Mr Cunningham	He's part of a mob of men who would have lynched Tom Robinson, had Atticus not been on guard outside the jail.

Examples of Anti-Racist Attitudes

Character	Example of anti-racist attitudes
Atticus	He hates the town's racist attitude and refers to it as "Maycomb's usual disease".
Miss Maudie	She is proud of "those people in this town who say that fair play is not marked White Only."
Jem	He can't believe that the jury can convict an innocent man just because he is black. "It ain't right!" he says.
Scout	She sees the hypocrisy of her teacher who opposes Hitler but supports the Tom's conviction. "It's not right to persecute anybody, is it?"

Class prejudice

As well as prejudice about people's colour, there is prejudice about people's social standing. There are strict divisions along class lines in Maycomb society. For example, Aunt Alexandra calls Walter Cunningham ‘trash’ when Scout wants to invite him over for dinner, and even Scout shows that she has been brought up more respectably when she exclaims at Walter pouring syrup over his lunch.

Examples of Class Prejudice

Character	Examples of Class Prejudice
Aunt Alexandra	Aunt Alexandra is obsessed with the superiority of the Finch family, part of the local white aristocracy. She doesn't allow Scout to play with Walter Cunningham because...
The Cunninghams	The Cunninghams are lower class whites - poor farmers, badly hit by the Depression. However they are a better class of people than...
The Ewells	They are 'White Trash' - the lowest class of whites - uneducated and poor. But even they look down upon...
The Blacks	The black community is automatically seen as at the bottom of the class system, yet since the abolition of slavery, the boundaries between them and the Ewells is less clear. This is one reason why Mr Ewell is so racist, as well as the fact that they are the only people he can pride himself as being superior too.