GREENWOOD, Miss. – A videotaped scuffle between a black teenager and a white police officer who twice pulled his gun in a crowded high school hall has prompted a $1 million lawsuit, accusations of racism and calls for the officer’s dismissal. The Dec. 6 school surveillance tapes that show the officer pointing his gun at the back of the unarmed teenager’s head were released Friday as part of discovery in student James Marshall’s lawsuit.

This article is proof that racism is still a very large part of today’s world. This article was posted only a few days ago. Racism is very much existent, especially in cities where racism has been a reoccurring theme. The fact that the police officer was white while the teenager was African American incites feelings of racism because the white person is the “bigger, stronger” individual, with a weapon, threatening the life of an African American. Sound familiar? Incidents like this are very common with policemen. It horrifies me that they think they can just pull a gun on anybody and nobody will think twice about it just because they are the ones “in charge.” Just because someone is a policeman does not mean they can threaten just anybody, especially in a crowded high school. News like this upsets me, but also intrigues me. How far can humans go before they realize what they are doing is so taboo it will make the news? How far will humans go anyway? Racism can definitely tie into our other theme of evil, where racism can blind someone, making them go into senseless rage and do things they wouldn’t normally do. People stop and stare, and wonder how someone can be so ridiculously twisted in their thinking, but sometimes the intense feeling of racism can do that to someone. I could never, ever imagine hating someone so much just because the color of their skin.

The first few paragraphs of this narrative are pretty shocking. Annie L Burton writes:

The memory of my happy, care-free childhood days on the plantation, with my little white and black companions, is often with me…Our days were spent roaming about from plantation to plantation, not knowing or caring what things were going on in the great world outside our little realm. Planting time and harvest time were happy days for us.

It’s amazing to me because this is the first narrative I have ever read by a slave that describes her days a slave “happy and care-free.” This really opens my eyes to the varying degrees of slavery that was implemented in that time. Apparently, some slave owners were kinder than others:

I owe a great deal to Mis’ Mary for her good training of me, in honesty, uprightness and truthfulness. She told me that when I went out into the world all white folks would not treat me as she had, but that I must not feel bad about it, but just do what I was employed to do, and if I wasn’t satisfied, to go elsewhere; but always to carry an honest name.

This relates to Huck Finn in the idea that Jim’s owner, Miss Watson, was not particularly kind to Jim. Jim tells Huck, “Ole missus-dat’s Miss Watson-she pecks on me all de time, en treats me pooty rough…” Annie’s foster family was very nice to her, gave her an allowance, and taught her how to read, write , and cook.

Annie also writes that she “never knew what shoes were until I got big enough to earn them myself.” This little detail is in there, and she still seems to have enjoyed her youth on the plantation. It makes me wonder that if someone is raised a certain way, they have such low expectations that many things can satisfy them. For example, a child raised today in the USA would be upset without shoes, but in a third world country they might be grateful just to have clothes. Many parts of the blog is also described with little or no emotion, but I think this makes the narrative much more powerful. When Annie is describing her father, she says:

I will venture to say that I only saw my father a dozen times, when I was about four years old; and those times I saw him only from a distance, as he was driving by the great house of our plantation. Whenever my mistress saw him going by, she would take me by the hand and run out upon the piazza, and exclaim, ” Stop there, I say! Don’t you want to see and speak to and caress your darling child? She often speaks of you and wants to embrace her dear father. See what a bright and beautiful daughter she is, a perfect picture of yourself. Well, I declare, you are an affectionate father.” I well remember that whenever my mistress would speak thus and upbraid him, he would whip up his horse and get out of sight and hearing as quickly as possible…I never spoke to him, and cannot remember that he ever noticed me, or in any way acknowledged me to be his child.

This entire description is used with any emotion or feeling. However, this also lets the reader connect and form their own opinions without being influenced. Annie wrote a very long narrative that described her experiences before, during, and after slaves were freed. It is really interesting to read her life and see how different it was from mine, or anyone else’s today. The change from slavery to freedom must have been joyful and confusing at the same time.

In this narrative I expect to hear slavery from a child’s point of view. I don’t expect anything mild or pleasant, because slavery is far from that. Most narratives I have read before contain vivid details. I like reading them because they make me thankful for my life and reveal how horrifying slavery was.