Natasa Misic -- Journal Entry 6

Natasa Misic
Journal Entry 6
Racism- Secret life of Bee’s
The Secret Life of Bee’s has a very significant theme of race and racism throughout the first part of the book. This book shows racism at a completely different level than just the stereotypical black versus white racism. In this book Lily who is a white girl experiences racism and prejudice from her own father. She is raised to believe all black people are uneducated and don’t have futures such as lawyers or doctors. Rosaleen who is like a mother to Lily is an older African American lady yet she is the one who raised Lily more than her own father did, if you can even call him that.
Rosaleen was watching TV when the president Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into effect. Of course, this was a life changing moment for Rosaleen but Lily had no idea and did not understand what was going on. Lily said:”Her name, Rosaleen Daise, was written twenty-five times at least down the page in large, careful cursive, like the first paper you turn in when school starts.”(p27) This shows Rosaleen practicing her signature so that for the first time in history she could vote. It is a historic period in the United States history when African Americans were finally getting some rights aside from not being slaves any longer.
On their way to town where Rosaleen was going to sign her name for the first time in order to vote, she was harassed by 3 men. The men were racist, the kind of racism we are used to, and wanted to torture her and tell her she is not worth anything and that a Negro will never have any real say in “their” country. Rosaleen was a brave woman and stood up for her believes. This had her arrested and beaten because of racism.
Another significant racial part of this book was the black Mary Lily found in her mother’s things. It is symbolic that God does love black people as well and racism may one day be non-excitant. In the time period of this book takes place, slavery is abandoned however racism is very much a big problem against African Americans as well as women.