Race Racism and Violence in Ann Petry's 'The Witness'

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature Works grade: 20 course: African American Women Writers language: English abstract: To introduce my term paper Race and Violence in Ann Petry's The Witness I want to start with the definitions of the three terms race racism and violence mentioned in the title. Regarding to the expressions I want to say something about the U.S. history and about the current situation in the United States of America with reference to the African American people. The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary explains race as follows: one of the main groups that humans can be divided into according to their physical differences for example the colour of their skin; a group of people who share the same language history culture etc. Racism means the unfair treatment of people who belong to a different race; violent behaviour towards them; the belief that some races of people are better than others The history of racism in the United States of America goes back to 17th century and should have come to an end with the American Civil War (1861-1865) and the abolition of slavery (1865). Unfortunately the abolition of slavery was not the end of the African American martyrdom. It was the beginning of prejudices discrimination violence and struggle. When we think of racism against African American people we think of a long and torturous way African Americans had to go and still go nowadays.