Prejudice Against Outcasts

            Some of the short stories that we have read such as “The Lemon Orchard” by Alex La Guma, “Dumb Martian” by John Wyndham, and “Let Them Call it Jazz” by Jean Rhys have a very common theme of Discrimination against the outcasts from a society. Racism usually happens due to ethnic differences such as looks. All these short stories/essays are attempting to implement in the readers’ mind how outcasts and the people who are oppressed feel, and how they deserve just as equal rights and respect as anyone else would. The implications of racism are violence, blood shed, for the struggle for power.

            Racism in the history of the world has always caused oppression even though oppression is most commonly the root of racism, for example in the story “Lemon Orchard” by Alex La Guma, a black man is abused by white men “The colored man’s wrists were tied behind him with a riem and the leader brought the muzzle of the shotgun down”[1], all because he asked for money, which is shown when a white man says “The amazing thing about it is that this bliksem should have taken the principal, and the meester of the church before the magistrate and demand payment for the hiding the gave him for being cheeky to them”[2]. In this case these white men in South Africa are scaring him and beating him up so that they can keep the other black men as well as him under their thumb, therefore be able to control them, and make them do only what they want. They also use offensive words so as to make the black men think that they are inferior, some words and phrases used were “hotnot, bliksem, and educated Bushmen”[3]. All these ways have been used and at some places are still used so that they can feel superior to another kind of ethnic group. Therefore, oppression is done as to still have it installed in peoples’ minds that one race is better than another.