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African American Discrimination In The 1930s

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Nelson Mandela once said, “We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination” (Mandela 69). The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines discrimination as “The practice of unfairly treating a person or group of people differently from other people or groups of people.” Every group of people in America was affected by social problems in the 1930s. Discrimination was a big problem among African-Americans, all women, and mentally disabled. To begin with, black people were discriminated against in the 1930s. Although the African-American population had already been living with discrimination before the Great Depression, black people seemed to suffer worse than …show more content…
If a woman could find a job, it tended to be low level and low paying jobs (Beach 1). Most women were part of families that had a man as the head of the family. The man was in charge and made the money for the family’s survival, and women were to care for the household. The women that were widowed, divorced, or deserted by their husbands, struggled with supporting their families: single women had to fend for themselves (Ware 1). Women were seen as the weaker sex, even in the book, Of Mice and Men. Curley’s wife was the only known female character. Even though her character had a major part in the novel, she didn’t have a name. She is called “Curley’s wife” throughout the book, which leads us to believe that she wasn’t important.. The male workers call her names like “tramp”, “jail bait”, and a “tart”. George called Curley’s wife a tramp when she came into the bunkhouse, “What a tramp” (Steinbeck 32). George also said, “I seen ‘em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jailbait worse than her” about Curley’s wife (Steinbeck 32). “I think Curley’s married... a tart” was said by Candy (Steinbeck …show more content…
Electroconvulsive therapy and lobotomies were introduced and performed on patients in the 1930s. Psychiatrists would claim that electroshock therapies worked by "shocking" the illness out of patients (Freeman 1). Lobotomies were surgical procedures performed on mentally ill patients. The operation consisted of cutting nerve pathways in the frontal lobes of the brain (Mical 1). This procedure was not something families wanted their loved ones to go through. Families took care of their mentally disabled relatives. In the book, Of Mice and Men, George promised Lennie’s Aunt Clara that he will care for Lennie, a man suffering from some kind of mental illness. George and Lennie traveled to find jobs. They worked together. George would stick up for Lennie and helped him when he would get in

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