"The real problem is not the Negro, but the white man's attitude toward the Negro", Thomas Pearce Baily once said this. In other words the Negro doesn't cause the problems, it is how the white persons acts towards the Negro and what he thinks about the Negro that causes the problems. This statement is proven true by two works of literature which are, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, and "The Death of Tommy Grimes," by R.J. Meaddough III.
Mark Twain proved the statement true many times throughout the book. One time was when Huck and Jim got separated in the fog, Huck had decided to play a joke on Jim and when Jim found out he got very upset. It took Huck a while to apologize to Jim and when he finally did he couldn't believe that he was humbling himself to apologize to a black man. Twain is showing us that it was unthinkable for a white person to apologize to a Negro no matter what the white person did wrong. Another time this statement is proved true is when Huck gets to Aunt Sally's house. Huck told her that his trip took so long because the boat broke down, and when she asked if any one was hurt he said "no one was hurt, only a black man was killed." This is showing how white people didn't care if blacks got hurt or killed, it was o.k. just as long as a white person didn't get hurt in the process.
"The Death of Tommy Grimes" also proves this quote true in many ways. After Tommy shoots his gun he thinks that he has killed his father or someone else, but when Tommy sees that his father is alive and his father shows him that what he has killed is a Negro he is relieved and says, "I thought I killed a man." This shows that white people only think of Negroes as property and they were on the same level as animals so it was aright to kill them. Also the way that the boys at the hut act show how Negroes were treated. The boys at the hut started to celebrate when they found out that a young boy had killed his first Negro.
