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Luis Hernandez
Professor Batty
English 113A
20 October 2014
The Prejudice Life
In the 1940s one of the biggest issue that impact the whole world historically was the
Holocaust. The Holocaust was one of the most racist events in history that claimed up to 20
million lives. Many Jews were killed because they didnt fit the image that Adolf Hitler viewed
German as being. Even after the Holocaust, people still continue to be racist to each other. They
show racism in many ways by putting each other on categories. Prejudice plays a huge role on
society since the first living human.
When someone hears about the Holocaust, they think about the lost of the Jewish. In the
David S. Wyman institute for Holocaust Studies, their political cartoon; Dr Seuss and the
Holocaust has a view on how the holocaust might have been. The cartoon has Hitler singing in
the front with some chunky man in a black suit and hat, while in the back of him there are people
hanging by a rope with a sign that says Jew . Hitler is wearing an arm band around his arm
with the Nazi sign indicating his symbol. Adolf Hitler is clearly the one in power in this drawing
because he has some rope on his hand. The background is pitch black; it makes the drawing seem
like a horror picture with no leafs on the tree. The purpose of this image explains that just
because the Jewish didnt fit into the German typical race category of being tall and masculine,
Hitler decided that they had to be killed or simply cage in and treated as if they were animals.

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As a result of Jews being killed, there were even more harsh deaths. In Steve Greenbergs
political cartoon, Holocaust and Darfur on the left side of the picture there is a Jewish man
who is behind some barbwire fence. The barbwire fence made a prison for all Jews called the
Concentration Camp, where all non German people were put into, to suffer a harsh death. It was
a harsh living condition for them because the camps were just filthy from trash, people dying
from the diseases, no food or water and the amount of space for them to have been very tight.
The Jewish man in this political cartoon is really sad and really weak. There is a really bright
light around that stands out in the black; this might represent some kind of hope. That he will one
day get out of the misery he is living in. Also the lines are vertical making it look boring. The
imagine represents that Jews were imprison for being weak and different. This explains that
prejudice is one of the key things to racism in the world including in the US.
Although it is true, that racism was commonly seen in the Holocaust, society till this day
show signs of racism towards other ethnicity. In Black Men and Public Spaces by Brent staples
he starts out by saying, My first victim was a womenI came upon her late one evening
deserted street in Hyde ParkI swung onto the avenue behind herShe cast back a worried
glanceshe picked up her pace and was soon runningwithin Seconds she disappeared into the
street.(Staples 182) The first part of the text shows the whole concept of prejudice towards one
race. The way Brent Staples starts his story by setting the tone of his story as shame full and
shock that there are people who still judge others because of their appearance and race.
Throughout the whole story he talks about society fearing a black man walking down the street
that isnt out at night trying to hurt anyone; he is just trying to take a nightly walk in his city.
Staples own experience lives in him because he passed through so much racial discrimination.
For example, Martin Luther King Jr. is an African American who tries to stop racism. He did all

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he could to stop racism and succeed. If King was put into the black race category as Staples, it
would have not defined Martin Luther king because he was a black man who wanted the best for
America and was not a gang member. Thats the same thing that Jews passed through in their
everyday lives. Even Jewish individuals had to walk around their streets with a star on them
indicating what race they were. If they didnt have a star there was another more racial way that
Nazi saw Jews as, it was that they had long noses and had curly hair. It is so difficult for
someone like a Jew to be punished for simply having a different appearance than a German.
Even though the US doesnt hurt other race physically, Staples talks about race being judge
because of the way their put as on society.
Society categorizes so many races, that now people judge a specific race as they are seen
through societys knowledge of them. For instants, a Mexican American is seen as gangsters
and gardeners who came from the other side of the border. Society has put low status on Latinos
that they wouldnt even think that one of those Latinos might have a PHD and be a really great
medical doctor. This leads to my cartoons, they explain the harsh treatment one specific race
suffer for having a different appearance and belief.
In other words, the status for a Caucasian in the American society is that they are well
educated and have really good jobs that well support their families with a nice clean friendly
neighborhood. Compare to an African American family they live in poverty with neighborhoods
so dirty that there are rats roaming around carrying dieses and they do not have enough education
to help them succeed in life. Africans have a similar live as Jews did in the holocaust; they lived
in rough conditions because society didnt accept them for who they were.
As a result of the holocaust, the U.S. has also shown that they are racist towards other
ethnicities as well. United States dont try to kill other race for being different but they do put

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them in specific categories. Putting people in different categories just for being different is like
being put into a Concentration Camp, because they will never be equal to all ethnicity. It seems
that the whole world focuses mainly on how someone looks, rather than being judge for who
they are inside personally.

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Works Cited Page

"Dr. Seuss and the Holocaust in France." World. Ed. Rafael Medoff. JNS.org, 16
July 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.jewishjournal.com/world/article/dr_seuss_and_the_holocaust_in_fra
nce_20120716/>.

Greenberg, Steve. "Holocaust and Darfur." Jewish Journal of Greater Los

Angeles, 6 May 2005. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.
http://www.greenberg-art.com/.Toons/.Toons,%20Jewish/Darfur.html

Staples, Brent. Black Men and Public Spaces. New York,Ny: McGraw-Hill, 2003.
Print.

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Appendix

"Dr. Seuss and the Holocaust in France"

"Holocaust and Darfur"