Racial profiling in "Ragtime, My Time".
In the article "Ragtime, My Time," Alton Fitzgerald White went though life doing everything right. He was raised to be respectful and had great manners. White was very successful in life. In the play "Ragtime, My Time," White uses an analogy to compare himself to the main character in the play. Throughout the article, White gives vivid details of what he went though in one day, being racially discriminated against by the law enforcement.
In the article, White doesn't understand why this discrimination is happening to him. Whites" voice fluctuates throughout the whole paper. In the beginning, he has a pleasant tone. He talks about his life as he grows up and how successful he is now. Further in the article he is angry, disappointed, even shocked at what is taking place in his own condo complex. I would even say he is dumfounded at the racial discrimination by the police officers.
White also illustrates a strong point in the article. No matter how hard you work and what you do, you will always be racially discriminated against for the color of your skin. White is a very successful black man in the city in which he lives. Everyone knows him but he is still put in handcuffs, taken to jail, and harassed for at least five or more hours. The officers on duty saw a black man so they just took him to jail, just for his color. Although the officers where supposed to be looking for two Hispanic men, they still arrested three black men including White. "The police automatically linked us to .
Hernandez 2.
them with no questions and no regard for our character or our lives." (White 422).
White also appeals to what is happening using logic. He has a clean record, has never done anything wrong. He is a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time. He helped the officers get in to the building, so why did they arrest him? Why did the officers tell him to stay there? Why did they search him and his backpack over and over again? Instead of being thanked for helping them, he was put under arrest and taken to jail.