A Legacy of Racism: Humanity vs. Race
             The United States boasts a paradigm of the "American Dream", which
             includes the ideal of equal opportunities for all. And indeed, this
             appears to finally show some vestage of truth. However, human rights
             abuses still continue to pervade the lives of many even today. Because of
             social and racial factors for example many families are forced to live in
             conditions not even deemed fit for an animal. In the colonial period
             especially there was a tendency among white Americans to treat African-
             Americans as less than animals, and to derive entertainment from it.
             This sad fact is shown in "A Party Down at the Square" by Ralph
             Ellison, "Night, Death, Mississippi" by Robert Hayden and "Jasper Texas
             1998" by Lucille Clifton. The title of the short story by Ellison suggests
             excitement, and indeed so do the opening lines of the story. It is however
             soon revealed that the "party" referred to is no dancing, singing
             collection of individuals. A "nigger" is involved. The end of the first
             paragraph shows that the crowd sets themselves apart from the nigger that
             is to provide the spectacle (p. 228). The people in the crowd are cold,
             but show no sympathy towards the black man who is trying to stop his
             The crowd loses their humanity not only with regard to the black man,
             but also their own kind. The burning is soon interrupted by a plane that
             nearly crashes, which provides a momentary distraction from the spectacle
             promised by the burning. Again, there is something inhuman in the crowd's
             enjoyment of this spectacle. A woman is electrocuted, and nobody mourns
             her, but everybody wants to see (p. 231). When this spectacle has served
             its purpose, the crowd rushes back to the original "party".
             It is at this time when Ellison makes his most significant comment
             about white American inhumanity. The black man's trouser...