Racism

Racism is defined as discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race.   Many civil rights activists such as Colin Powell, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X expressed their beliefs about racism and each of them became leaders of their time.   Editor John Chaffee chose to include essays and autobiographies from these leaders in his book.   Nonetheless, he didn’t choose stories that involve the violent and prejudiced times each of them went through.   None of them talk about abusive action happening or even occurring in the past.   With the excerpts or essays only including a little racial bias, it causes readers to believe these leaders never experienced the harsh effects of racism during their time.
Secretary of State Colin Powell talks about the effects of racism in an excerpt from his autobiography My American Journey.   However, only this piece is chosen out of the biography, most likely leaving out parts about the real effects and issues of racism he dealt with.   This forces readers to believe nothing exceptionally racist ever happened to Powell, or that he ever really felt severely discriminated against.  
Colin Powell graduated from the City College of New York with a degree in geology, where he participated in ROTC.   He then went on to serve the Army for thirty-five years.   In this excerpt Powell wrote about a specific time during his army years when he had to go down south to Georgia for the first time.   He wrote about what he was allowed to do   as a black man in public.   “I could go into a department store and they would take my money, as long as I did not try to use the men’s room. I could walk along the street, as long as I did not look at a white woman..”(11)   There is never any indication of what would happen if he did look at a white woman, or use the men’s room.   He only states what he couldn’t do, never saying anything about what effect would occur.  
Also, Powell went to a drive-in hamburger place one night, and a waitress... [continues]

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