Benito CerenoBy Herman Melville
...up and saying these comments is normal, but they don’t necessarily imply a racist attitude. When citizens grow up in a mixed culture of different people they are not as likely to have this racism. He was gratified with their manners: like most uncivilized women, they seemed at once tender of heart and tough of constitution, equally ready to die for their infants or fight for them. Unsophisticated as leopardesses, loving as doves. Ah! thought captain Delano, these, perhaps, are some of the very women whom Ledyard saw in Africa, and gave such a noble account of. (Melville, 63) Melville just described how caring and loving the mothers are. Is that racist? People can not impart such good qualities upon others they look down upon. This is coming from Melville’s heart not the character. The characters are racist and this quote is not from them. All throughout Benito Cereno, Melville has racist remarks. There are way too many of them to just be a reflection of the character; moreover some are deep. Melville was brought up in a racist society where the blacks and other cultures were looked down upon. It is difficult to avoid being racist, growing up in a racist culture. Melville’s culture had strong views and racist beliefs. We have been brought up in a society whereby our history books tell us they are lesser beings and of them being enslaved once. If people grew up somewhere in the city or where there is a mixed culture, they might not think this way. Even some people who grow up with many different cultures are the slightest bit racist just because of how they have been brought up, either by their parents or their surroundings. In so many small towns there is not a mixed culture. When people grow up in a small town with not a lot of races they are more likely to become slightly racist. Once humans go into the world and experience different cultures they know they are different but don’t believe they are inferior. Melville’s time period shows how someone can easily be racist and if they are not, they are ostracized. There is something in the Negro which, in a peculiar way, fits him for avocations about one’s person. Most Negroes are natural valets and hairdressers, taking to the comb and brush congenially as to the castanets, and flourishing them apparently with almost equal satisfaction. (Melville, 73) The quote above shows how Melville is openly sharing his racism. That’s how people of his time period thought of the blacks and other cultures. They believed there was a place for the blacks in this world and it was of a lesser class and dignity. They didn’t have good jobs; blacks ...