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A century earlier, when American Protestants blamed the social and economic upheavals of the times on newly arrived Catholic immigrants, many people lost their lives in the violent riots that plagued most eastern cities. Of course, history’s most outrageous and deadly example of the dangers of scapegoating occurred in Germany in the first half of the twentieth century. Adolf Hitler centered the Third Reich around the belief that the Jewish people were to blame for literally all of the problems then facing Aryan Germans.

As the students interact, they begin to break down the artificial walls that divide them and learn of the reality of each person. Yet their individual realities include the very real constraints they face as a result of the power of cliques in the school. For example, the society girl at one point admits that while she has developed relationships with the other four, she probably will not speak to some of them in the hall the following Monday because she fears the ramifications: namely, she knows that if she were to speak to a nerd she would be ostracized by the members of the society clique.

Yet, whether legal or lethal, the Klan’s activities sent one clear message: no “boy” would be allowed to freely exercise the rights held sacred by white men. As the twentieth century dawned, prejudicial treatment of blacks persisted. When the Great Depression took hold in the 1930s, black men suffered more than most. Because blacks already were clinging to the bottom-most rungs of the economic ladder, they were displaced by the crash in disproportionate numbers. ” Only tip-driven service positions—valeting, bell-hopping, shoe-shining— remained fully open to black males.