Traces of Institutional Racism in Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys

Abstract

Using the notion of institutional racism, this paper discusses The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. In this novel, a young African American is trapped by racism and ends up in a reform school in Florida. It is based on the real-life Dozier Reform School, which was notorious for its long history of abuse and cruelty. This study analyses the mechanisms of the evil social powers that do not allow a growing black personality to develop a respectable life within American society. The paper also considers how these forms of institutional racism are applied in various social establishments as such, like the education system, a law enforcement body, and the judicial system, to prevent black progress and keep white supremacy. It references the ideas of black criminality and the prison industrial complex to identify different racist ideologies behind institutional racism as well as to provide adequate historical details about the conditions in which the novel is set. Additionally, in the analysis of this study, methods proposed by Colson Whitehead to resist and surmount these forms are presented.