Stratification Media Analysis
Adriane Benjamin
SOC/100
Becky Russell

Stratification Media Analysis
A Time to kill is a film about an African American family living in a small town in Mississippi, where the daughter of an African American couple was raped by a white male that was an affiliated with the Klu Klux Klan. The father of the little girl ended up having to stand trial because he killed one of the men that were involved in his daughter’s rape. He had a long-time friend by the name of Jake Brigance, who were a white male. The main idea circled around whether a black man should ever be allowed to kill a white man, under any circumstances. The issue is not murder but discrimination, and it is compound by the fact that America is a primarily a white country. The issue through this all was racism and being in the south in 1984, where whites still treated the blacks poorly.
“This was Mississippi, where for years whites shot blacks for any reason or no reason and no one cared; where whites raped blacks and it was considered sport; where blacks were hanged for fighting back.”
― John Grisham, A Time to Kill
Set in the deep south of the back fields of northern Mississippi in the 1980’s, the setting was perfect for there to be battle between the blacks and the white, as it has been brewing since before the civil rights days. Placing the story in this time and place is the most natural discovery of buried hatchets and the most subtle revelations of festering wounds and double standards. The start of the film you will see a couple of white males by the name of Billy Ray Cobb and Pete Willard riding down a dirt road in a pickup truck with a confederate flag hanging inside, a perfect picture of a stereotyped redneck.
The confrontation started when a ten year old of a respected African American family was raped and the suspects were white males that were uneducated and unemployed in any respectable fashion. The suspects went for a preliminary hearing with a judge, but as they were exiting the father decided to take matters into his own hands by riddling the suspect’s body with bullets with a M-16 rifle, right in the courthouse.
The facial expressions were full of hate because what this black man had did to these white men. Billy Ray Cobb's brother Freddie Lee Cobb wants revenge on Carl, so Freddy gets the help of the Mississippi branch of the KKK, led by Mississippi grand dragon Stump Sisson. a KKK member is found trying to plant a bomb under Jake's porch. Jake's secretary Ethel Twitty and her husband Bud are also attacked by the KKK. On the day the trial begins, there is a riot outside the court building between the KKK and the area's African-American residents. the KKK start burning crosses throughout Mississippi. One of the crosses burned down Carl Lee Hailey’s attorney’s house, he was in fact a white man. They were out to get all that help him with his defense. The fire was a symbol of hatred/conflict, Associated with KKK: baptism of fire, burning crosses, Kale's house, torches, Klan Leader burns to death. The irony of it was the baptism/death, bomb explosion. They killed the dog Max whom belonged to Jake. To jake the dog was a symbol of hope to the KKK, they referred to the dog as a symbol of hatred. They showed hatred to the little girl Tonya, because they had destroyed her innocence. KKK leader who wears red symbolize fire which symbolize power and hatred.
Stratification is a system in society which is based on a hierarchy of power, privilege, and prestige; this then leads on to what is called social inequality. Social inequality is commonly tied to ethnicity, class and gender. Many viewpoints arise on the topic of social inequality. Some may say that social inequality is “getting better” or nearly nonexistent in this day and age, because many Americans like to deny the fact that inequalities still exist in a country that is supposed to be accepting of all. On the discussion of social inequalities, many white males may either feel blamed or targeted, or they may deny that it exists all together because they have never experienced it.
In conclusion, the facts will always remain the same Explain sociological theories of social inequality – is it a good or bad thing? Unequal opportunities are what is mentioned a lot when social inequality is brought up; unequal opportunities for different social status’ as well as different ethnicities. Moreover, the majority of the Upper Class and Middle Class in this country are white families and the South Asian community and African as well as Eastern European so being treated differently in regard to social status links in very heavily to ethnicity as it coincides to an extent. There are a lot of opportunities that certain people in society do not have. Inequality of opportunities in Lehman’s terms is not getting the same chance at a better life because of your skin color or gender or social class. As previously mentioned, why is a black male who was publicly educated more likely to spend time in prison than a white man who in return had a private education as therefore he is more likely to ascribe wealth and success because of this inequality of opportunities.