RACIAL OPPRESSION EXPERIENCES BY AFRICAN AMERICAN SLAVES IN HARRIETTE GILLEM ROBINET'S FORTY ACRES AND MAYBE A MULE

Children‘s literature does not only as important role to educate young reader but also to raise racial awareness, especially for African American race. A novel entitled Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule by Harriette Gilem Robinet raises an issue of racial oppression experienced by African American characters. Portrayed as a young boy growing up in slavery era and Reconstruction, Pascal and other black characters have to deal with kinds of oppression from white people. Thus, this study aims to examine how racial oppression is presented in the story. To examine the novel, the writer applies African American Criticism, specifically Feagin‘s Oppression theory. There are six features that had explained by Feagin about how systemic racism works in this theory and also connected on to one thing, white economic domination. Hence, the writer synchronizes and elaborates the conflicts in the novel to these features. This study is a qualitative research where the data is taken from the novel, library research, journals, and other resources, which are appropriate in conducting the analysis. This study shows racial oppression toward Pascal and other black characters happened because it was structured by white people in order to receive many benefits. Many kinds of oppression occur in this story and lead to stereotype, prejudice, marginalized, and etcetera that white as a powerful oppressor and blacks as oppressed group