“Gertrude, I tell you there’s nothing more distracting than a sulky darky. Their mouths go down to here. Just ruins your day to have one of them in the kitchen.”
– Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 24. The black people of Maycomb are upset over the outcome of Tom Robinson’s trial. Here Mrs. Merriweather uses a racial slur to Mrs. Farrow about her black maid Sophy at Aunt Alexandra’s missionary circle. Women like her don’t care that Tom Robinson is wrongly convicted and have no sympathy for the black community. Yet she hypocritically laments about the awful conditions of a tribe in Africa, promising cash and support for the missionary who is trying to Christianize them.