I feel that every person should be concerned about sexism and racism, because these two issues affect everyone. “The Color Purple” is a great film that focuses on the problems faced by African American women in the early 1900s. “The Color Purple” provides a disturbing and realistic account of the life of Celie, a poor southern black woman with a sad and violent past and of Sophia, another poor southern black woman with a sad and violent past. Sexism is a form of discrimination based on a person's sex, as such attitudes are based on beliefs in traditional stereotypes of different gender roles. Sexism is not just a matter of individual attitudes; it is embedded in the institutions of society. In the film, Walker shows the difficult life of sexism for black women. For example, Celie was raped by her stepfather at the age of fourteen. He takes her children away from her and then gives her up to a man to marry whom she did not love or care for and who can only call him sir. While living with him, she had to endure his beatings and take care of her children with another woman. During that time in the South, spousal abuse was common, tolerated, and considered okay. Men were the ones who worried about whether their actions or behaviors were masculine enough. Take Harpo, for example, who found it difficult to discipline his wife Sofia. He asked his father how he can get Sofia to listen to him. Her father responds, "Did you ever hit her?" When Harpo says no, his father says, “Well, how do you expect to convince her? Wives are likeSm...... middle of paper ......ge® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, third edition.Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. March 14, 2012.http://dictionary.reference.com/ browse/RACISM>.“What's new in the color purple”. Network. March 14, 2012. http://www.movies.com/color-purple/color-purple-news/m38841 Kimmel, Michael and Michael Messner. 2007. The life of men. 7th edition. New York, NY: Allyn and Bacon. Spirit. “All men are not created equal.” Pogrebin, Letty. 1997. “The Secret Fear That Keeps Us From Raising Free Children.” Pp 171-176 in Feminist Frontiers, edited by Laurel Richardson, Verta Taylor, and Nancy Whittier.New York: McGraw Hill.http://www.answers.com/topic/racism