Racism is a belief that inherent differences among the various human races determined by cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others. In the book Kindred, by Octavia Butler. In the past racism wasn't considered a crime, while today if you're a racist you're not considered to be human. In the past racism wasn't considered crime. ""I treated you good," said Weylin quietly, "and you pay me back by stealing from me! Stealing my books! Reading!" He snatched the book from me and threw it on the floor. Then he grabbed me by the arm and dragged me toward the door." (p. 106) Dana gets in trouble with weylin, because she decides to steal a book of his. When the white man, Tom Weylin walks in on them he is angry because in the past "niggers  didn't read or write and definitely didn't teach other slaves either. If you were an African American, back in that time, you would be punished just for reading and better yet stealing. After this incident Dana gets dragged out of the cookhouse into the courtyard and is whipped and weakened. Mr. Weylin doesn't have a problem doing this because no slave is to read or steal books. He believes this is the right way to punish a slave. In the past it was right to whip a slave or even kill them in many different ways for their wrongdoings. In the book Kindred, Dana was a slave when she goes back into time and it is different from her present time in which she lived in modern days. She was asked many questions by slave master, Tom Weylin and his wife Margaret. She was told what to do, to clean and to eat. Dana had no freedom to herself in the past as she was a slave. The whites called her nigger which is a racist slang term for a black person. It is known as the most offensive word in English. Racism today still show and for the wrongdoings they get sued such as "The "Colbert Report" . This show "took a jab at Washington Redsk