I put it behind me.” Charlotte Phelan said this to her daughter after firing the negro woman that raised her. This type indifference was fuel for racism in the 1930s. White citizens could frequently be found acting as if the way they treated the African-American portion of society didn’t matter because it didn’t affect them. Perhaps they were indifferent due their fear of change. “She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it. She persisted, and her subsequent reaction is something that we have all known at one time or another. She did something every child has done— she tried to put the evidence of her offense away from her. But in this case she was no child hiding a stolen contraband: she struck out at her victim, — of necessity she must put him away from her— he must be removed from her presence, from this world. She must destroy her offense.” (Lee