Me! this is about to kill a mockingbird 4. how does miss gates explain why hitler is able to treat jews so poorly in germany? what irony is exposed in her explanation? what is she forgetting or ignoring? why do you think harper lee chose to include this current events lesson in the novel? what point was she making?

Miss Gates tells that students that Hitler is able to treat Jews poorly because he is the government. She goes on to teach the children that the US is a democracy and Germany is a dictatorship. In her explanation of the differences between the countries she says that "Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced." What is ironic in her explanation is that people, including herself, are prejudiced towards African Americans. She is forgetting that Tom Robinson is being persecuted because of the prejudices the townspeople have. 
Harper Lee chooses to include this current events lesson to show how the people of Maycomb are similar to the Germans who are persecuting the Jews. However, they do not see the problem with their prejudice even though they are horrified by what Hitler is doing.