Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses rape and racism.

In the United States in the 1940s, so-called Jim Crow laws were still in place, which enforced race-based segregation in Southern states. Although California, where If He Hollers Let Him Go is set, had fewer discriminatory laws, it still had some, including a marriage ban between white and Black people or white and Asian people. As well as facing legal discrimination, Black, Asian, and Latinx Americans were still recovering from the Great Depression in the 1930s, which had led to higher rates of unemployment among people of color than white people. In response, anti-racist activism was growing, such as the increasing activity of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Although progress was being made, the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor led to a rise in racist discrimination. Everyday instances of racism were fueled by anti-Japanese propaganda in the media and anti-Japanese government policies, such as the forced incarceration of approximately 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent due to the offensive assumption that they were loyal to or spies for Japan (“Japanese American Incarceration.” The National WW2 Museum). Conditions at concentration camps were very poor; one such center was Santa Anita Park on the outskirts of Los Angeles, which occupies Bob’s thoughts at the beginning of the novel.