The stable male, who is African-American, is often bossed around. However, he is not commanded because of the color of his skin; the job he has is almost a servant of some kind. The fact that he was black in those days most likely prevented him from getting better jobs. There was still a lot of racism in the early 1900s, which is when the book is set. (some government article). Steinbeck, while writing this book, instead of inventing a fairy tale, decided to write the cold, hard truth, for better or for worse. What the reader gets from this novel is a good read, accurate to the time period. The book's historical advantages and its accurate depiction of life in this time period are what makes it famous. Of Mice and Men is the result of Steinbeck's research into the American socioeconomic culture of the time. Crooks, the groom, was included in the book because he shows us racial separation in the 1930s. His presence shows us that blacks of this era are not respected and considered less important than whites. So the question of the book being racist has an answer: it is racist, but there is justification for it. Steinbeck did not try to romanticize this time period; he wrote what he saw in everyday life. In the 1920s and 1930s racism was still present in society: there were separate bathrooms, schools,