Some obvious ones come from Ewell himself. For example, when he's giving his testimony about the night in question, he stands up and points his finger at Robinson, "--I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin' on my Mayella!" It clearly wasn't enough for him to use the pejorative term "nigger"; he had to add "black" to emphasize the "horror" of it. (It is horrifying to be raped, but in this time, being raped by a ...
Some obvious ones come from Ewell himself. For example, when he's giving his testimony about the night in question, he stands up and points his finger at Robinson, "--I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin' on my Mayella!" It clearly wasn't enough for him to use the pejorative term "nigger"; he had to add "black" to emphasize the "horror" of it. (It is horrifying to be raped, but in this time, being raped by a black man was unconscionable.)
Later, when Mayella is on the stand, she decides she's "got somethin' to say": "That nigger yonder took advantage of me an' if you find fancy gentlemen don't wanta do nothin' about it then you're all yellow stinkin' cowards, stinkin' cowards, the lot of you." She goes beyond using the n-word; she practically dares the jury (all white men, of course) to vote "not guilty," because this is a time and place in which no black man would stand a chance if accused of raping a white woman--even if the white woman was an uneducated, hateful woman who lived off the county.
When Tom is put on the stand, finally, Mr. Gilmer uses language designed to remind him of "his place": "Then you say she's lying, boy?" Calling a fully-grown black man "boy" was one of the many techniques used by Southern whites (in particular) to demean them and deny them their manhood based entirely upon the color of their skin.
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