How does Scout's view of racism evolve in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Scout is quite young when the novel opens, around six years old. She is being raised by her father—a man with perhaps the most reliable moral compass in all of Maycomb. Despite Atticus's example, she does pick up on some of the racist language that she hears all around her, particularly due to her young age. For example, when she and Jem build a snowman and then cover him in mud in chapter 8, she reflects, "Jem, I ain’t ever heard of a n***** snowman." Scout is merely parroting the language she's heard when she makes comments like this. Later, when Francis calls Atticus a "n***** lover," Scout punches him. But she doesn't do so out of racist anger:

A n*****-lover. I ain’t very sure what it means, but the way Francis said it—tell you one thing right now, Uncle Jack, I’ll be—I swear before God if I’ll sit there and let him say somethin' about Atticus.

Atticus has not raised his daughter to even understand what terms like this mean, but Scout understands that Francis is insulting Atticus. That is what she is angry about.

Both she and Jem are fairly unaware of the ways society is structured differently for black and white people when the novel opens. Thus, when the trial begins, Scout believes that her father has the ability to defend his client well and thus prove his innocence. Both she and Jem come to some hard realizations about Maycomb after the verdict is announced:

Until my father explained it to me later, I did not understand the subtlety of Tom’s predicament: he would not have dared strike a white woman under any circumstances and expect to live long, so he took the first opportunity to run—a sure sign of guilt.

Here, Scout begins to understand how her world is different for the black people who live in it. She "did not understand" the impossibility of the situation for Tom without the guidance of Atticus. Tom can't win a battle of character in Maycomb against Mayella Ewell, because she is white—even if it is clear that she is lying.

Later, as Scout is reading Mr. Underwood's article about the trial, she understands how racism has truly impacted the outcome:

Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men’s hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.

Thus, Scout grows from a little girl who is fairly unaware of the racial divides in her small Southern town to one who understands that there is a horrible reality that exists for her black neighbors.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, how does Scout respond to racism?

Scout was very young when the Tom Robinson situation started.  She had limited understanding of the way the world worked.  Like most children, Scout was a product of her environment.  Although she had a father who was fighting for legal equality in court, she did not really understand the way the world of Maycomb worked.

Scout was surprised when people at school began to tease her because her father was defending a black man.

“Do you defend niggers, Atticus?” I asked him that evening.

“Of course I do. Don’t say nigger, Scout. That’s common.”

“‘s what everybody at school says.”

“From now on it’ll be everybody less one—”

“Well if you don’t want me to grow up talkin‘ that way, why do you send me to school?” (Ch. 9)

For Scout, racism was a mystery.  Scout had limited understanding of class too, asking Atticus if they were poor.  She complained when Walter Cunningham ate his food differently, but she also explained to the teacher that she couldn’t lend the students money they couldn’t pay back.  It was a matter of determining how things worked.

Scout’s education in racism mostly resulted from watching people’s reactions to what her father did.  She didn’t understand why others considered it wrong to defend Tom Robinson.  She was offended by her cousin Francis when he insulted Atticus.

During the trial, Scout watched with limited understanding.  Dill, who was about the same age, had a physical reaction to what he saw.  He was so horrified at the blatant racism and how Mr. Gilmer treated Tom Robinson that he had to be taken from the courtroom.  For Scout, this was another lesson in race.

Jem, who was definitely older and more experienced, was actually more naïve about racism before and during the trial.  Although he explained to Scout that different types of people were treated differently, he still held out hope that Tom Robinson would get a fair trial.

“… I’ve thought about it a lot lately and I’ve got it figured out. There’s four kinds of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes.” (Ch. 23) 

Jem really believed that Tom Robinson was going to be acquitted.  He believed in justice.  Scout, though younger, believed that Jem was counting chickens.  She was not convinced that her father had proven Tom innocent.  This was not a result of Scout being racist.  She was just trying to understand the world around her.

Throughout the course of the book, Scout gets an education is race and class relations.  She is aware on some level that the world is not fair.  She knows, for example, that the ladies who meet in Aunt Alexandra's missionary circle are hypocrites, claiming to care about children in Africa while they turn their backs on needy African Americans in their own city.

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, why does Scout become more aware of prevalent racism throughout her community?

Tom Robinson's trial for rape makes the previously latent racism in Maycomb clear to Scout. Before this time, life went on its sleepy way, and Scout didn't have to confront the town's racial divide.

When Atticus mounts a real defense of Tom, the white community of the town is ruffled. His action breaks the code of whites sticking together and presenting a united front. According to this racist way of life, a white person who accuses a black person of a crime is always considered right just because he or she has white skin.

Because Scout has to overhear Atticus being called some ugly names and because of potential physical threats, Atticus has to talk to her more about race. Miss Stephanie, who shares Atticus's ideas about race and justice, also helps Scout grow in her understanding of the racial situation in the South.

In the courtroom, Scout perceives that Tom Robinson is innocent but is still convicted. This is also a lesson on racism for her.

Scout, too, becomes more aware of racism in her community when Calpurnia takes Scout to her black church. There, Scout sees how poor the black community is—but also how they stick together against the racist white society of Maycomb.