Black Boy
One main point of the United States Constitution was missing from the Jim Crow South: equality. The Constitution clearly states that "all men are created equal," but in the Jim Crow era, blacks were continuously persecuted for something that would be acceptable today. During slavery the South was a place of racial prejudice, discrimination, and hate. Blacks could be punished for simply looking at a white person the wrong way. Punishments included arrests, beatings, even lynchings were a common part of the age. Blacks in this time were considered second class citizens and had basically no rights what so ever. Blacks that Richard knew, dealt with racism in different ways. One way that Richard's friend Griggs dealt with racism was to learn to act how whites wanted him to. He wouldn't do anything to make white people mad. Some advice that Griggs gave to Richard was to, "learn how to live in the South" (217). He told him to get out of white people's way and to not make them mad. Griggs main advice was to act like a black boy is suppose to. Another person who had to deal with racism was the hotel maid at Richard's old job at a hotel. She was walking out of the hotel with Richard and a white security guard grabbed her butt. Even though s
he knew exactly what happened, she just kept on walking. Richard asked her, "How could you let him do that" (234). She replied, "It don't matter. They do that all the time" (234). The hotel maid had encountered this abuse a lot so she was used to it, knowing if she spoke up she would be punished. Richard wanted to do something but she just told him, "You woulda been a fool if you had done something" (234). By this she meant to let whites do whatever they pleased. Shorty, an elevator operator, dealt with racism in a different way. As he was working the elevators one day, a white man got on. In desperate need of a quarter for lunch, he asked the white man for one. The white man refused, so Shorty stopped the elevator. He wouldn't go to the man's floor until he gave him a quarter. Shorty pulled down his pants and told him he could kick him in the butt for 25 cents. The guy did and gave the money to Shorty. Richard, who was on the elevator observing everything that had happened, said, "A quarter can't pay you for what he did to you" (270). Shorty just replied " Yeah but my ass is tough and quarters are scarce" (270). Shorty is a daring boy and he would do what ever it takes to get ahead in life. On the other hand Richard himself coped with racism in many different ways. One racist situation that Richard encountered was when he was suppose to read his valedictorian speech at his graduation. A couple of days before Richards graduation the principle of Richard's school called him in to his office. The principle gave Richard a prepared speech to read for the graduation. Richard explained to him that he had already wrote a speech. The principle told him, " Listen boy, your going to
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Approximate Word count = 1135
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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