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. E
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 speak to both white and colored people that night. What can you alone think of saying to them" (206). Angered, Richard responded, " The people are coming to hear the students and I won't make a speech that you've written" (206). The thought of not reading a speech that Richard wrote was terrible to Richard. He wanted to read his own speech so he could feel pride in something that he worked hard on. In one particular situation Richard was backed into a corner. It occurred when he was working for a black Yankee in an optical factory. Richard had these two co-workers, Pease and Reynolds who accused him of calling Mr. Pease, Pease. This was a battle that Richard could not win. If he confessed and said yes he did call Mr. Pease, Pease. Then he would be in a lot of trouble. If he denied it, that was even worse. That would mean that he was calling them Liars. Reynolds told Richard, " You can't call a white man a liar and get away with it" (225). Richard had no only one way of getting out of this mess, and it was to leave his job and go up north. He was scared for his life so he had no other choice. This tell's you that back during the Jim Crow era, if you have white enemies then you are in some
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Approximate Word count = 1134
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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