In that kind of degradingposition, and Shorty

In that kind of degradingposition, and Shorty

In the book Black Boy, we see many black people in the southof the most prominent problems for blacks seemed to be the “JimCrow” laws. These laws withheld blacks from society, breaking them apart from whites and making it veryhard for them to live an even close to normal life. Black people couldnt express their own ideas at all.They had to call all white men “sirs” and all white women “maam”.

They couldnt act the slightest bitsuperior to whites. It was almost impossible for black people to make a decent living in the south, and they alsohad to take the abuse dealt to them by he whites without even attempting ant resistance. Blacks in thesouth also had to deal with the separation aspects of the “Jim crow” laws. They had to sit in the back of thebuses, they had to use separate water fountains and bathrooms, they were looked upon almost like theyhad some sort of disease. These are just a few of the “Jim Crow” laws that the black people had to deal with.Richard was not the only one in this book dealing with racism. Allalso coping with it also, friends co-workers and family had to facethe challenges of a racist environment.

Throughout the book we see these other people dealing with theproblems of an extremely racist society. We also see how each person in Richards life deals with itdifferently. There are a few people and insience that stick out in my mind especially. The first one would have to bean incident with Shorty. Shorty has dealt with racism his whole life, and he has learned to deal with it ashe has grown. We see a great example of how Shorty deals on page 269Shorty is faced with the problem ofsouthern blacks were, and we see that he is willing to do anything” You can kick me in the ass for a quarter” (269,wright) As thiswhole thing and we can see that he is very disappointed in the wayShorty dealt with the situation. He cant understand how he can put himself in that kind of degradingposition, and Shorty simply answers.

” But a quarter cant pay for what he did to you!”But we can see Shorty thinks differently.Another example of a person that dealt differently with the Racismaround him was Uncle Hoskins. He was a man just trying to make his own in this world. Minding his ownbusiness, trying to run his own business so he could support his family. We see that he owes some money tosome white people, it seems to play a part at the time of his killing, but if you look deeper you see that themost significant reason for him being lynched was that he was a somewhat successful black man, and thewhite people didnt like that. Uncle Hoskins is just a black man who tried hard to mind his ownbusiness, and that was his way of dealing with the hardships he was faced with, but we know that no matter how hedealt with it he was never going to be left alone because he was a somewhat successful black man, andOne final example is his family.

Like his mother, and hisgrandmother. We dont really see many big incidences of them dealing with racism. We mostly just see howhard it is for them to get by in life. They dont have a lot of money, no medical care and at a few pointsRichard and his brother. It wasnt totally their decision thoughbecause it was just to hard to raise children in that situation.

They just had to deal with it by taking it one day ata time, and their really wasnt much Richard has had to deal with many racist situations. We see that hebeing treated inferior to whites. One incident that Richard wastreated racistly was when he was shopping in a convenience store in a white neighborhood, and as soon as heexited the store he was approached by the police.

He was forced to the ground and cuffed. In the end weknow he got off but he was told not to walk in white neighborhood at night. This was one situation whereRichard was not treated to badly, but we still know he was not treated like a white person and he didnt like itcalled boy, and having to call the white men “sirs”. He also didntappreciate being blamed for a crime that Another incident that Richard was treated racistly, was whenyard and he was bit by the owners dog. He was later fired becausehe complained to the boss, and though the boss didnt directly say he was firing him because he was blackor complaining we knew it because he said to Richard that he was basically lying about the pain becausedog bites dont hurt black skin. By this point in the book Richard learns to deal better with racism, but hestill has attitude about being treated differently then the white kids or adults.One final incident the Richard had to deal with was when he wasincident didnt completely have to deal with him but he gotinvolved.

When the door man at the hotel slapped his black girl friend in the ass as they were walking out ofthe hotel, Richard got pretty upset that he did that considering that the doorman was white. It was like hecouldnt understand how white people didnt like blacks, but yet the would use such sexual connotationsRichard react, as he stops and just looks at the doorman. AfterRichard decides not react violently, and got somewhat of a threat from the doorman when he just continued.

This was Richards way of “scaring” the white man without starting something physical. We see Richardsway of dealing with the racism change throughout the book. When he is younger we see how he cant helpbut get defensive, and as he gets older he learns to control himself better.Bibliography: