Ok I especially liked this reading because it described how African Americans lived in the south after "slavery" was over. Richard Wright, describes how the blacks lived on the other side of the tracks. This right here describes segregation to me. Jim grow says that nothing green ever grew in his yard and how his house had a skimpy yard that was paved with black cinders. He describes that the only people that saw green in there yard were the "whites". There was a game where children would play by throwing cinders at ecah other. I was really shock to read that even the white children were racist. I came to this conclusion because, insteacd of the white kids throwing cinders back they threw glass bottles which in fact cut Jim. You would think that the children were a little more remorcefull than the grown ups but they were just as bad as there white parents.
I dont believe in beating children in order for them to learn leasons, but i can understand why the mother did. She was scared for her son. She knew how bad things could get. I think that next time, she feared one of the white kids would kill him. I think she also wanted him to learn early, that even if the blacks fight against the whites that they will loose. After his mother beat him he said " I was never to fight any more wars"....... " I was never,never under any condition, to fight WHITE folks again". I think he learned his lesson.
Slavery might have been over, but you can tell that there was still segregation. The blacks had, black school, black churches, black teachers, and black groceries. The mother actually works all day everyday for a white family. Too me she was still considered a slave to the white people. Slvery might have been over but the blacks were still suffereing. What started off as a game enden in black boy being hurt. The blacks want social change. Its horrible how racist the whites are, they dont even want the black people to learn because they dont want them to be smart. I think they dont want them to be smart ennough, because then they will want to fight for more rights.
This story was written to describe the "old South" but let me say something......... These things are still happening. It may not be in the same way but racism has never ended.
3 comments:
I liked your interpretation of The Ethics of Living Jim Crow, including where you mention that Richard’s mother tried to impart a lesson after his childhood fight with whites involving the broken bottles. I think you are right that she was scared for her son that if he did not accept the system of segregation that they were living in and accept his place as subservient to whites that he would be killed. However, I do no think he learned this lesson. Instead, when he says he was never to fight whites anymore, I think he was employing sarcasm, like when he uses the words “lucky” and “thankful” in other places in this piece to describe how blacks should feel about their mistreatment by whites since they evaded death. Here I think he is simply expressing his mother’s words to show the dichotomy between her, a woman who had internalized racism and segregation, and him, someone who is fighting the system. He is shown to be fighting the system in asking for knowledge at one of his jobs, in the library situation, and in the occurrences in the elevator he describes. Also, this piece was written by Richard Wright to fight the system of white privilege; thus I think he never stopped fighting whites.
Black people were definitely still suffering at this point. It was obvious that freedom did not mean equality at this point in time. Freedom seems to mean very little. The black people are still much oppressed and at any time it seems as though they can be held accountable for whatever the white man says happened. The white men were able to make sure that blacks did not advance in society by pressuring and threatening them into situations that would not allow them to gain knowledge. The utmost amount of respect was to be expected of black people towards the whites, while much disrespect was shown in return. While the blacks were referred to as free, they were still very much under the control of white society.
I also liked this reading because it gave me an idea of what life was like for African American people in the south after slavery was over, and it's sad because they still had no rights and were looked upon like they had no feelings at all. They had to live by the laws of the white people and weren't even allowed to learn trades. I also don't believe in beating children in order for them to learn lessons, but I can see why Wrights mother beat him instead of giving him sympathy. She was scared that if it happens again he may not be so lucky, and could get him self killed. So out of concern for her childs safety, she beat him because she wanted to make sure he knew not to fight with the white kids again.
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