Analysis Of 12 Million Black Voices By Richard Wright

Richard Wright once stated, “… our history is far stranger than you suspect, and we are not what we seem.” Regarded as one of the most gifted contemporary African American writers Wright delved into exposing the reality of Black lives in American. Through his brilliant poetic writing and sentimentally graphic images, Wright developed a stunningly accurate story, 12 Million Black Voices. His work consists of a great scope, all in attempt to uncover a significant part of the nations history. Wright accompanies his text with many images from the Depression era that were taken by the Farm Security Administration. By doing so, Wright efforts to thoroughly represent the harsh conditions forced upon Black workers during that period becomes nothing

In reality, his work was an endeavor to merely demonstrate a reality that was not normally viewed from the eyes of a Black individual. Post memory is a concept that significantly aided Wright’s purpose of writing 12 Million Black Voices. In Part 2, Wright shares a picture of an elderly couple who are sharecroppers and victims of the brutal system, this has a strong sense of sorrow as he describes what these individuals had to endure. Black lives were often subjected to unfair laws, rules and regulations that ultimately benefited the White man. Although Wright represent the many unfortunate circumstances of the Black folk, his tone also has a sense of optimism. Wright states, “Yes, coming north for a Negro sharecropper involves more strangeness than going to another country. It is the beginning of living on a new and terrifying plane of consciousness” (Wright 99). The reality that is offered 12 Million Black Voices is one that utterly exposes the truth about Black life in America. Through the devices of post memory, powerfully sentimental images and textual evidence, Wright is able to successfully grasp his audience in order to reveal what life was like for a Black individual in that

Many of his tactics rely on the use of sorrow and emotion as he writes, “We stole words from the grudging lips of the Lords of the Lands, who did not want us to know too many of them or their meaning. And we charged this meager horde of stolen sounds with all the emotions and longings we had" (Wright 40). Heavily relying on the use of pathos, Wright is attempting to signify the motif that immigrants are the true Americans of this country. Throughout 12 Million Black Voices, Wright constantly demands that the nation should relinquish its oppressive and damaged system that negatively impacts the millions of Black lives. The power of Wright’s words is nothing but substantial, it acknowledges America’s advancement in regards to being a multinational country while simultaneously noting that advancement is not enough to offer peace, just and equality for Black lives.