Richard Wright's The Ethics Of Living Jim Crow

Growing up in the South during the 1920’s, Richard Wright, the author of “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow”, written in 1940, portrays the difficulties of life as a young Black man. Born the grandson of slaves and the son of a sharecropper, the largest influence in Wright’s life was his mother (Biography 1). As a young boy with minimal supervision, Wright found himself getting into trouble while fighting with the White boys. While living in Arkansas Wright and his friends would engage in gang violence, it was White vs. Black and the disadvantages of the Black fighters was evident. Only having cinder blocks as weapons and a few pillars to hide behind, the Black boys knew they were fighting a losing battle when the Whites returned fire with broken

Without finishing school, Wright did not have a specialty trade and would have to settle for a job of labor in the White communities. “There is but one place where a black boy who knows no trade can get a job, and that’s where the houses and faces are white” (Wright 3). Now, Wright would have to work for the same people who are perpetrating violence and and cruelties against him. Wright’s first job was at an optical company in Jackson, Mississippi (3). Desperate for this job, Wright acted as the perfectly as a black boy could in America’s South during the 1920’s. He made sure to pronounce all of his “sirs” very clearly so that the boss would know that he was polite and knew his place in society (4). While working in the Optical Company, Wright had hoped to learn something about the business and work his way up the leadership chain. Trying to learn and better his life, he makes the mistake of asking one of the White men he works with about the mechanics and process of grinding lenses (4). The white man, Morrie, would not take to this kindly or make any effort to help him because in their society and in the White opinion, African Americans were not smart, “‘Whut yuh tryin’ t’ do, N, git smart?’” (4), Morrie asked Wright. Wright was like any other teenage boy with goals and dreams, he wanted to the opportunity to succeed but unfortunately was living in

Having to work everyday surrounded by Whites, there were certain rules that Wright as a black man needed to follow. Specifically, later in Wright’s life he would take a job as a hall boy in a hotel (Wright 11). Wright explains how here his “Jim Crow education broadened and deepened” (11). The main occupants of this hotel were prostitutes and there were rules for the black employees who worked these rooms. They could not look at these women, they were to take their bodies for granted because these women felt no shame being nude around the Black employees because they were not considered human (11). When one of the bell-boys was caught having sexual relations with one of the prostitutes he was castrated and ran out of town, but was also a “might lucky bastard” (12) that his punishment was not worse. Participating in normal acts of society was not even allowed to the Black men and caused horrendous violence but even a look at the wrong time could have caused the end of Wright’s life. On his way home with one of the maids from the hotel, a watchman slapped the maid on her buttock, and Wright turned around and was baffled by the action of the watchman (12). The watchman returned Wright’s gaze and pulled his gun, before asking Wright if he liked what had just happened. Fearing for his