Autobiography Of An Ex-Colored Man Analysis

Identifying with a certain race brings people to a place they can usually belong to; the people around them have the same general values and thoughts. The narrator in ‘The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man’ by James Weldon Johnson belongs to two races. His skin color is that of a white man but his facial features are that of a black man. The narrator grows up with limited views about the African American social views. This leads the narrator to believe he can better the social views of the black man. The character is a commentary on how racism affects the world.
The narrator was born in Georgia and then moved to Connecticut where he and his mother lived. When the narrator enters school he believes he is white, around the age of ten the narrator …show more content…
In the book, it is stated that this was the best place to get a meal as a black man. This information only emphasizes on the fact that the black man is part of the lower class. In the book, it also mentions the dialect of the black class to show emphasis on them being part of the lower class. ‘I paused long enough to hear one man say to another: “w’at’s de mattah wid you an’ yo’ fr’en Sam?”’ (James Weldon Johnson pg 423). The dialect also shows that they are not as educated if they are educated at all. With this the narrator continues his journey throughout the South, he goes to New York with a group of people in this group of people, the word ‘nigger’ is used freely. ‘I noticed that among this class of coloured men the word “nigger” was freely used in about the same sense as the word “fellow,” and sometimes as a term of almost endearment;...’ (James Weldon Johnson pg 443). In the beginning of this book, the little white boys used this word to emphasize that the narrator found out he was black. Except now as he is with these people who use this word as ‘endearment’ and as a joke, he was …show more content…
Their meaning crystallizes perceptions that shape our beliefs, drive our behavior, and ultimately, create our world.” (Dr. Habib Sadeghi, The Scary Power of Negative Words). As stated by Dr. Sadeghi, words have a power that shape what people do. They have a sway on our actions, beliefs and how we view the world. The group of men that the narrator was with were taking a word that the white men were using to hurt them and changing it to a different meaning for them. They changed the ‘power’ of the word among themselves, but the white men still used it to hurt them. Also, the word for white men is used to coincide with