Racial Discrimination In Black Boy, By Richard Wright

Ever since the early years of America, black men and women have been the victims of numerous cases of racial discrimination and hatred. Conditions eventually changed as African Americans were able to win equal rights. Today, we even have an African American elected as president of the United States. However, this journey was never easy, as shown through the events of “Black Boy”, an autobiography written by Richard Wright. Richard Wright was an African American man, born after the Civil War, but before the Civil Rights Movement. This era was in a time when black slaves were given freedom, yet continued to suffer as victims of racial discrimination by means of legal segregation. If Richard Wright were to create an autobiography today in 2016, …show more content…
Black men and women are constantly denied the same employment opportunities due to their race or skin color. One example of racial discrimination is shown by the article, “ 'Because you’re black ': Framboise Patisserie in Middle Village, Queens, hit with $25,000 in fines, penalties in discrimination case.” In this article, authors Nathan Place and Erin Durkin, write about a case where Jamilah DaCosta, an African American woman, was denied a position at a bakery due to the color of her skin. DaCosta states that “Before I could even pull out my resume or start a formal interview, she was telling me all this negative stuff — she couldn’t hire me because I was black, I would scare away her customers.” Through this experience, it can be shown that racial discrimination is still present in today’s society. In this case, DaCosta was rejected solely based on the color of her skin. The owners of the bakery did not take into account any skills or talents DaCosta possibly may have, but due to the color of her skin being black, DaCosta was rejected from job at the bakery. Richard Wright would definitely write about such experiences of racial discrimination, since it has a huge impact on many African Americans. Due to the fact that he would be an African American living in the Southern areas of the U.S Richard would have to work many times harder than his white peers for the same …show more content…
Racial profiling has a huge adverse effect on the African American community. An article, “Florida police accused of racial profiling after stopping man 258 times, charging him with trespassing at work”, examines an extreme case of racial profiling. Author, Nina Golgowski, writes about the experiences of Earl Sampson, a victim of the racial profiling. In a span of about four years, Earl, an African American man, has been stopped and searched more than 100 times, jailed 56 times, and arrested for trespassing 62 times. This is an outrageous case as Earl had simply been going to his job at a convenience store. As a matter of fact, the only crime Earl has been convicted of was marijuana possession. In this situation, Earl is obviously a victim of racial profiling. Earl has been stopped by police multiple times simply because he is an African American man. Another case of racial profiling is in an article, “Library Visit, Then Held at Gunpoint”, an article written by Charles Blow. In January of 2015, an African American student attending Yale, was held at gunpoint by a police officer on campus. The officer had not even asking for ID or explaining any reason prior to the incident. Simply because the student appeared similar to the criminal caused the officer to overreact to the situation. The negative effects of racial profiling are evident through racial profiling cases such as