African American Stereotypes Experiences In Richard Wright's Black Boy

In the early part of the 20th century, African Americans struggled to earn a living and meet their basic needs. For example, African American workers received lower wages than white workers, so it became difficult for them to support their families. Most public places were also separated by race, and the facilities provided for African Americans were usually of poor quality. One African American in particular went through a lot of persecution as a youth living in the early 20th century because of his race. His name was Richard Wright, and his book, Black Boy, accounts his experiences. The novel begins by describing Richard’s life in the Jim Crow South, and goes on to talk about his eventual moving to the North, where he seeks to find a better …show more content…
The Southern whites that Richard Wright encountered during his youth were very demanding of respect, to the point where not giving in to their demands could get an African American killed. When coming back from his job at a store one night, Richard comes across some white men who throw a whiskey bottle at him after he forgets to say "sir.": "Ain 't you learned to say sir to a white man yet?...if you said that to another white man, you might 've been a dead nigger now." (181) Wright learns here that not calling a white man "sir" was considered a serious crime to the Southern whites, and, it was something that he could even get killed for. The men that he encounters tell him that they spared his life and that he wouldn 't be so lucky if he forgot to say "sir" when talking to another white man. By having black people give in to their demands of respect, Southern whites gained a certain level of control over blacks. Many Southern whites who Richard meets believe that African Americans should not do jobs that require the person to take important positions. For example, Pease, a coworker of Wright 's when he was in an optical trade company in Memphis, told Richard that learning the optical trade was "a white man 's work" (188). When Wright attempts to work at this optical shop in Memphis, he has to work with two white men named Reynolds and Pease. Both …show more content…
For example, Wright expressed the severity of his hunger and the ways he tried to cope with it through his detailed descriptions. In addition, the author describes the whites ' sense of superiority over blacks as well as the blacks’ fear and hatred of the whites. Racism, as apparent in Black Boy, is fueled by a feeling of superiority. This feeling made Southern whites feel that they could do whatever they wanted with a race that, in their view, was lesser in status to them, such as African Americans. As a result, African Americans in the 20th century found themselves receiving lower wages than white workers, segregated from white people, and force to submit themselves to Southern white people 's