The Ethics of Living Jim Crow

I truly enjoyed reading Richard Wright's story about learning the ethics of Jim Crow during his life. I found this story very easy to read and engaging. The way Wright divided his story into different jobs  that he acquired during his life gave the essay a very nice flow. It was amazing to me how the fearless boy in the beginning of the story morphed into a man who was very cautious with his actions. Many of the decisions Wright was forced to make involved two options. The difficult part seemed to be that neither option was without a consequence. I felt a pain in my heart after this realization. It is not fair that black people had to live in constant fear of being tortured or killed if they did not submit to whites.

Wright's style of writing was another point that made this story engaging to read. Even though a lot of the dialogue between Wright and his coworkers was very vulgar, it woke me up to the reality of these events. This word choice also helped me realize the vast amount of physical and verbal abuse that blacks received early on. With each page, I continued to gain sympathy for this cruel treatment of blacks and felt as if I wanted to climb into the story and stand up to their abusers myself.

Although these horrible events made me very sad, they also made me very thankful for how different things are today.  It is true that racism does still exist in many places in the U.S. and may never go away entirely. The good news is that most black people no longer have to live in constant fear for their life. There are also many more people willing to take a stand against acts of racism too. We have come so far in 75 years and I hope that our country can continue working toward ending racism altogether.