As far as race relations go, white people believed that they were far superior to black people in the Jim Crow South, which led white people to believe that they could persecute and discriminate the blacks. In Richard Wright’s autobiographical sketch The

Ethics of Living Jim Crow, he writes, “My first lesson in how to live as a Negro came when I was quite small” (1). Wright is discussing how there was a set o

crowd. The narrator’s graduation speech is even looked at as an amusing comedy. The spectators are laughing and making fun of the speech until the narrator mentions “social equality,” which completely changes the dynamic of the room. Somebody in the room speaks up and says, “We mean to do right by you, but you’ve got to know your place at all times. All right, now, go on with your speech” (11). The speaker is telling the narrator that the crowd is attempting to treat him well, as long as the narrator does not think that he is their equal. When the job is not entertainment, black people are only thought of as doing grunt work. Richard Wright writes, “I spoke out, reminding him that the boss had said I was to be given a chance to learn something. ‘Nigger, you think you’re white, don’t you?’ ‘Naw, sir!’ ‘Well, you’re acting mighty like it!’” (30-33). Wright was merely trying to learn some more about his job and was greeted with hostility from his white co-workers. Wright’s co-workers did not want Wright to learn anything new about his menial duties at his job. Wright was supposed to do what he was told, when he was told.

f rules for “Negroes” to live by. If one were to break a rule set by a white man, then he/she would be punished so he/she would learn not to break that rule again. After getting into a “war” with a group of white kids, Wright talks about the punishment that h

Some topics in this essay:
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