I was very intrigued after reading The Ethics of Living Jim Crow by Richard Wright. The racism that lingered in the South was beyond what I could ever imagine. The white community was very dangerous as Richard talked about not being able to go near their yards and houses because they would find some excuse to gain up on the blacks.
As I read further and further, I noticed that the white people truly did feel like they were dominant over the blacks and needed to show it by abusing Richard and the rest. I was heart broken by some of the events that happened to Richard like being picked up and beaten by white kids and being told he was a lucky one for not killing him! That's crazy! Another lesson within the Jim Crow living was the respect that the black community had to give the whites to just stay out of trouble. Blacks who didn't want any trouble like Richard were caught in situations where if you said something wrong, punishment would be the result.
It must have been scary just seeing and confronting whites around town because Richard wouldn't know what they would do. He would rather just move along without any contact or to have a chance to make them mad. Even saying "yessir" and "thank you sir" could have done harm living in the Jim Crow racism. The images depicted by Richard were horrific yet informative as we still try to understand the life as an African American living Jim Crow.
I had similar reactions Jackson, I found that it was unfair for African Americans to be caught up in a loose-loose situation that they were so frequently put into. It's ridiculous to think that being polite ("yessir" and "thank you sir") could get you beat senseless. I probably wouldn't of referred to African Americans as "blacks", but this was a story of racism, so perhaps it can be acceptable.
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