The Ethics of Living Jim Crow

This article, as it turns out, was actually pretty powerful. I certainly believe that it's because this story was from a person who lived through it: somebody who was present has a lot more power with writing on the subject as opposed to somebody who just writes about facts and wasn't actually there. I like how this piece was set up, and I think it's structure made it that much more enjoyable and thought-provoking.

Now on to the story itself. One of the most powerful things about this essay, I think, came in the beginning. After being hit with a broken bottle and getting hurt both physically and emotionally, his mother's reaction was shocking. She was one of those people who simply accepted how the black people were being treated. She thought they deserved it, even. After the white people constantly stated that blacks weren't worth a darn, that concept was drilled into their heads. When his mother told him that he should be thankful that the whites didn't kill him, it became clear that she felt as though obeying the whites was a much better alternative to standing up for oneself. It was a much safer route, that's for sure.

The next Jim Crow Lesson was just as bad. When starting a new job at a factory, Richard was put under the impression that he would learn something valuable. After awhile of not doing such a thing, he asked his superiors to teach him something. Well, they didn't like the fact that a black man wanted to learn something. That is sickening to me. How could it not even be socially acceptable for black people to learn something? The worst part about that concept, to me, is that white people always called black people stupid, but as soon as they wanted to learn something, it was heavily frowned upon. Richard received a beating even though he was promised some new knowledge.

I knew that life had to be hard for black people during this time period, but I didn't know that a women getting beat up was considered mild. That's absolutely crazy, and thank goodness that kind of thing doesn't happen often, if not, anymore. This article really captured how things were back in those days for a young, black man, and it sort of made me realize how easy my life was while growing up.