The Ethnics of Living Jim Crow

I believe the authors main point he is trying to get across is that there were several rules for black to know of in the old South. They were the unspoken Jim Crow rules of wisdom that an African American must know “if he wants to eat and live” (29). The authors thesis is hard to find and pick out of the story he is telling but I feel it is when he talks about all the white folks things as symbols; “through the years they grew into an overreaching symbol of fear” (23).

The chapter starts off on how he is loved what he had, which was a run down house and a front yard full of warm cinders. He learned his first Jim Crow rules at an early age when he was in a “war” with the white boys across the railroad tracks. (22) One of the boys threw a broken piece of a milk carton that slashed his neck and caused him to get stitches and a spanking from his mother. As his mother spanked him, she “impart[ed] to [him] gems of Jim Crow wisdom. I was never to throw cinders any more. I was never to fight any more wars. I was never, never, under any conditions, to fight white folks again. And they were absolutely right clouting me with the broken milk bottle” (23). He learned more unspoken rules of wisdom throughout his later years as well. First, to speak carefully to whit people because it makes sure the white man knows he was the superior. He learned that a black person can be tricked into sticky situations in which every answer he would give would be wrong. (25) And as a black person he was told to” stay in your place if you want to keep working” with the white man (25). He learned that if a black person didn’t pay there bills, they’re punishment was, death, severe beating, and rape in some cases. And white people got away with this because the police were white at the time. He also learned that black people had to be careful after dark in white neighborhoods. They were looked at to be suspects and could possibly be beaten for it (27-28). He couldn’t look at certain white folks and had to laugh at white jokes when they expected you to. Some black people were even forced into marriage (28). If caught causing trouble or thought to e causing trouble, a black person could be killed out of hate and even in some cases, self defense (29). He finally learned that a black person must lie and steal sometimes just to live. There was a long list of things that a black person couldn’t talk about with a white person; and there were only two real things they could talk about together without starting an argument, sex and religion.

There were so many little rules that black people must know, do you think that there were any just off the wall ones?
Who do you think came up with most of these Jim Crow rules of wisdom?

Richard Wright did a good job portraying to his the readers the ways he learned the unspoken Jim Crow rules. I knew must of the things already but I think it is different to here actual stories of it happening. I can’t believe people got away with so much brutal things. Richard Wright had a rough life growing up in the Deep South, and is lucky to be wise and alive today to tell his story. I really like this chapter and I found it easy to read.