BakerWright

The ethics of living Jim Crow is somewhat of a biography of an African American and his life starting from a very young age. The story was about the way in which blacks were completely treated separately from whites. Even though it may sometimes seem that equality was there is becomes extremely apparent that racism is still around. The author speaks about fighting in the streets with white kids when he was younger with his friends. He ended up being hit with a milk bottle and having his head split open. When his mother came home from work he expected to have his wounds nursed and a caring shoulder to cry on, what he received was his first lesson in the new age of racism. Whites are still able to do whatever they please and blacks should just be thankful of their mercy. His mother told him he was lucky that he had not been hurt more and the white kids had spared him, they had every right to completely beat him. His mother spanked him until he couldn’t take it anymore while reciting the teachings of Jim Crow, trying to impart on him the idea that whites were still in unequaled control. The next contact with white people was a long way down the road. He had moved from Arkansas to Mississippi where “a black boy who knows no trade can get a job” (23). He received a job where his boss appeared to be happy and desired to teach him a trade. When he first started the two white men he worked with seemed to like him and treated him very well. When he tried to ask for one of the men to teach him after being there for a while he was verbally attacked. He had not realized not to ask for things but to just be grateful to just be allowed to be there. After some other incidents he had left this place of work where he had caught up on his lessons of Jim Crow just continuing his education on “equality”. Throughout his story the author continues explaining his lessons on life with different stories which helped him understand the way things really worked instead of the way things should work.
1) Why did black people not fight with the law behind them?
2) Why did his mother not teach him the way things were and the way they should be instead of just telling him whites were right?

I was not surprised after reading this article. I knew that blacks were mistreated long after they were set free even though they were not supposed to.