Joe Louis Attitude Towards Being An African-American

The author’s overall attitude toward being an African-American during this time period in the South was that being African-American meant you always having something to prove, and if you failed you lost all gained social ground. The author is afraid that if Joe Louis loses the boxing match he is in , then African-Americans will lose all the social ground they have recovered since slavery. When the author says , “that God hated us” and that African-Americans are , “Only a little higher than ape,” the attitude becomes clear. This is because terms like “only a little higher than apes” and “God hated us” show that the author is aware that white people thought very little of African-Americans, and that it will be extremely hard to gain their reverence.