Richard Wright's The Ethics Of Living Jim Crow

It has been a known fact for many years, and will continue to be one for years to come, we as human beings let others influence the way we and our society perceive ourselves and quite possibly our cultural group as a whole. In Richard Wright’s, “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” he uses a series of rhetorical devices to introduce the issue of race, as well as to show the effect Jim Crow laws had on African Americans. His focus on these devices allows us to see just how powerful others’ ideas and actions influenced African Americans to believe they were inferior in every way possible when compared to the white race. African American’s strongly believed they were inferior to those of a lighter complexion, and because of this they always respected
Their sacrifice was never to be taken for granted, especially by going out and making poor choices, which led to issues with the “white folks.” We see in the essay how the narrator not only receives a negative reaction from his mother, but how through the use of metaphor, Wright shows how she, “…grabbed a barrel stave, dragged me home, stripped me naked, and beat me till I had a fever…” This is an indicator of just how much the narrator’s mother believed her son to have made a huge mistake. Rather than caring for him and his wounds, she proceeds to teach him a valuable lesson: an African American boy is inferior and must never get involved with the white race in any way that isn’t respectful. To continue his secondary claim, the author shares how when the narrator is offered a ride by some white men who later feel disrespected for his lack of referring to them as “sir,” they beat him up and ask him if he has, “...learned t’ say sir t’ a white man yet?” This further develops his argument by demonstrating how much more superior the white men felt compared to African Americans. They were expected, like slaves under their order, to address them as if they were responding to an authority