Summary Of Dick Gregory Shame

To deny that our moral behavior is not affected by our past development is false. It is inevitable that we are who we are today, due to our upbringing. Some people grow up to have opposite moral behavior from their past development, for example in the case of many men and women who grow up in racist home environments, but do not hold that moral behavior. No matter how opposite our moral behavior is in comparison to our past development, we are still influenced by our past experiences.
In Dick Gregory short essay “Shame” he depicts the effect of his developmental history on his present moral behavior. Growing up poor Gregory felt “... pregnant with poverty. Pregnant with dirt and pregnant with smells that made people turn away, pregnant with
cold and pregnant with shoes that were never bought for [him], pregnant with five other people in [his] bed and no Daddy in the next room, and pregnant with hunger.” (Gregory) This emotion of shame and isolation is only brought upon by his environment, if his entire society was at the same level of poverty, there would be no need to feel shame. “the experience of shame depends on the awareness of being exposed to a shaming gaze.” (Just) His feeling of shame was brought upon by society's expectations for him to feel that way due to his level of class, “There was shame in going to the Worthy Boys Annual Christmas Dinner for you and your kind, because everybody knew what a worthy boy was.”(Gregory) This presents the effect of societal ideology on our moral behavior. Through reading this essay it can be argued that our moral behavior is created by what society depicts as good or bad; moral or immoral. With this being said, Gregory's future encounter with shame as he hesitates to help a homeless man is a result of his past experience with poverty.
The truth is, in a society that no longer depend on a community for survival, we are not obligated to help those less fortunate, however due to our belief in karma and the knowledge of knowing that the table can be turned around, we often act on helping others. In many cases people feel the need to help their fellow man because they too have experienced such adversities. This is depicted in Gregory's encounter with the homeless man, although the homeless man was completely responsible for his action, Gregorie felt ashamed because he too had experience what being poor felt like and he was surprised by his inaction. “Although shame is clearly not without ties to action because it is mostly experienced as an immediate consequence of one's deeds, the feeling of shame indicates both a shortcoming in behavior and a flaw in personality.” (Just)