Draft. Racial discrimination against Black Americans in The United States in the 20th century Richard Wright, an American author that wrote about racial prejudice in the 20th century. (Funk & Wagtails New Encyclopedia) He wrote about Negro-white relations in America, and also how Black Americans coped with how their America was treating them in the 20th century. In his autobiographical “Black BOY’, Wright reveals in bitter personal terms the devastating impact of prejudice on a black person in the City of Chicago, and New York during his formative years.
He expressed his frustration in his early stories, and novels, with the experiences of Negro males and females both in the North and in the South, within their own communities as well as in their relationships with white Americans and white institutions (C. “. Unravel). Black men living in America during the 20th century was subject to harsh and cruel injustice, also by their government. The ill-treatment of Black Americans was the norm in America in the mid sass’s to sass’s, and this treatment towards Vulcan Americans seems to still have an effect on young black males in today’s society.
The Black males in today’s society from New York to Los Angles feel that they are getting the short end of the stick, when it comes to opportunities’ that the white Americans seem to get, which is not as harsh, of what the black males faced in the ass’s, nevertheless still hurts as deep as it did back at that time. In the short story “Big Black Good Man,” Richard Wright writes about a white character named Loaf who considers himself not a racist, until he encounters the character named Jim, a big black man, who was so black his skin seemed to appear blue.
The appearance of Jim had an effect on Loaf hat brought to the forefront his racial preconception. The white man, therefore, is superstitious about race, equating black skin with all that is primitive and dangerous. (C. “. Unravel) The emotions that came over Loaf in the presence of this black male, shows how the white man feels threaten of a person he knows nothing about due to skin color and the same could be said of a black man of a white male that they feel is superior over them.
Racism touches the reader either black or white, due to the fact some people within this world has had to deal with racism in some type of shape or arm, and how racism has had an impact on the reader’s life. Loaf’s racism shows its ugly face in the text when Jim asked Mimi send the whiskey and the woman quick, pal? ” (Serener) Loaf called a woman named Lena who was a white where for Jim, and when she arrived, “he told her how big and black the man was. Serener) It came to the point that Loaf was worried about the well being of a where that he pimped out to other men with no concern for her safety, now that this black man has entered the picture, he is not worthy of any services, Loaf has to offer. Jim eventually lives the toll and before he goes an uncomfortable situation occurs, Jim puts his hands around Loot’s neck to size him up tort shirts en will later bring back to Lat to give thanks, on the other hand Loaf thinks Jim is about to kill him.
Racism is mental disease that takes over a person’s rational thought pattern, the thought of a person who wants to hurt you because of the color of your skin, and how people feel it is justified to hurt another person for the color of theirs. Wright’s first novel, Native Son (1940), a brutally honest depiction of black, urban, ghetto life, was an immediate success. The story’s protagonist, or main character, represents all the fear, rage, rebellion, spiritual hunger and the undisciplined drive to satisfy it, that social psychologists were Just beginning to recognize as common elements in the personality of the poor people of all races. Http:// www. Interrelationships. Com/We-Z/Wright-Richard. HTML) He eventually left the United States to protest against the treatment of African Americans in his native country. (Serener) In Black Boy, a fictionally autobiography (book written about oneself), his only commitment is to truth. The book was published in January 1945, ND sales reached four hundred thousand copies by March. Wright accepted an invitation from the French government to visit France, and the three-month experience, in sharp contrast to his experience in his own country, exhilarated him with a “sense of freedom. People of the highest intellectual and artistic circles met him “as an equal. ” (http://www. Interrelationships. Com/We-Z/Wright-Richard. HTML) Richard Wright found some success oversees; his writing was appreciated more in France, more so then the recognition he received in the United States for his earlier stories. The text promotes how racism was taking place in other countries not only America. Wright’s development was marked by an ability to respond to the currents of the social and intellectual history of his time.
His most significant contribution was the desire to accurately portray blacks to white readers, thereby destroying the white myth of the patient, humorous, subservient black man. (http://www. Limits. Du/ map/dir/Wright_Richard/) Within the text what I experienced was, that I could relate to Jim, where he had no idea of the raciest hatred Loaf had would burst up. The man alike into place where he thought he would be treated fair, and because of the color of his skin, this man had a feeling of hatred towards him..
Like many people that have been a victim of racism, they don’t understand why they are being victimized to such rude behavior. Oliver and Celia Martinez moved to the United States in 1955 they were subjected to cruel and segregation from the black community and the white Americans did not even think of giving them a chance. Hard work paid off as Just the same for half of the students in Pimp Community College those who are Mexican which their parent’s worked hard to get them into allege.
My father died when I was in 10 and my mother worked harder to make sure we can live the American dream she sought for herself. Growing up in Chicago with no bread winner was difficult for her. As she tried to move on and ask government for help, she was shot down at every door (WICK, Food stamps, etc. ) When she finally got a part time Job to take care of me and my two sisters, a white man came to our door from C. P. S. Stating he (my dad) was an illegal alien and had to pay back taxes that were taken out my father’s check when he was a live, the paying taxes when he was not illegal.
The impact on my life has been major, my children understand what it is to make a dollar and hold on xii . T Black Americans always hate to tell people from other race these types of things, because they feel until someone in their situation has lived in the ghetto; that they won’t know poverty as they have experienced poverty. The paper may sound off as how a black male born in this country has the right to complain about the opportunities that are in place for him. It’s comes back to the mentality, that it was not fair, what their aunt sister had to endure.
The expectations are people need to find harmony within their own race, before they can find love for the races that will unquestionably be here for years to come. When reading the text it dawned on me that Loaf was the racist in the story and Jim was a black man who Just wanted a room, to rest before shipping off. As I read the end of the story and Jim returned to give Loaf some nice shirts to show his gratitude, Mr… Loaf’s feelings of hated towards Jim started to reside, my interpretation was Jim knew he had strike fear in Loaf and used that fear to his advantage to one up Loaf at the end of the text.
Racism was much more common in the 20th century then it is in the 21st century, he text is relevant to a reader in today’s society due to the history of racism that is talked about in books, movies, and television. Racism has come a long way from the harsh and cruelty that African Americans and other races endured in America and other parts of the country. In the 21st century racism has become one of those feelings people deal with in a new light.
It’s not political to act out against other races as it was the norm in the 20th century; when there were no consequences for those who committed crimes towards another race due to the color of their skin. Just like Loaf came to the realization of the racism he felt towards Jim, but how it diminished when, he states uniform a good man too, Then loudly, you’re a big black good man. ” (Serener) I feel that racism in the United States and around the country has also diminished, and now with laws in place to punish does who act out their racist ways against other races.
From the Civil movement in the 20th century that brought racism to the forefront to the world, Just as the Egypt revolution is bring to the world’s attention in the 21st century. The world is not done yet with dealing with racism, racism still exist but it is being mamboed from polices that are being put in place from America’s statues of new hate crime laws; Which the rest of the world is also putting similar laws in place to combat the problems they are also dealing with.
America has elected its first black president, in United States history. From Black Americans being sprayed with fire hoses and police dogs being let loose on them in the 20th century. To an African American sitting in the White House now in charge of making decisions for the United States in the 21st century, in my opinion us as a society have came a long way.
