Richard Wright the Ethics of Living Jim Crow Long Black Song

¶ … Black American Prejudice and Injustice in "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow" by Richard Wright

During the 1940s-1960s, American literature began developing a new kind of movement where black American culture and experience have become widespread through the narrative accounts of contemporary black American writers. Called the Harlem Renaissance, this new American literature movement created a following among black Americans because of the truth and reality that these literatures reflect about black American life. One popular writer during this period is Richard Wright, who has been renowned from his works "The Black Boy" and "The Native Son" (Microsoft Encarta 2002). Apart from his novels, Wright also created short stories (of which the most popular is "Uncle Tom's Children") where the main theme always include black American prejudice and injustices against them committed by the white American society.

Wright's sensitive portrayal of the life of a Negro during his adulthood years mirrors the detrimental condition black Americans have in an oppressive environment. These sentiments are also effectively relayed by Wright in "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow," pertaining to the life of black Americans under a society where laws and customs for racial segregation and discrimination are widely implemented and encouraged. This particular Wright literary piece will be discussed and analyzed as to how the author was able to convey to his audiences the atrocities and sacrifices black Americans have to follow and live with in a time where social stratification is rampant and even encouraged by the white American society.

Life under the influence of Jim Crow legislation is the primary focus of Wright's autobiographical account in "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow." Wright's accounts of his life as a young adult making money doing odd jobs in a dominantly white American work environment illustrates the "norms" that he must conform to in order to avoid being abused and even killed by hostile white Americans. Throughout his adult life, he took odd jobs starting as a helper in an optical company, as a clothing store porter, hotel hall-boy, and once again as a helper in a branch of the optical company he previously worked in. Notable among Wright's experiences was his account of the physical and moral abuse that black American women face when they were raped and left impregnated by white American men. As a clothing store porter, Wright witnessed the rape of a woman who was unable to pay her debts; and as a hotel hall-boy, he narrates to his readers how a black woman was unwillingly impregnated by a white man. These events are similar to "The Long Black Song," another literary piece where Wright narrates the story of a woman raped by a white American salesman. The black American community's reaction to these injustices by their fellowmen is one that illustrates the fear and hopelessness that black Americans face against the white society: "Not knowing what to do, I took it... This was a gesture of kindness, indicating that even if they had beaten the poor old woman, they would not beat me if I knew enough to keep my mouth shut." Wright, after narrating his life to readers, reflects on the social injustices his fellowmen had experienced and answers why this oppressive condition prevailed in the American society despite the inhumane treatment of the society against the black American society. As what Wright's friend had said, "... Ef it wuzn't fer them polices 'n' them ol' lynch-mobs, there wouldn't be nothin' but uproar down here!" Indeed, racial discrimination and prejudice created a void between the black and white American societies, a condition that is frequently depicted and reiterated in American literature during the Harlem Renaissance movement.