"The Ethics of Living Jim Crow"

Richard Wright’s, “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow” is an autobiography of Wright’s life and the hardships he faced growing up in a time of discrimination and racism. The amount of racism that Wright encountered as a child was disgusting to read about, but he talked about it as if it were any other topic. Wright talked about how it was difficult to grow up and live in a time like this and gives the reader a clear idea of what it was like to be at the receiving end of racism. He wrote his autobiography about his younger years growing up in this difficult time and the discrimination he faced in the work atmosphere as well as his own neighborhood.
Wright’s way of writing was not as “graphic” as Frederick Douglas’ was. I felt as though Wright was simply telling his life story and experiences, and not going into details of the abuse he faced. While reading Frederick Douglas’ autobiography, I found it very difficult to read at many times due the graphic descriptions he gave of beatings that he felt and witnessed. Wright took a different way of approaching the topic of racism, but they were also at different times. Douglas was a slave and was abused, while Wright was a young boy living in a town where racism was at its highest, but there were no slaves anymore. However, Wright’s style of writing still was interesting to me. While reading his story, you could tell that Wright did not want to be pitied for his experiences and was not looking for help in any sense. He talked about racism as if it were any other topic that is discussed and his style of writing was very nonchalant. I feel that he wrote this way to tell the realness of things, and how racism WAS viewed as something that was normal for the time. It was common at this time to discriminate, and was almost expected during this time.
Many times throughout Wright’s story he speaks about the idea of being “lucky.” He repeats this time and time again through the voices of his African American characters. I feel that they used this term “lucky” as a way to get through their hardest times and relate the idea of being lucky to having someone watching out for them, such as a religious figure. I got this feeling when I read this because I feel that the African American’s as a whole did not have a lot of hope because no one in society cared about them or their well being. They were constantly discriminated against and their voices meant little to nothing in any affair. This idea of being “lucky” was not common and when it was applied to African Americans it meant a lot. I feel that they turned to religion as a guidance to get them through life, and it was some kind of god that they believed in that would save them and they’d be lucky to still have their life, or whatever the situation may be. Specifically, there was an incident that Wright wrote about where there was a group of white boys were picking on him and were saying hurtful things to him. The boys left Wright and told him he was “lucky” that they were going to leave him alone and not kill him. To Wright and other African Americans at this time it was very common for them to receive death threats such as this one, but they considered themselves lucky to escape them. I think religion played an important role in their lives due to the amount of discrimination they faced, because they had no one else to look after them, especially in times of need.