Jim Crow!!

For this reading we were given a chapter from the book Race, Class and Gender in the United States. This portrayed the life of a Jim Crow thriving throughout society. It starts off explaining his childhood, and how he came to be. The man explains fighting with the white boys who live on the other side of the tracks. He gives details of his Moms punishments and reasoning behind how she raised the boy. His mother beat him black and blue for trying to mess with the white boys and stand up for himself. She made a comment of “How come yuh didn’t hide?” Or “How come yuh awways fightin?” Later in the story he explains his first of many jobs that he held. The first job he worked for an optical company in Jackson, Mississippi. He worked for a mere sum of five dollars a week, and was treated horribly for the short time he was there .He was promised an education on how things worked through the time he spent there. But, after a good amount of time he was there he was getting neglected and not learning anything. When confronting the situation he got set up and was beating for not properly saying Mr. Pease (his boss). Another job he then worked was in a clothing store. What he experienced here I could never even imagine it happening today. This man was working and heard shrills of screams and then saw a bleeding woman walking meekly around the corner. As she stumbled into the street, she got arrested for allegedly being drunk in public. Later he learned that she was tortured for not paying her bills on time and they justified saying they should have done something worse. The next lesson he learned was while delivering a package in the white neighborhood he got harassed by some cops, and beaten by boys after offering him a ride. The next job he survived to see was working as a helper to bell hops and waiting on hotel rooms. While working at the hotel jobs, he experienced many more discriminating acts such as, humiliating the waitresses, humiliating them, and getting threats almost everyday.
While reading this paper I gave up on highlighting the important points. This entire paper is a perfect example of basically how society should not be. Just like this mans mom commented, “How come yuhs always fightin?” I really don’t think the mother really knew how much of an impact these words could be. Why do we fight? Why is it they felt pressured to have to fight the boys across the railroad tracks? I love his next answer to this question. It was that he didn’t have any trees or hedges to hid behind. If you really think about this response many will come to realize that a lot of people even in today’s society are hiding behind trees or their hedges just to fit in. Many feel the pressure to hide and discriminate under the bush, secretly battling for the name of superiority. I believe it is sad how we have to hide to hurt people. I just people would just come out with their problems and get over it. Who needs a trench really? We are supposed to be a free revolutionized continent where bells will toll, and freedom rings through our ears. But yet, we are still even today hiding in trenches while trying to keep an upper hand. This section alone opened my eyes up to the many that hide today. This was just one of the many sections in this chapter by Richard Wright that really touched me. To sum it up, Why do we fight? I believe it is simply keep the upper hand because what people are taught to want in our society is more. So we need to stop hiding in the trenches and demanding more, and maybe even this will be a small step toward a better environment.