Richard Wright Speech Analysis

“Passing,” for The Ex-Colored Man gives him an initiation into a “freemasonry of…race;” gaining access to a secret knowledge that is out of reach for most individuals (Johnson 59). His ability to view the world from both races enables him to experience “the attitude of the whole [community] to change,” when he is “passing” as a black; he is treated differently than when he is “passing” for white (Johnson 95). This “freemasonry” is what convinces him the white society is the dominant culture. Success can only be

However, she is only doing this in order to help Richard survive in the future. By winning the right to the streets of Memphis, Richard is growing more independent. He no longer relies on his father to bring home food because he is not coming back, and he is able to stand up for himself when the time comes. Richard becomes more independent throughout different experiences in Black Boy.

Richard did not understand until later that the black community discouraged his rebellious ways because following the expectations of whites was a way to ensure survival of the community. A rebellious act of one black not only put his or her life in danger, but also his or her family and the entire black community. Richard’s need to conform to the rules of the white society for survival and his need to rebel in order to achieve his humanity and individuality was a tension that infested him daily.

Throughout the book, Richard shows ignorance when it comes to race issues. He often doesn't know how to respond or act when he is being harassed about his race. This ignorance comes from his family refusing to tell him about what was happening in the world when he was a child. At one point, his mother even slapped him for asking about why there was segregation and about why his grandmother is “white” (46-48). These events and actions in his youth would lead to him being ignorant of these issues in his adulthood, which would lead to Richard being isolated from both the black and the white communities. First, one example of his separation from the black community is when Richard refuses to steal from white people. “More than once I had been called a ‘dumb nigger’ by black boys who discovered that I had not availed myself of a chance to snatch some petty piece of white property that had been carelessly left within my reach”(199). The other boys call Richard out because he refuses to steal. He does this because he was raised not to steal from white people while the other boys were raised to take advantage of their position in life and use it to their advantage. This gap between knowledge of how one should act leads to Richard being isolated from the other boys and others in the black community. Likewise, Richard ignorance of race issues leads to a rift between him and the white community.

The next form of hunger that Richard encountered was one for literature which seemed to give him a release from the suffocating reality of his surroundings. His appetite for literature became a defining characteristic as the novel progressed. Though her effort was short-lived, a boarder at his Grandma’s house, Ella, gave him his first taste of reading. “As her words fell upon my new ears, I endowed them with a reality that welled up from somewhere within me…. My sense of life deepened…. The sensations the story aroused in me were never to leave me” (Wright 39). In light of Richard’s continued pursuit for knowledge critic Dykema-VanderArk reflects that, “Richard's reading opens his eyes… ‘made the look of the world different’ and let him imagine his life under different circumstances. Richard eventually recognizes that the social system of the South strives to keep black Americans from just such ways of thinking.” His craving for literature sets him apart from most of the black community surrounding him.

In the story, Richard had mentioned about the loss of his identity, his speaks of language and his family. We can see that when he said, “I did not know that I had a family, a history, a culture, a source of spirituality, a cosmology, or a traditional way of living. I had no awareness that I belonged somewhere. I grew up ashamed of my Native identity and the fact that I knew nothing about it”. This shows he was angry that there was no one tell him about where he belonged and his culture.

Cornel West spoke at Texas A&M University-Commerce as a guest speaker on September 28th in order to discuss why race matters in 2016. He talked about different subjects including race in politics, social justice, social economics, police accountability, and prominent social justice warriors. Filling the shoes of Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. West kindly educated the students and faculty by discussing the current racial justice movement, what the movement stands for, and what they intend to do. The insight that Dr. West offered helped me better understand the difficulties of racial tension, and what we can do to stop both racial and social injustice. What I found particularly interesting about his speech was the way that he captivated the audience.

A lack of self-awareness tended the narrator’s life to seem frustrating and compelling to the reader. This lack often led him to offer generalizations about ““colored” people” without seeing them as human beings. He would often forget his own “colored” roots when doing so. He vacillated between intelligence and naivete, weak and strong will, identification with other African-Americans and a complete disavowal of them. He had a very difficult time making a decision for his life without hesitating and wondering if it would be the right one.

While Richard was growing up he was never treated like a kid, his father always saw him like a grown man. His father was a person who wanted all his commands to be done as he pleased. He is also

During the childhood of “the Narrator,” he experiences mixed reactions to the notion of “passing” one’s identity. The Narrator’s mother, having never told the young boy of his African-American blood, forces the Narrator to unintentionally pass as a young, “perfect little aristocrat” (7). The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man moves quickly to introduce newfound discoveries made by the Narrator. For example, at this point in his life, he is unable to comprehend why “Shiny,” the best student, is seen as inferior due to the color of his skin. The Narrator does not understand such complex ideologies saying, “he was in some way looked down upon” (14). Here, Johnson’s use of the metaphor of passing is more of an indictment on the Narrator’s ignorance when it comes to race. A notable encounter with passing

Through many of these traumatizing struggles she faced, she was persistent, and did not let anything that was done to her get in the way of herself, she kept pursuing and used the negative actions of others as a motive to keep pushing forward, developing in “the first African American billionaire.” The fact that the writer uses “poverty” and “billionaire” in the same sentence when talking about an individual, speculates how Oprah’s determination made her whom she is today. Furthermore, in Black boy, Wright speculates Richard’s determination by saying,“And no word that I had ever heard fall from the lips of southern white men had ever made me really doubt the worth of my own humanity” (283).Richard here reveals how he is a determined individual. He employs the idea of how he neglects every other’s criticism and thoughts. He reveals how he knows his worth when expressing how the words of others never made him “doubt” himself. Richard blocks negativity out of his life and is tenacious about following what is best for his future, he obviously does not let anyone influence him and knows what is best for his “own humanity”.The fact that he has several white racist men criticizing him, telling him what to do, scorning at him, really critiques how much of a persistent individual he is, and how driven he is to get to the North and get out of his

Society has not always been fair with the treatment towards African Americans. There has been a constant negative impact placed on African Americans self-esteem, where it is hard to maintain a positive identity because they lived in a white society. African Americans have to struggle to either attain or maintain a sense of self-respect. James Baldwin in Blues for Mister Charlie depicts a character that battles with his self-esteem in such ways, stated previously named Richard Henry. Richard Henry was a strong willed young man, who thought highly of himself, and did not allow others to make him feel less. Roy Bannister presents a schematic in which details the choice path of threatened egotism, in the characters case his threatened egotism would lead to aggression or violence.

I enjoyed several aspects of this story while reading it. Wright recounts many hilarious yet relevant experiences from his life that keep readers entertained and informed. Because of his smooth writing skills, I was able to see how Richard’s understanding of race slowly evolved. When he is a child, Richard sees race merely as a trait rather than a social advantage or disadvantage. Since the author’s writing flows so well, I could tell how Richard developed into a dynamic character through the theme of race. On page 73, Richard states, “I did not know if the story

In this journey our main character also see’s the many faces of the black man, and how all of these faces where created in response to the actions of the white man never in response to one’s own actions. Towards the end of the novel the main character finds himself in a difficult predicament as he is being hounded by men who want him dead. Despite this, he manages to find a pair of glasses and a huge hat which he believes would disguise him just enough so that he can escape his potential murderers. As he walks around Harlem in his new guise, many begin to confuse him for someone called Rinehart who seems to be bookie, a pimp, and a preacher all at once. The ability to be so many things is at first attractive to the main character as he slowly begins to sink into the role of Rinehart, however he soon realizes that Rinehart’s multiple identities are merely a reflection of his inauthenthicity. Rinehart has no true self-consciousness and has allowed for others to create his image for him; Rinehart is only identified in the novel by others, never by himself. Rinehart’s character is representative of the notion of Double Consciousness as it shows the black men without the ability or better yet the privilege of self identity.

He lets himself be ridiculed by turning into a puppet for the ignorant white men for entertainment purposes. Still, he holds onto the assumption that if he degrades himself, he will be rewarded in the end. As a result, the narrator does not advance in his journey to find his identity, but rather degrades himself even more and makes him dependent on other’s opinions.