Richard Wright's Growing Up Black: Then And Now

Growing Up Black: Then and Now During the time in which this book was written, Black Boy by Richard Wright, the separate but equal doctrine instilled by Jim Crow laws were booming. Under Jim Crow, anything that could be done by anyone seemed to be under the analysis of laws to be abided by. For example, it became apparent in Louisiana that whites and blacks could not buy or consume alcohol on the same premises and if it were done, one could be charged with a misdemeanor and given a fine ranging from $50 to $500.

Another big issue going on was the idea of interracial relationships. Though now interracial relationships are more openly accepted, they were once seen as taboo and it was through the civil rights movement with whites standing beside blacks on the front line that these relationships got more positive awareness. But, during this time under the miscegenation laws, people were criminalized for being in an interracial marriage and sometimes for sex between two different races. African American men may have been killed for simply looking at a white woman and the view of African American women with white men was tainted due to the raping of these women by white men during times of slavery. Black Boy by Richard Wright

He did not quite grasp the idea of why there was tension between the white and the African American community. An example of Wright’s lack of knowledge on the subject of race is when he is talking to his mother; “Mama, is granny white? / if you got eyes you can see what color she is. / I mean, do the white folks think she’s white?” (Wright 47). At this time Wright is only wondering why it is that his grandmother, whom he notices to be different, is surrounding herself with people who doesn’t look like him and the reader here notices the simplicity of his