In the book Black Boy, we see many black people in the south dealing with many hardships. One of the most prominent problems for blacks seemed to be the "JimCrow" laws. These laws withheld blacks from society, breaking them apart from whites and making it veryhard for them to live an even close to normal life. Black people couldnt express their own ideas at all.They had to call all white men "sirs" and all white women "maam". They couldnt act the slightest bitsuperior to whites. It was almost impossible for black people to make a decent living in the south, and they alsohad to take the abuse dealt to them by he whites without even attempting ant resistance. Blacks in thesouth also had to deal with the separation aspects of the "Jim crow" laws. They had to sit in the back of thebuses, they had to use separate water fountains and bathrooms, they were looked upon almost like theyhad some sort of disease. These are just a few of the "Jim Crow" laws that the black people had to deal with.Richard was not the only one in this book dealing with racism. Allthe people around him were also coping with it also, friends co-workers and family had to facethe challenges of a racist environment. Throughout the book we see these other people dealing with theproblems of an extremely racist society. We also see how each person in Richards life deals with itdifferently. There are a few people and insience that stick out in my mind especially. The first one would have to bean incident with Shorty. Shorty has dealt with racism his whole life, and he has learned to deal with it ashe has grown. We see a great example of how Shorty deals on page 269Shorty is faced with the problem ofno money, such as many other southern blacks were, and we see that he is willing to do anythingfor any amount of money." You can kick me in the ass for a quarter" (269,wright) As thishappens Richard witnesses the whole thing and we can see that he is very disappointed in the waySho...
