Jim Wright's Ethics Of Living Jim Crow

During the time period after the Civil War, when Jim Crow laws and de facto segregation was the norm across the United States and especially in the heart of the south, racial etiquette was also a commonly observed and enforced part of society. Existing even during and prior to the Civil War, racial etiquette was never an official set of written rules enforced by the law, rather specific expectations and a set of societal rules for African Americans from white people of how to speak and act, particularly to and in front of whites. Although public segregation was legalized and enforced by law, disobeying these unwritten societal codes would also have consequences for African Americans who did not follow them to a tee or were even simply accused

Given the countless descriptions of events in his life within his writings relating to his experiences compared to other sources going into depth about racial rules and etiquette, it can be concluded that Wright’s personal experiences with racial etiquette was typical, rather than atypical, with those of other African Americans for the time period. In the beginning, Wright describes his very first encounters with racial etiquette placed upon him from an early age, when previously, he had absolutely no experiences in his childhood up until that moment. His first lesson in this he would follow in his lifetime was not taught to him by white people, despite coming being hit in the head with a broken bottle by a white kid. Rather, it was instilled early on by his family, and more specifically, his mother. He had told his mother about what had happened that day and in response, she had beaten Wright to the point of a fever, telling him to never fight white people again and that the white people were “right” for harming him and he should express gratitude that they

However, these rules remain primarily unspoken with the expectation to already know them and how to act. Wright describes his own surprise with his experiences and with how others are treated, though, his black peers around him are not surprised. Similar to his mother’s outlook when he was first assaulted as a kid, the people around him often comment how someone was in luck by not having more happen to them. For example, Wright recalls this happening once, bystanding as an accused black woman was beaten senseless until she could barely walk, only to then be arrested by a waiting police officer on the account of “looking drunk”. Wright’s peers mention she should feel lucky she had not been raped or had something worse happen. This also occurs when one of the bell boys had been caught sleeping with a white prostitute and punished via castration. He comments, “We were given to understand that the boy who had been castrated was a "mighty, mighty lucky bastard" (Wright 564). Although, more commonly, racial etiquette primarily played a role in addressing white people as superiors or with utmost respect. For Wright and the rest of his peers, this meant using titles