Power In Black Boy

Today, many people suffer from the abuse of power. The main victims of this abuse include kids, minorities, and women. Black Boy, a novel by Richard Wright, details the struggles of one of these groups— African Americans— in the American South during the 1920’s. This novel shows how African Americans, especially kids, suffered from social inequalities, which echoes the continued struggles of youth, women, and minorities today. The novel Black Boy reveals how power affects kids and racial/gender inequality through abuse, violence, and discrimination, that is still relevant in the world now.
Wright reveals that people in positions of power can abuse their standing to restrict the individual freedom of others. In chapter 4 of the Black Boy,

In chapter 9, a police car stops Richard while he was on a bicycle pedaling as fast as he could after making deliveries in a white neighborhood. As Richard explains, “they searched my pockets and packages. They seemed dissatisfied when they could find nothing incriminating” (182). Police officers searched Richard’s pockets and packages in hopes that they could find something that they could arrest Richard for. This is an example of discrimination in the South because police assumes that Richard committed a crime of some sort and was running away because he is a black boy in a white neighborhood, and police may have preferred to arrest a black person than a white person. The practice of racial profiling, which lies under the broader concept of racial discrimination was common in the 1920s, but unfortunately, there still exist instances of discrimination today. At a restaurant in Washington D.C., black customers were asked to pay first, while white customers were not asked to do so. “Their server told them they had to pay before eating because they have had instances where customers would leave without paying. That is when one of the women from the group approached a group of white customers also eating at the restaurant. ‘I asked them, “Were you all asked to pay in advance?” And they all replied at one time, “No”’” (Howell 1). The restaurant clearly discriminated against blacks because the restaurant thinks the black customers would run away after they eat. People should not be treated differently based on their skin color, and just because restaurants have the power to do so, they should not abuse