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Similarities Between Black Boy And Separate Pasts

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Between Black Boy and Separate Pasts, one written by an African-American male and the other by a white male, the telltale stories share more in common than one would think. Black Boy is written by an African-American by the name of Richard Wright and recollects stories starting from when he was four up until adulthood. Wright suffered first-hand from segregation taking place mainly in the North. In contrast, Melton A. McLaurin gives full insight on how it was in the South in terms of segregation from a white man’s perspective. Separate Pasts and Black Boy both share an extremely valuable point-of-view living as separate races, but still being affected by segregation in different parts of the country at different times. While they have similarities, …show more content…

“I was white, I was different; I was superior”, McLaurin said when explaining the way that whites would act around blacks (Separate Pasts p. 14). While McLaurin has observed the mistreatment that blacks were subject to, he’s not fully able to understand it as a child because he’s fortunate enough to be raised in a decent home and never missed a meal, like Wright. From the start, McLaurin never had anything negative to say about blacks. Although, McLaurin admits that he didn’t seem them as equals, but viewed them as “individuals” rather than just a typical servant (SP, p. 22). McLaurin frequently interacted with blacks since he worked at the corner store owned by his grandfather. Interestingly, McLaurin not only viewed blacks differently than most, but he found them intriguing because they were different than the whites that he was used to (SP, …show more content…

McLaurin was playing with Bobo and a few other boys and was in charge of keeping the basketball inflated because it would occasionally lose air during the game. When McLaurin went to go inflate the ball, he gave the needle to Bobo so he can use his saliva to pop the needle into the hole that was used to inflate the ball. After Bobo failed to stick the needle into the ball with his saliva, McLaurin took over and tried to do it himself. After McLaurin realized that he had just put his mouth over Bobo’s saliva, McLaurin flipped. Not only was McLaurin disgusted, but also was afraid of those “awful African diseases” and the “poison of Bobo’s saliva” (SP, pp. 36-38). McLaurin goes on to say how Bobo’s “blackness” was a threat to him and to his beliefs about who he was and the person he might become (SP, p. 41). Not only did this experience change McLaurin’s view on segregation, but made him realize that he’s very much apart of the segregation occurring in Wade whether he condemns it or not. McLaurin is faced with the challenge of letting segregation get the best of him and viewing himself as a white superior or “escaping the region’s heritage of racial hatred” (SP, p. 25). Even though he dislikes the way that Wade treats blacks, McLaurin can’t help but let being white get the best of

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In Separate Pasts, Melton A. McLaurin revisits his youth days that he spent during the 1950s in Wade, North Carolina, a small segregated town. McLaurin’s family had a good living status in Wade, his father had a job in an insurance company and his grandfather owned a convenience store, where he used to work. McLaurin worked in his grandfather’s store since he was in the seventh grade and he worked there until he left for college. During McLaurin’s time working in the store, he was familiar with many blacks as many of them used to live close to the store. McLaurin liked having conversation with the blacks and in Separate Pasts, he remembers the time that he spent with some of the blacks, who challenged his personal beliefs in terms of racial prejudice and segregation.

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“The black family in the age of mass incarceration,” author Ta-Nehisi Coates toss back on the attempt of “The Negros family”, report by the American politician and sociologist Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s have benefactor to reduce America’s mass detainment, bringing about a country with the world’s biggest jail populace and the largest rate of detainment. In this article, he explained about the difficulties of black families about the racism that have continually arisen in times gone by to present day. Moynihan, who was brought up from a broken home and pathological family, had polite intrusion when he wrote the article “The Negros family.” His article argued that the government has disparaged the damage caused to the black family from past few centuries.

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Peter Guo 219 Mr. Beyer English 10 1/5/23 Extra Credit Assignment: Black Boy, Part II In "Black Boy," Richard Wright tells the story of his life growing up as a black child in the American South and his eventual move to the North. The first half of the book, which covers Wright's childhood and adolescence, is set in Mississippi and Tennessee, while the second half takes place in Chicago, Illinois after he escapes from the well-dreaded South.

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By calling him “Youth” and “Bobo” the speaker didn’t want people to focus on his skin color, but rather that he was just a kid. The authors most important thing he did in his article was the tittle “The Shocking Story of Approved Murder in Mississippi”. The author was asking for his audience to take action against the approval of Bobo’s murder. Bradford succeeded in his attempts for people to sympathize for Bobo and want justice for his murder. He had exposed the truth about Mississippi, by showing people that lynching’s still happened and that there needs to be a change.

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In the essay “Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin, he expresses feelings of hate and despair towards his father. His father died when James was 19 years old from tuberculosis; it just so happens that his funeral was on the day of the Harlem Riot of 1943. Baldwin explains that his father isn’t fond of white people due to the racist past. He recalls a time when a white teacher brought him to a theater and that caused nothing but upset with his father, even though it was a kind act. Many events happened to Baldwin as a result of segregation, including a time where a waitress refused to serve him due to his skin color and Baldwin threw a pitcher of water at her.

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In Black Boy, Richard Wright leads a difficult life, yet he is able to persevere through it. Richard has an independent personality that protects him from getting betrayed, but his stubbornness causes him trouble to adapt to a better life. His superior intelligence gives him an advantage over others and makes him think about the future more than others, but they mistreat him for it. Because of his high intelligence, he shares a different moral of equality that makes him stand alone against the whites. The unique personality and beliefs of Richard Wright, like his stubbornness to change, lead to a life of isolation that caused his actions to deviate towards conflict pushing others away.

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Throughout history, we have seen that being black in America comes with the realization that you may have to learn to navigate the world differently than other groups. This can be confusing when you’re trying to find yourself in a world that doesn't truly see you. Along the way you may end up losing your individuality and end up trying to escape reality. In the novel, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and the memoir Black Boy by Richard Wright we are introduced to two African American characters struggling with their identities and their invisibility. While both narrators are trying to develop a sense of identity, the way they deal with their external circumstances differs greatly.

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Racial segregation affected many lives in a negative way during the 1900s. Black children had it especially hard because growing up was difficult to adapting to whites and the way they want them to act. In Black Boy, Richard Wright shows his struggles with his own identity because discrimination strips him of being the man he wants to be. Richard undergoes many changes as an individual because of the experience he has growing up in the south and learning how to act around whites.

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The novel Black Boy by Richard Wright exhibits the theme of race and violence. Wright goes beyond his life and digs deep in the existence of his very human being. Over the course of the vast drama of hatred, fear, and oppression, he experiences great fear of hunger and poverty. He reveals how he felt and acted in his eyes of a Negro in a white society. Throughout the work, Richard observes the deleterious effects of racism not only as it affects relations between whites and blacks, but also relations among blacks themselves.

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