Similarities Between Black Boy And Separate Pasts

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,

“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,

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