Mughees Choudhry

English Language Arts 11

Orrick/Vater
11 October, 2015

Choudhry, 1

Judgment
It is human nature to judge someone, whether on their appearance or their actions. One
constantly passes subconscious judgements on a person and these judgments dictate how one
acts toward that particular person. Racism is the ideology that one is inferior to another solely
based on the color of their skin, and it has been very relevant to the development of America. In
Richard Wrights Black Boy, he argues that racism sets up boundaries and certain standards in
society that black people have to conform to and they limit how successful one can be, by giving
insight on his struggle to abide by societies standards and the hardships he faced while trying to
get out of the south.
At the age of 4, Richard wondered how the curtains would look on fire, and without
thinking he sets them on fire and consequently he burns his house down. This sense of
questioning that he possesses makes it hard for Richard to understand the role of his race in
society. Ever since he was a mere child, Richard has been quite defiant against authority and
against societys status quo. He faces many hardships conforming to societys standards, such as
how a black child should act when confronted by a white man. Richard gets fired from many
jobs because the white owners didnt like his attitude and how he was different from the other
children. Why dont you laugh and talk like the other niggers? he asked. Well, sir, theres
nothing much to say or smile about, I said, smiling. His face was hard, baffled; I knew that I had
not convinced him. He whirled from me and went to the front of the store; he came back a
moment later, his face red. He tossed a few green bills at me. I dont like your looks, nigger.

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English Language Arts 11
Orrick/Vater
11 October, 2015

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Now, get! he snapped. In this instance, we can see that if one did not abide by the standards
that have been set by society on how a black child should act, then they would be shunned and
forced to conform by these rules if they were to get by.
Richard hates the south, and the injustices that happened there. To escape to the north, he
has to keep a job and save enough money. Richard has a hard time securing a job because of the
defiance and criticism he shows to the system. After he gets fired from a job, Richard strikes
up a conversation with old time friend Griggs, You know, Dick, I know you. Youve been trying
to hold a job all summer, and you cant. Why? Because youre impatient. Thats your big fault
Do you want to get killed? he asked me. Hell no! I said. Then for Gods sake, learn how to
live in the South! See? There it is now! Its in your face. You wont let people tell you things,
you rush too much Dick, look, youre black, black, black, see? Why cant your understand
that? In this quote, Griggs is telling Richard that if he wants to survive in the south and hold a
job he has to be completely obedient to whites and not show defiance. He has to fit into the black
person stereotype and act like how everybody else acted. And that he has to live within the
restrictions set by society. This shows that if one wants to survive in this time period in the south
one must accept the role society has given them. So this mindset of abiding by the set roles of
society had been embedded into every black childs mind on how to live their lives, and that to
survive in the South they had to conform to these rule of being inferior to the white people.
Ever since he has learned to read, Richard has always been fascinated by literature. He
constantly reads books and even gets in trouble numerous times because of his fascination with

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English Language Arts 11
Orrick/Vater
11 October, 2015

Choudhry, 3

literature. He had always wanted to become a writer and convey stories and messages to other
people but when he gave his first attempt at it he was shunned from writing. He states Had a
black boy announced that he aspired to be a writer, he would have been unhesitatingly called
crazy by his pals. Or had a black boy spoken of yearning to get a seat on the New York Stock
Exchange, his friends--in the boys own interest--would have reported his odd ambition to the
white boss. This shows that Black people are restricted to what they can accomplish in their
lives and what level of success they can reach. In this society, Richard cant become a writer
solely because of his black skin. Everybody has to abide by the status quo and play their given
role if they want to be accepted, such as Richard is suddenly shunned when his story got
published. He is criticized because it is not the normal things for a black child in middle school
to write such things. His skin color is limiting him of what he really desires to achieve in life and
that is to become an author.
Although this book was written in 1945 and Wright reflects over his life, these
reoccurring themes in the novel inhabit the world we live in today. A study done by The
Huffington Post claims that, The 2013 unemployment rate for recent college grads who are
black was almost twice that of recent college grads overall the black jobless rate has been
consistently almost double the white jobless rate for the past 60 years. Combine these two
factors, and you get a job market thats particularly hostile to young black Americans leaving
college. One study found that job applicants with black sounding names were less likely to get
called back for an interview than their counterparts with the same qualifications who had white

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English Language Arts 11
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11 October, 2015

Choudhry, 4

sounding names. Although both the two applications that were submitted had the same
qualifications, the one with the white sounding names were more likely to get called back. Why
is this? A study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that in the United States, blacks
hold the highest percentage of people living in poverty (27%). Because of statistics like these,
one subconsciously associates a type of lifestyle and work ethic when it comes to races that are
in poverty. Even though the two applicants had the same qualifications, the one with the black
sounding name has to pass an additional barrier of the subconscious judgments that the employer
has due perceptions made by the previous statistics of black people. This is a limiting barrier that
African Americans face when trying to reach a level of success that is not what society considers
the norm for their type of people. Just like when Richard aspired to become a writer and was
shunned out of it because it was out of the norm for a black child to strive for a career in
literature, black college graduates throughout the country are being limited by their skin color
and the barriers that they carry with them due to the statistics of their people. One can observe
that limitations by ones color has been a very relevant affair throughout American history ever
since the abolishment of slavery in the 1860s, until now.
As mentioned earlier, there have been numerous investigations done on the number of
black people living in poverty, in jail, and homicide rate, in comparison to the entire population
of black people in America and to other races as a whole. According to
BlackDemographics.com, African Americans make up 14.3% of the US population. Among this
14.3% (45.7 million people), 28.1% live in poverty all together, and 48.1% of single black

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English Language Arts 11
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mothers are living in poverty. Among these 45.7 million people, only 18.7% of them have a
bachelors degree or higher. As one can observe, the majority of African American populations
are not living in good conditions. This makes it harder for one to obtain an adequate education
and Get out da hood. By being born into poverty and being raised the way that most people in
poverty are raised, it is very unlikely that one succeeds in schooling. Although it doesnt state the
exact percent, the website exclaims that the majority of inmates in prisons are African American,
followed by white/Hispanic. With these statistics in the back of ones mind, one tends to make
assumptions of the race in general and apply to every body. The, one subconsciously takes in all
this previous information and makes assumptions on how a particular person acts or should act
without knowing them on a personal basis. As can be seen in Wrights book, Black Boy, these
assumptions dictate how on acts toward a particular race in a certain situation.
Among these past couple of years, light has been shed upon many instances where one
makes assumptions of another based on their skin color, among these instances is police brutality.
The Law Dictionary defines police brutality as the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by
police when dealing with civilians. Excessive use of force means a force well beyond what
would be necessary in order to handle a situation. There have been many instances where police
have shot and killed an innocent man because they had assumed they were doing something
wrong, instances such as the Mike Brown case, or the strangling of Eric Garner. In these
instances, police have acted on sudden assumptions they made toward these people. An article
from the NY times covering the Mike Brown case goes in depth of what happened on this tragic

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English Language Arts 11
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day, The fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager Saturday by a police officer in a St. Louis
suburb came after a struggle for the officers gun Mr. Browns stepfather, Louis Head, held a
cardboard sign that said, Ferguson police just executed my unarmed son. One can observe the
unnecessary use of brute force against the unarmed teenager in this instance. Although Brown
was innocent and unarmed, police treated him as he was a convicted killer, they passed these
judgments based on their previous knowledge and opinions they had on his race, and they let
these judgments dictate how they acted in that instance. Although some argue that the killing was
justified, and would have happened whether he was white or black, but the majority of people
agree that this was a case of racial profiling and discrimination and would not have happened if
he were a white man.
Racism sets up boundaries in society and certain standards in society that one has to
abide by to fit into the status quo. These boundaries and standards limit how successful one can
be, and these limitations conform certain races to certain social and economic classes which then
sets up assumptions and judgments which dictate how one acts towards a certain race. Examples
of this can be seen in Richard Wrights Black Boy, when he tries to maintain a job and abide by
societys standards. This can also be seen in current news where whites are most likely going to
be picked for a job after college and the population of blacks living in poverty. There has been no
real evolution of or progress in race relations in America. The only difference is that back then it
was an intentional discrimination toward them, and now it is a subconscious judgments and
assumptions against them.

Mughees Choudhry
English Language Arts 11
Orrick/Vater
11 October, 2015

Choudhry, 7

Epilogue

Mughees Choudhry
English Language Arts 11
Orrick/Vater
11 October, 2015

Choudhry, 8

I believe that this issue of race relations has existed throughout America because of the
fact that slavery was a big part of the early evolution of America as a country. Slavery created a
set barrier between whites and blacks, and for a long time, black people were considered
property of their white owners. This divide between them created a complete separate world for
the two races when slavery was abolished. The Jim Crow laws that existed through to the 1960s
completely separated whites and blacks into two different worlds where the black one was
diseased by poverty and was the bottom of the social class. This established a mindset of
superiority and inferiority in the minds of the people that had lived in those times. We can
observe Richard in the book asking why he has to conform to what the white people want him to
act like and we can observe the white people getting mad when Richard shows any kind of
attitude or doesnt act like the other black people. This mindset was very relevant when Richard
was growing up. Although it is not out rightly present nowadays, it is still in the backs of people
minds and one tends to judge someone based on their previous knowledge of their entire race.
These assumptions of how they act and how they should act cause us to do things like lock
our car doors when driving through black neighborhoods. Although we do not of the status of the
neighborhood or the people that live there, we take all the assumptions and all of out past
knowledge and apply it to this situation and we act upon it. I believe that this mindset is slowing
dying down as we see the progression in our society to a more equal and fairer society. History
takes time, one has to remember that the civil rights movement was only 50 years ago and
although that seems like a long time, in relation to the progression of us a species this amount of
time is a microscopic amount. As time progresses slowly but surely, this race relations issue

Mughees Choudhry
English Language Arts 11
Orrick/Vater
11 October, 2015

Choudhry, 9

along with many issues to whither down and just be remembered as history. And maybe in the
next 50 years, one makes judgments based on anothers actions as an individual rather than
making judgments on someone based on the color of their skin. Who knows?