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Black Boy Chapter 12

Black Boy Chapter 12. Review. Q uestions Friday . Chapter 12 takes place in Memphis. Remember that Richard is trying to save money to move farther north to Illinois. He finds a job at another optical company. Important characters: Shorty, the elevator operator

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Black Boy Chapter 12

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  1. Black Boy Chapter 12 Review

  2. Questions Friday • Chapter 12 takes place in Memphis. Remember that Richard is trying to save money to move farther north to Illinois. • He finds a job at another optical company. • Important characters: • Shorty, the elevator operator • An unnamed white “Yankee” or northerner • Mr. Olin • Harrison

  3. Surviving in the south: wearing a “mask” “Each of us hated and feared the whites, yet had a white man put in a sudden appearance we would have assumed silent, obedient smiles” (229)

  4. Connection: • Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) wrote about this concept in “We Wear the Mask”

  5. The Yankee • Like Mr. Crane from earlier chapters, his attempt to help scares Richard • He is also primarily unable to help – remember that the desire of one person to do good and to combat racism in the south is not sufficient. Groups of people joining together are necessary to fight injustice. • Review pages 231-233 (until the page break)

  6. Priorities – necessities come before protesting injustice “A man will seek to express his relation to the stars; but when a man’s consciousness has been riveted upon obtaining a loaf of bread, that loaf of bread is as important as the stars” (233).

  7. Mr. Olin • White man in the optical shop – you should connect his behavior to that of Pease and Reynolds in Mr. Crane’s shop • He pretends to be Richard’s friend and encourages him to fight Harrison, another black boy who works for a rival optical company

  8. The fight • Richard and Harrison discover that they are each being encouraged to fight the other through lies involving dirty words, knives, etc. • They know the white men are lying but cannot say so • They ultimately fight (242-243) for the enjoyment of the white men

  9. Richard’s reaction to the fight “I could not look at Harrison. I hated him and I hated myself” (243). “I felt that I had done something unclean, something for which I could never properly atone” (243).

  10. Discuss • Shorty sang, belittled himself, and convinced a white man to give him a quarter to kick him in the “rump” (223-229) • Did Richard ultimately do the same thing Shorty did?

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