Black Boy, by Richard Wright provides insightful images of the racist and cruel treatment these writers experienced. From the early days of Richard's childhood, Richard was always alienated from his environment. Even though he tried to distance himself from the prejudice all around him, the white people still tried to turn him into the stereotypical southern black person. However, throughout the story Richard is also alienated by his own people and perhaps even more then from the white people.
Richard was always a rebel, from his boyhood to his older teenage years. Richard's grandmother was always excessively beating him. From the beginning, Richard would not subdue below the white man himself like the other black people around him did. The white people around him knew that he was different from other black men. They were scared because he challenged the system that they had created for themselves as the super power. They feared Richard, and some of the white people felt it necessary to act out their racist feelings in order to cover up their fear. His white coworkers beat Richard because his boss was kind to him. Richard later had to leave a good job because those racist co-workers would "kill" him. When the principal at Richard's school had asked Richard to give a speech to a large audience of white and black people, Richard refused to read the principal's prepared speech. By reading the principal's speech, Richard was saying what the white power wanted him to say and to Richard this would be giving in to the very thing he hated so much. Richard was willing to leave school without a diploma instead of this. White people alienated Richard from his environment because he did not accept the way of life that other black people did.
Richard's relatives never understood Richard and because of this he was alienated from his family and his own people. Shorty is the young black boy who gets beat by the white people and jokes about it.