].
Also, Wright did not see the reasoning why African-Americans had to cater their lives to whites. This comes up at least twice in Black Boy. While on the train to Arkansas, Wright began to realize that whites and blacks never really came in direct contact with each other (Wright 47). Griggs later explains to Wright how blacks are supposed to act in front of whites - to think before acting and speaking (Wright 184).
Wright's mother had different values. It is evident that religion was a big focus in her life. After she recovered from strokes, Wright's mother attended a Methodist church. She wanted Wright to be saved from his sins for the afterlife, so he was talked into being baptized (Wright 155). Wright's mother also believed in him finding a job than being educated. When Wright wrote The Voodoo of Hell's Half-Acre, she tells him to be more serious in finding work than in writing stories (Wright 168). The responses and attitudes to racism that Wright's mother held were more typical of African-Americans than those of Wright. Most African-Americans tended to conform and be more accepting of the Jim Crow South. It was more of an attitude of taking what one can get, which can also be paralleled to Booker T. Washington's argument for African-American rights in 1895. Washington seemed to accept his position in life and simply asked for some assistance from whites by saying, "Cast down your bucket where you are" (Faragher, et. al, 298). In Black Boy, Shorty goes so far as to allowing a white man to kick him for food money (Wright 227-29). Wright's views can be paralleled to the argument made by W.E.B. DuBois in 1905. Wright did not accept his place in society, so he looked to reform things when he was in Chicago. DuBois, in the Niagara Movement, did not go about reform by asking for assistance from whites; instead, he demanded it:.
[And while we are demanding and ought to demand, and will continue to demand the rights enumerated above, God forbid that we should ever forget to urge corresponding duties upon our people (Faragher, et.
