Norviel's Ethics of Living

1. In the writing The Ethics of Living Jim Crow, the author is describes the rules and ways of living that African Americans were expected to follow. If they wanted to live and make a living among whites then they had to obey the unwritten rules that the white men created for them. Those African Americans who stepped out of line were often punished for supposedly disrespecting the whites.
2. This piece of writing followed a short time period of a young black boy’s life. It describes the lessons that the boy had to experience throughout part of his life of how to act, speak to, and work for whites. In the beginning he finds that after being cut by a broken glass bottle, that was thrown at him by a white boy while having a war, that his mother was non-sympathetic like he expected she would be. Rather she punished the boy, she wanted him to learn the right way to behave if he were ever going to survive in a world that he was an inferior part of. She knew what she was talking about because she has learned throughout her life how to get along with whites in order to provide food and other necessities for her family. Later when the boy had his first job and was accused of not addressing a white man properly, he learned to keep his mouth shut and to become submissive to what the whites wanted from him; he left his job without saying a word to the boss, even though the white men were ordered to teach him things. He knew better than to talk back. With each new job and as his life went on he learned the tricks that would keep him out of trouble and keep him alive as well. When he was unsure of the proper response to make toward a white person he found ways out of having to make any gesture at all, like when he was unable to remove his hat while in the elevator and the white man took it off for him. He knew he wasn’t really supposed to thank him, so rather than having to say or do anything he pretended to lose his sturdy hold on his packages so that the white man would understand that he was preoccupied with other matters.
3. Why did the group of white men in the car that offered him a ride say that he was lucky that he talked to them that way instead of someone else, why didn’t they treat him the same way that they thought other people would? Why didn’t the whites who had a soft spot for the blacks try harder to help them out?
4. Overall I liked the reading. I liked that it was more of a story rather than simply just facts. It gave it a more personal feel and made it more interesting to read and held the readers attention better.