Richard Wright's Black Boy

[LauraS]

The first book on my reading list, Richard Wright’s Black Boy, oddly mirrors my own situation. In the face of loneliness and despair, Wright sought solace and understanding from long dead writers. Yet his quest only brought him further anguish. He found the collaboration of his family members, indeed his entire race, contemptible. Yet his family sought through compromise with the whites to protect him. His mother tried to teach her son to work within an unjust system so that he might achieve a small amount of success. Black men who defied the system were lynched. I am just such a mother. I know that by stomaching abuse from a man I detest, I can pay for my daughter’s college tuition and cover her medical bills for a chronic illness. Compromise or collaboration? If it is collaboration, is it justified? Or am I selling my soul?

When we as a society collaborate, we at least tacitly endorse and support injustice. When must we take a stand, individually or as a society, that is not collaborative? Would Martin Luther King, Jr.’s peaceful civil disobedience have realized success without the Watts riots, the Black Panthers or the Weathermen?

Does my right as a mother to protect my child trump my duty to refrain from collaborating in injustice?

The next book on my list is Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood. I am working through the courses on a Yale podcast course of American novels since 1945. Would anyone like to join me?