The Ethics of Living Jim Crow

This essay set the ball rolling in the first ten words of the opening sentence. "My first lesson in how to live as a Negro..." Immediately I picked up my sparkly blue gel pen and circled those ten words adding a note that no one should have to "learn" to live any differently than the next guy. No one should have to learn to take the blow, physically or mentally, of someone who's only reason for being "above" someone else was created in their very own mind. No one should have to worry about crossing into the "wrong" side of town, the distinguishing factor determining the right side from the wrong side for a person being their skin color. Some people may develop anger as a result of reading about such injustices, but I developed disappointment. Disappointed in what the American culture used to be like, and in what it, in some cases, continues to be today. In some ways reading about issues like Jim Crow Laws and their harmful affects on people who are no different than myself make me ashamed to be associated with white people because I am, well, white.
The first story within the essay focused on the unfair living conditions of the narrator growing up black in the Arkansas. The narrator was forced to watch the white kids bask in their artificial glory and green lawns while he was restricted to yellow grass and a crumbling brick home. What bothered me most about the boy's first "lesson" in the ways of living Jim Crow was that it was detrimental to his self esteem and pride. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not wishing that the boy would be cocky and have a head full of air, I just wish he would not have been told to be the weaker man. After getting hurt in a fight between him and his white neighbor kids, his mother scolded him. She told him he needed to be a good boy, to hide, and to let the white kids win. Living Jim Crow meant that he needed to praise the white people, make them feel better, and in return turn himself into a coward.
Many of the lessons he learned were learned through being employed by wealthy white men. His first employer seemed like a genuinely nice man and that fact was true for a long time. As soon as the boy made a mistake though, his boss suddenly became two faced and the boy was thrown under the bus. The white man also had told him that he should not want to get smart. He should only want to learn a skill. From his various work situation, the boy learned that he was to be unintelligent and to follow what the white folks said to a tee. This is just as wrong as the lesson he learned from his mother because everyone has the capability to learn and should be able to do so if they wish. Education is a battle.
So, my disappointment came from the actions of the white people. Who ever said they had the power to downgrade the black people? I realize that not everything is fair, and not everything should be fair, but not one single person gets to decide their skin color so why hold it against them? In my opinion, there is no point in being angry over what has occurred in the past for there is nothing anyone can do about it now. I think disappointment is alright, and even valuable because it can drive people to do better than they have previously done. Yes, Jim Crow Laws were terrible, but move on. Read the stories, the essays, the history books, and learn from them. Notice what went wrong and what went right and then do better.