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Being a Negro
Richard Wright wrote the story, “The Voodoo of Hell’s Half-Acre” and convinced the local black paper to publish it. However, he received unfriendly reactions from both his family and classmates. Firstly, his classmates could not understand why he had written and published a fiction story simply because he needed to do so. Similarly, his family members were equally hostile and unreceptive towards his actions. For instance, Granny and Addie associated literary fiction stories with lies. On the other side, Ella believed that Richard’s writing would make people feel that he was of a weaker mind; thus, nobody would hire him for a job. The newspaper editor was the only person who motivated him. Richard pondered that if he had imagined then the kind of challenges he would eventually encounter to become a writer, he would have thought of something else but not writing.
During that time, black people were not allowed to use library shelves. However, Richard thought of a plan that made him access the books (by Mencken) that he so desperately wanted to read. Initially, he had often visited the library to pick books for the white men on the job. He weighed different men’s personalities and pointed out a white man (an Irish Catholic) whose attitude and personality, as he believed, did not fit into an anti-Black category. He knew the man had read many books, so he requested to use his card to access the books he wanted to read. His request was successful, and he managed to access the books written by H.L Mencken that he desperately wanted to read.
On page 189, Richard says, “I now knew what being a Negro meant.” He said this to denote how Black people needed to act around the Whites. Inspired by the different books he read, Richard acknowledged what a Black meant, though he never considered it right being. He could not comprehend why the Negros were not considered human. However, he realized the importance of acting like a stereotypical Negro since he needed to survive. Although he encountered challenges trying to change his actions, he eventually complied with White’s expectations.