chapter 2

• Blog – Wright says it was his ‘cultural heritage’ to dislike Jews. Relate that to his own experiences.

For Wright it is ironic that it is his cultural heritage to dislike Jews, since both Jews and him are really in the same place, both are not popular in society, both are abused by the majority of the people around them. Wright says that while the whites were cruel to the blacks that the blacks were cruel to the Jews because of the pervading racial attitudes of the time. Unlike the whites however, the abuse of the Jews is mostly through taunts and mean songs. The whites abuse of the blacks was from violence, abuse, and fear of violence. I ironically by doing this Richard is conforming to society’s racial expectations and thus furthering a vicious cycle in which people constantly racially abuse one another and prevent each other from getting ahead in society, thus leaving the whites in a position of power.