The Ethic of living Jim Crow

The authors thesis of this chapter is to show how the Jim Crows laws affected blacks. Throughout the chapter the authors uses exaples of a black at the time of the Jim Crow period. The person used examples he had encountered throughout his life working. The author wanted to show how blacks were treated and looked down upon during this period of time. Jim Crow laws made it hard for blacks to find work and when they did find work they had abide by everything that their white owners told them. No matter how painful it was for them to do certain things, they had to do them if they wanted to stay alive.

The first example te author uses is by starting the chapter in showing the ways blacks and white were handled. The black and white kids were throwing things such as a having a war between the two and it ends up one black kid gets cut by a glass bottle. Well instead of having his mom there to comfort him and take him by her side she beats him and tells him never to go into the white neighborhood again. The quote used, "She finished by saying, you ought to be thanking God that those white boys didnt kill you." Another great example of the black boy learning his boundries in the work field was through the second example stated. When he started his first job he worked under two white boys and they got along great for tht efirst month.They taguht him everything he needed to know and showed him some tricks of the trade. Well after the first couple of weeks the white boys started to ignore him and treat him differently. When the black boy asked them to teach him something the beat him and told him to leave and never come back. Those two examples show how blacks were treated throughout the time of the Jim Crow laws. Even though they could get jobs thwey were treated poorly and given no oppurtunities to better themselves.

Two Discussion Questions:
1.) When did the black status in the work field change, and how did this effect differnt ways of life between whites and blacks?
2.) Were black females and males treated any differently in the workplace?

I thought reading was very clear and gave great exaples which helped mr to understand what exactly the author was trying to get at. This chapter for me was easier to understand and was less confusing because of the examples and less comperhensive information in previous readings.