How Did Richard Wright Influence Society

Richard Wright Grew up in the South at a time where Racism heavily influenced Society. He dealt with discrimination and was confronted by racism extremely close to him. When he was little, he struggled to understand the concept of racism and how the color of your skin created your place in society. Growing up and having countless of jobs, lead him to be more aware of race issues. Though he never agreed or wanted to play the roles of society, he learned over time, that in order to make a living and to stay alive, he would have to. Richard always struggled to conform to the places each race held in a community, but several of the events in his life forced him to understand the concept of racism and why it was such a fear in the eyes of his family
He was too small to grasp the idea of discrimination based on your skin color. His young mind wanted everything and everyone to be equal, and when he saw that it wasn’t, it confused him. He often asked his mother about race and racism, and eventually annoyed his mother with all the questions. When Richard and his family go to live with his Granny, Richard becomes even more curious with race inside of his family. He wonders why his grandmother is white when the rest of his family is black. He is getting to an age where he notices things like this, and wants to ask questions to understand it more. One day when Richard was playing outside, he noticed a group of prisoners. He ran inside and started asking his mom so many questions about it. He wondered why all the prisoners were black, and all the guards were white. He asked if prisoners are ever white people. His mother responded by saying that “they’re harder on black people”, this was her attempt at bringing up the issues he would later have to deal with, but not wanting to scare him with it yet. This is also the age where his Uncle Hoskins is killed by a jealous group of whites. This is the closest Richard has ever been to violent Racism in his own life. He is now aware of the fear whites put in the hearts of blacks, however he doesn’t understand why. He asks his mother “Why had we not fought back”, and his mother is so shocked, that she slaps
With a growing desire for food and money, Richard starts looking for jobs. During this time in his life he is forced to interact with whites more than he ever has. He treats people like people ,instead of treating them as whites and blacks, which gets him in trouble often. He doesn’t see people as whites and blacks, he sees them all as human beings. On the first job interview he gets the woman asks Richard if he steals, Richard responds in the most human way by laughing and having a sassy remark. This behavior would be okay to say to black person at the time, but he forgets that he is talking to a white woman. He does realize he made a mistake, but not until it is too late. He even says “I had made a mistake in my first five minutes in the white world”, showing that he knows he made a mistake and knows he should’ve treated the white with more respect. At another one of his jobs, he is working at a hotel and when he is leaving with a girl one day a cop slaps the girl’s butt. Richards is outraged and he knows that what just happened was wrong. He turns around and wants to say something to the cop, but he doesn't because he knows he could get killed if he does. He understands the roles whites and blacks play in society now, but he still can't accept them because he knows they are unequal and