James Weldon Johnson Racism

Anybody can claim they don’t have biases against a certain group or side in an argument or conflict. James Weldon Johnson presented his 1912 novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, as a balanced view of both races (black and white). However, what authors thought of as unbiased or not-racist back then (post-civil war to pre-MLK jr.) could differ greatly with what people think now in much more advanced societies. For instance, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (released a mere twenty-seven years earlier) wasn’t considered racist around the time of its release, but today’s readers are appalled by the text. The view of both races in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is balanced and James Weldon Johnson shows the readers both positive and negative characters of each race. Neither race is clearly favored by the author in this novel. Some could argue that whites were the favored race in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man due to the fact that James Weldon Johnson included more white characters than black. Whites outnumbering blacks isn’t an example of bias, it is simply historical accuracy as the African-Americans were a minority in late 19th century early 20th century America. The novel keeps a balance by having an equal ratio of positive and negative
He demonstrates a fair and realistic view of a post-civil war America. The author tells us before the novel starts that he has created one of the few balanced and fair views of the black and white races in literature. The book was unbiased back then and still holds up in today’s world. The characters of the book are not characterized by their race, but by their personality. The way in which James Weldon Johnson writes these characters is realistic; people cannot be defined simply by race or any other characteristic, but they can be by the value of their