"Learning to Live in the South"

By “learning how to live in the South” Griggs means that Wright should start acting like white people perceive and expect blacks to act. He has to be subservient to whites. Wright must listen to and do what the white people tell him. Griggs told him he must get out of their way and think before he spoke or acted. Wright had to be respectful of whites and make sure he said “no sir” and “yes ma’am” to them. He had to hide his emotions and the fact that he was upset when whites treated him unfairly. If he did not pretend to accept his lower status in this white society, it would make white people believe that he thought he was equal to them. This could lead to white people getting upset and maybe physically hurting him. Also, by not behaving as white’s expected him to act, it caused him to lose or quit several jobs.

Changing the way he behaved was hard for Wright to do. He normally he did not look at people and give much thought to whether they were white or black. They were just people and he did not treat them any differently depending on their color. Now, he realized that in the South there was a difference between what one could or could not do based on race. White people wanted to feel superior to the blacks, but how Wright acted made them think that he thought he was equal to them. Griggs said this would create conflict so Wright must adjust his behavior to survive in the white world. He knew Griggs was right but it was impossible for Wright “to calculate, to scheme, to act, to plot all the time.” Wright believed blacks were wrong in giving into whites and taking so long to stand up for their rights as equal human beings. He firmly believed the status of race and class was artificial.