Propaganda All Around

    Most people don't realize that propaganda is all around us. It might not be in the classic form of Uncle Sam, but it's there. If you turn on the tv, use the web, or maybe even just walk down the street, you'll probably see it. The most common form of propaganda today would be advertisements. They promise you something that will make you happier, cooler, skinnier, or they just bend the truth to make something look better than it is. Maybe they give you the idea that you NEED something, for example a new cell phone or a laptop. Verizon has the slogan "new every two"- a new phone every two years. This is extremely wasteful and unnecessary, but people are made to believe that they need the newest, best technology, even if its almost the same as what they're replacing.

    The media is another big source of propaganda, because they're the only ones that control what they report. Stations like Fox News use bias or even create rumors to promote their conservative views. But the rest of the media can be just as bad. The Iraq war has been said to be under-reported and facts are changed or left out to make a positive image of the U.S.  All this propaganda is wrong, especially in a country like the U.S. where the people deserve to know what is really happening.

Black Boy

     Richard Wright grew up in the South, mostly in Mississippi, during the teens and twenties. Richard had a rough life from the very beginning, dealing with poverty, his father leaving the family, constant moving, and his mother's paralysis. Richard always had a curious mind and asked a lot of questions- sometimes too many. He was often beaten by his family whenever he spoke up. He often asked about whites and blacks, but never really got any answers. He had to learn about this through stories and experiences, which left him unready to work for whites under the Jim Crow laws. He never wanted to cooperate with the goal of the white south, which was basically to make African-Americans believe what the whites said to them - that they were inferior, they would never amount to anything. Most people he knew had already succumbed to that. When Richard told his friends he wanted to be a writer they couldn't understand it. To them, that just wasn't something African-Americans did.
     Richard could never go along with the expectations of the whites and because of that he couldn't hold a job. He would make one wrong comment, use the wrong tone, make the wrong face, and he'd be back on the street looking for a new job. Richard's ideas of breaking free from the mold whites put blacks in would be similar to the ones driving the Civil Rights Movement, that eventually did just that.

Hungry for Attention

     In Black Boy, Richard Wright seems to be always hungry- for food and for attention. In just the first chapter he has done a lot of things that seem outrageous, like setting his house on fire, killing a kitten, going into the saloon and doing whatever he's told to do, and runnung away from an orphanage. Wright gave explanations for all these things, and they are probably true, but part of his motivation was also probably to get attention. His parents, especially his dad, often seemed to ignore him. His dad worked at night so he slept during the day, and eventually he left the family.  When he asked his mom things, like about reading or race, she didn't answer or gave vague answers. He had to learn to count from a coal delivery man.

     Richard isn't alone in his craving for attention. A lot of people want to be noticed and don't care what they have to do to get it. There are a lot of people who are shyer too, and even if they don't do things like this they can still want some attention. At the very least, nobody wants to be ignored. I think this is natural for all people, especially for a young kid like Richard who didn't get enough attention from his parents.