Black Boy

Finely tuned to communicate racial double-consciousness not only as an idea a reader has to accept, but as an experience they're dragged into. Every abuse, every false accusation, every interaction with an undertone of violent intent is perfectly calculated not only to make you fucking angry about racism, but to force you to confront the mentality of the oppressed and its obsession with attempting to read the thoughts of the powerful for the sake of simple survival.

Black Boy, through a composite of Richard Wright's and others' personal experiences, shows a pre-civil rights Black America that is thoroughly beaten down, thoroughly exploring the multitude of ways that the complicated and brutal mindfuck that is American racism conditions the oppressed to do anything but resist and drives them to a multitude of different kinds of ruin. It's certainly not an easy read to handle emotionally, but your emotions are always directed toward understanding, a ditch is always carefully dug so all your feelings flow toward empathy and new insights into a deeply damaged psyche. This is probably its greatest value to a modern reader who hopefully already condemns everything described.

The Chicago section originally cut by the publisher tackles the latent distrust and cynicism granted by survival in the south, the subtler (but still ever-present) racism of the north, living and working during the Great Depression, the isolation found by loving to read in a world where that's "not your place," and the confusing social maze that was being a communist more interested in art and connecting with average people than the party line. Despite obviously opposing its original exclusion, I did still find this portion a bit weaker than the perfectly pointed opening sections. I've no idea at what point in the publication process it was cut, so it's possible it was just not as rigorously edited. Regardless, Wright has much to say about the anti-intellectualism, malappropriated tactics, paranoia, and general dysfunction of the then-strongly Comintern-aligned Communist Party which is still applicable to the attitudes of leftists today. I appreciate criticism of communist movements like this which clearly comes from a place of love and a feeling of betrayal...I find that it's often the most illuminating. See also: La Chinoise.