Black Boy: Morality

I don't think Richard was ever really taught morality. He was influenced, but was really the one responsible for figuring out what he believed was moral and what was not. On a base level, he learned what not to do because when he did it, he was beaten by his parents. That's not really a question of morality, though; that's just behaving according to the rules of the household. In school, no one really made an attempt to teach him morality, aside from the fact that he as a black man should step aside for the white man. His relatives and a few people at school tried to bring religion to him, but though he wanted to participate, he could never really fully believe. Richard is very much an observer through the book. He's able to step back and observe peoples' actions and their reasons for doing them. I think this is how he was able to assemble his own systems of beliefs. I don't think that Richard's journey to discovering his own sense of morality really relates to the article because he essentially developed it himself.

Comparing Richard's journey to "Schools and Moral," Richard is like the Catholics. Though he represents a minority, he deeply desires others to behave according to his beliefs, such as treating everyone equally regardless of race. However, he's up against the Protestants: white people who assert their authority and the black people who smile and nod. Each time he petitions to a higher power to even gain an ounce of support, the will of the majority reigns. Racism, like Protestantism, was at the time an intrinsic value of American life. To come up against it was futile without changing the minds of the majority.