But I found Black Boy on downloadable audiobook from the library a couple of weeks ago, and I've been having at it regularly since then. Which has gotten me to the end of Part One ("Southern Night"), so I guess I'm at the halfway point. (It's hard to tell without page numbers.) And? It's powerful, powerful stuff. It's Must Read stuff.
This morning I heard a part wherein Richard was talking about a time when, as a very young man, his employer was trying to trick him and another black worker into attacking each other. When that didn't work, the employer offered to give them five dollars each if they would box each other for four rounds. Richard didn't want to do it, but the other black guy told him that he really needed the money, and eventually convinced Richard to throw down. I haven't made it to the end of the fight yet, but when Richard was describing how excited the white guys were when Richard finally agreed to fight...how they started offering to train him and feed him, and once the fight commenced how they howled with joy and excitement and encouraged the two boys to hurt each other...and of course it made me think about that opening scene in Invisible Man (which Black Boy preceded by 7 years, by the way...though that's not really salient with respect to the boxing story)...but a moment later it made me think about professional football and basketball. A bunch of white people cheering as black men go at each other. And, at least in the case of football, attempt to hurt each other. It made me feel like never watching another professional football game. (I never watch the NBA, so I can't swear off that.)
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