Coffee with Chuck

*I presented this essay at the American Literature Association Conference in May of 2025

Before college, I hated reading. In high school, I was only exposed to specific literature written by a specific type of author. In English classes, we read the works of Hemingway, Hawthorne, and Faulkner. All these authors have two things in common. They are white and they tell white stories. The closest book we got to a Black story was Harper Lee’s 1960 book To Kill a Mockingbird. And even that is a white story as it tells the story of a “good white man” saving the negro. As I continued to read these books for classes, I concluded that Black stories are not thought to be intellectual or rigorous enough to teach to American students.  I saw in the American education system that stories written by white authors hold dominion over the stories written by Black authors. 

I began to see that Black folks are a colonized people in the United States. Colonization is all about power and holding power over a nation of people. When Africans arrived in the Americas as enslaved people, they were made powerless by the European colonizer who stripped them of their culture, religion, languages, and traditions, and denied them the ability to learn. But they also took the lives away by enslaving them, in turn making the Africans’ very being one of slave and social death. Orlando Patterson writes, “ The slave was a dominated thing, an animated instrument, a body with natural movements, but without its own reason, an existence entirely absorbed in another…the soul and the reason of this body, the source of this life, was the master” (Patterson,1982) The enslaved are rendered powerless, which in turn leaves the enslaved susceptible to being colonized.

Now, this colonization did not end with emancipation; it just changed form and persisted through Jim Crow and the rise of the prison industrial complex. Today, colonization continues with the attack on what conservatives call Critical Race Theory, and the denial of Black stories with book bans. Now, when I first got to college, I was not able to articulate all of this because I did not have the language. When I was introduced to Black writers like James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, and Zora Neale Hurston, I saw their vision of how the effects of slavery are still with us today.

I developed this language and vision by reading Black memoirs. Memoirs have done a lot for me in decolonizing my mind, but when I read Richard Wright’s 1945 memoir Black Boy, I saw decolonization in practice. 

Wright shows that the American South is a Semi-colony and Black folks live lives of social death. Wright articulates how writing and reading for Black folks can be used as a source of Black Power. Wright speaks to how reading and writing can decolonize Black folks. Wright engages in what Christina Sharpe calls wake work. For Sharpe wake work is “to connect the social forces on a specific, particular family’s being in the wake to those of all Black people in the wake; to mourn and to illustrate the ways our individual lives are always swept up in the wake produced and determined, though not absolutely, by the afterlives of slavery”(Sharpe, 2016, p. 30). Put differently, wake work shows that antiBlackness creates social death. 

To do wake work it requires the indvidual to tell a story but it is “ not a personal story that folds onto itself; it’s not about navel gazing, it’ really about trying to look at historical and social process and one’s own formation as a window onto social and historical processes” (Sharpe, 2016, p.30- 31). Meaning, wake work is to reflect and use the story to see how the antiBlackness of slavery predicts the future while also making sense of the current moment. Katherine McKittrick writes that the story “does not matter as much as what it does. And one thing black creative text and black creative praxes do is illuminate narratives of black life and humanity and, at the same time, create conditions through which relationality, rebellion, conversation, interdisciplinarity, and disobedience are fostered” (Mckittrick, 2021, p. 51)

For Wright, his story began in the early part of the 20th century. Wright uses a story to describe how antiBlackness is used as a colonial tool to create social death. AntiBlackness is not simply an alternative word for racism, but antiBlackness is  “ an accretion of practices, knowledge systems, and institutions designed to impose nothing onto blackness and the unending domination/eradication of black presence as nothing incarnated” (Warren, 2018, p. 9). AntiBlackness produces a nothingness for Black folks, meaning antiBlackness makes it so that the being of Blacks is nothing; they are socially dead. Jared Sexton defines social death as “In fact, social death might be thought of as another name for slavery and an attempt to think about what it comprises, and social life, then, another name for freedom and an attempt to think about what it entails” ( Sexton, 2011, p. 17). In other words, social death is how antiBlackness sustains slavery despite emancipation. Wright demonstrates how his existence is one of social death as he was told by his employers, “his masters,” on how to act to survive in the semicolony of the American South. 

Robert Allen in Black Awakening in Capitalist America starts with the understanding that “The path of revolution is much more complex” (Allen, 1969, p. 1). Allen states that “​The black revolt is no exception to this process. Black America is an oppressed nation, a semicolony of the United States, and the black revolt is emerging as a form of national liberation struggle”(Allen,1969, p.1). Framing Blacks as an independent nation but also referring to Black folks as a semicolony it marks Blacks as a people experiencing domestic colonialism” (Allen, 1969, p.1).

Allen was writing this in the late 1960s and describes this form of colonialism as “In the United States today a program of domestic neo-colonialism is rapidly advancing. It was designed to counter the potentially revolutionary thrust of the recent black rebellions in major cities across the country”(Allen, 1969, p.17). Therefore, Neo-colonialism disenfranchises Black folks and disrupts the revolutionary movements that Black folks were orchestrating to self-determine and to pursue liberty. Allen saw that Black counterinsurgency was the only feasible solution to strengthen Black communities. The idea of Black Power became that decolonial counter tactic. Kwame Ture and  Charles Hamilton define Black Power as “Black people must redefine themselves, and only they can do that. Throughout this country, vast segments of the black communities are beginning to recognize the need to assert their own definitions, to reclaim their history, their culture; to create their own sense of community and togetherness”(Carmichael & Hamilton,1992). Black Power is the establishment of a Black united front against the white colonizer, wherein Black folks fight to be independent and to live outside the antiBlackness which colonizes Blacks. Black Power is self-determination. Black Power is Black culture. Black Power is the rooting of the community in Black self-sufficiency. Black Power is a call for Black freedom and liberation. Hamilton and Ture wrote about Black Power in 1967, 18 years before that  Richard Wright in his memoir Black Boy illustrates from his point of view what the semi-colony looks like and how it functions to continue America’s colonial project of Black lives. Black Boy laid the groundwork for Wright’s 1954 book Black Power: A Record of reactions in a land of pathos, a book that documents his trip to Africa, which results in him defining Black Power. His definition inspired revolutionaries like Kwame Ture, but also contemporary revolutionaries. To understand the inspiration, we must look at Black Boy.

As the book opens, we are introduced to a four-year-old, Richard, living in Natchez, Mississippi. Richard is in his home playing around with fire near the curtains. In his boyish play, he catches the curtains on fire, subsequently burning down his family’s home. Starting the book with this story, Richard Wright uses it as a metaphor to allude to how he will be burning down the curtains of America and anti-blackness with his 1945 memoir. This traumatic childhood event led to a series of relocations. And with every move, tragedy, poverty, and antiBlackness followed. Following many moves and periods of falling on hard times, Richard and his family find themselves in Jackson, Mississippi. Once again, there is more trauma for Richard and his family. Richard’s mother suffers from multiple strokes, leaving her incapacitated and dependent on her family for care. As some sort of relief, Richard moves in with his Uncle Clark, just about an hour and a half away in Greenwood, Mississippi. This relief was only temporary. Richard had a tough time sleeping at his Uncle’s house as it is revealed that the bed he slept in was the bed of a young Black boy who was murdered. Not being able to sleep, Richard moves back to Jackson with his family. Trauma still exists for Richard in Jackson as he suffered from poverty, abuse from family members, and further antiBlack racism. 

However, it was during this time that Richard fell in love with writing and reading. He pens in the last chapter, “It had been only through books- at best no more than vicarious cultural transfusions–that I had managed to keep myself alive in a negatively vital. Whenever my environment had failed to support or nourish me, I had clutched at books; consequently, my beliefs in books had risen more out of a sense of desperation” (Wright, 1945, p. 226). Books and the pen gave Richard life in defiance of the social death that was born from chattel. With this discovery of love for reading and writing, Richard began writing for a Black-owned newspaper. Additionally, Richard was able to graduate from the 9th grade, giving way for him to join the workforce. 

ichard had several jobs. In Jackson, Richard got a job at an optical company working for a “Yankee” from Illinois named Mr. Crane. A man named Griggs delivered the job offer to Richard. Griggs tells Richard, “It looks like you’ve got a job…You’re going to have a chance to learn the trade. But remember, to keep your head. Remember you’re black”(Wright, 1945, p. 162-163). Why was it important for Griggs to remind Richard that he is Black? How would being Black affect the way Richard worked? What did Griggs mean? Griggs, in essence, is articulating to Richard that he is still Black, which in turn means he is inferior to whites and must operate in a certain way to keep his boss (master) happy. Also, he must operate in this way to maintain his position of social death as a servant to whiteness in the racial hierarchy. Richard takes this to mean “ I was reminding myself that I must be polite, must think before I spoke, must think before I acted, must say “yes sir, no sir,” that I must so conduct myself that white people would not think that I thought I was good as they” (Wright, 1945, p. 163). Richard had to repress his Blackness and live a life of social death to ultimately not disrupt the plantation or his place of employment owned by a white man, even one who is considered a Northerner. 

At the optical company, Richard worked alongside Pease and Reynolds, both southern whites. The two men inflicted racial violence on Richard at work. One day at work, Pease was more confrontational than usual. Pease asked with a “sadistic” voice, “Nigger, you think you’ll ever amount to anything” (Wright, 1945, p.164)?  He then asks Richard, “ What do you niggers think about”(Wright, 1945,p.165)? With this line of questioning, Pease is exoticizing Richard, which is a key aspect of colonization. Historically, whites/Europeans have read Blacks as exotic, deeming them subhuman, giving way for whites to hold dominion over Blacks. Embolden Pease, tells Richard, “If I was a nigger, I’d kill myself” (Wright, 1945, p.165). Suggesting that living life as Black is a life that needs to be terminated because of the hell antiBlackness and colonization create. But then Pease insinuates that Black folks deserve this hell and Black folks enjoy this hellish life saying, “ But I don’t reckon niggers mind being niggers” (Wright, 1945, p.165). 

This bombardment of antiBlackness was a constant, but that day it intensified. Pease accuses Richard of calling him Pease instead of “Mr. Pease”. Richard denies these accusations but Pease does not believe him and scolds Richard, “ You Black sonofabitch! You called me Pease, then” (Wright 1945, p. 1945, p. 166). Pease spat upon and slapped Richard. Reynolds adds to the violence by holding down Richard and telling him “Didn’t you call him Pease? If you say you didn’t, I’ll rip your gut string loose with this fucking bar, you Black granny dodger! You can’t call a white man a liar and get away with it”(Wright, 1945, p.166). Here, Reynolds reminds Richard through violence that he is subordinate to whites and must show respect even if it’s not given back. Experiencing this violence, Richard promises to quit the job and not return. The optical company was a place of hostility for Richard; it was also a place that reminded Richard of what it means to be Black in a semi-colony.

Later on, Richard is living in Memphis. In Memphis, he works at another optical company. This time, he works for a southern white man named Olin. He runs errands for the company. Everything seems like it’s going well. He even finds another brotha working for the company named Shorty. Shorty is the attendant to the elevator. Shorty is unrecognizable to most of the Black men in the South whom Richard encounters. Shorty is free, he is unapologetically Black, and does not play the white man’s game. For instance, one day, Shorty needs a quarter to get lunch. A white man gets on the elevator, and Shorty immediately says to the man, “ I’m hungry, Mister White Man. I need a quarter for lunch” (Wright, 1945, p. 199). The man ignores Shorty and his needs. Shorty proceeds, “I ain’t gonna move this damned old elevator till I get a quarter Mister White Man” (Wright, 1945, p. 199). Shorty does not bow down to the white man. Shorty has no shame in being Black, yet he is proud to be Black. Shorty’s pride in being Black rubs off on Richard.

One day, Richard is approached by his boss, who tells him that another Black man named Harrison, who works across the street, has a beef with him. Harrison’s boss is telling him that Richard has a beef with him. The two bosses want Richard and Harrison. The fight demonstrates that Black on Black violence is a form of entarinement, which is even more degrading. In this instance, both Harrison and Richard become powerless as their jobs and livelihoods are on the line if they don’t fight each other.

Harrison and Richard have reservations about fighting each other in front of white men. They are offered $5 each to fight. The two decided that they would fight with a condition proposed by Harrison: “ Look, let’s fool them white men…We won’t hurt each. We’ll just pretend, see? We’ll show ‘em we ain’t dumb as they think see” (Wright, 1945, p. 211). They fought in front of white men who observed, placed bets, and vocalized their racist tropes. The fight was ugly, and the promise they made with one another went out the window. Fighting in this way in front of the whites brought both men great shame as Richard describes after the fight that “I could not look at Harrison. I hated him and I hated myself. I clutched my five dollars in my fist and walked home. Harrison and I avoided each other after that and we barely spoke” (Wright, 1945, p. 212-213). Colonialism and anti-Blackness both promote hatred of self and other Blacks. Colonialism operates by killing the self-esteem of Black folks to condition Black folks to think they are inferior to whites. 

Working in Jackson and Memphis made his worldview narrow. His imagination of who he and other Blacks could be was deferred. Richard says “I know there were Negro doctors, lawyers, newspapermen, but I never saw any of them. When I read a Negro newspaper I never caught the faintest echo of my preoccupation in it’s pages” (Wright, 1945, p. 220). Richard’s love of reading became the tool that liberated him. Richard says, “reading also cast me down, made me see what was possible, what I had missed” (Wright, 1945, p. 220). He says, “My reading had created a vast sense of distance between me and the world in which I lived and tried to make a living, and that sense of distance was increasing each day. The distance he was creating was liberating.

Decolonization is not just about liberating people whose land has been conquered. But you can decolonize the mind. Richard decolonized his mind by reading, traveling, and gaining a different worldview. He provides other Black folks the same opportunity by writing about Black life, the beauty of Blackness, and the myriad possibilities for Black folks. 

Richard finds his way to Chicago, Illinois,  at the height of the Great Depression. During the depression, Richard became concerned with leftist and communist causes. Richard addressed these concerns when he began to write for leftist publications, as he saw writing was a way to put words to what was happening not only in Chicago but also in the South he had left. Wright has used his writing to give those who are powerless and silenced a voice. With his work, Richard continued to do wake work and shared decolonial techniques as he began to provide a guide to Black folks to decolonize the mind in his book Black Power, which begins with unifying the African diaspora. In looking at Black Boy it serves as a reminder the importance of reading. Today we live in a world that is anti-intellectual, therefore it becomes crucial that we read so that we may gain the knowledge needed to fight back against the oppressor.