Job Interview In Harlem

The narrator finally moves to Harlem from the south. Harlem is a completely different world to him. There is less racism in Harlem. When he arrives there he sees many black people with regular jobs such as cashiers and policemen. He is shocked by this because he wouldn’t see something like this in the south. White people are nicer in Harlem too.
However the narrator is still a little bit self conscious. He is afraid because of his skin color that he will not make it in Harlem as if he had a better chance in the south.

“White folks were funny; Mr. Bates might not wish to see a Negro the first thing in the morning. I turned and walked down the hall and looked out of the window. I would wait awhile.”
In this passage he is meeting up with a white man for a job interview because he needed a job to survive. He is scared that the interviewer might not hire him because he is black. The narrator thinks that the white man doesn’t want to see a black man right away in the morning. The narrator actually degrades his race by doing this. He shouldn’t be intimidated by a white man because of his skin color. It doesn’t seem as if the narrator cares too much about racism. He just does whatever he thinks is right and he thinks obeying white people is right. But by doing that he is only setting his people one hundred years back.