Ignorance and Color

        White people know everything, right? "The day is going to come," Mr. Head prophesized, "when you'll find out you ain't as smart as you think you are" (O'Connor, 211). The white people in many of O'Connor's stories assume they know everything because of their social standing and their ethnicity; they frown upon Negroes and assume the people with dark skin know nothing. Ironically, the white people are the ones that end up looking like fools when all is said and done. especially when local color is added to the picture.

           

        An excellent example of this is found in O'Connor's story titled "The Artificial Nigger." Nelson represents the young, upcoming generation of white people who assume they know everything already. The only problem with this is that this assumption is false, especially when weighed against the knowledge of locals. Nelson and Mr. Head get terribly lost in the city, so Nelson asks a black woman for directions but he gets incredibly flustered as he looks at her. Mr. Head notes the boy's lack of sense; yet they are both ignorant of the city. By lowering themselves to the point of asking directions from a black woman, they are proving the fact that the locals always know best, even if they are black. In the South, Negroes were thought to be uneducated and ignorant of their surroundings, but this story places that stigma on the two main, white, characters. The white men soon realize they are not as smart as they assumed they were, since even the old man gets lost in the city. Mr. Head represents the older generation that sticks to the old traditions and maintains an air of supremacy over colored folks. Except when it comes to color, black people sometimes seem to know much more than white people in O'Connor's stories, like in "The Geranium."

            
        Why does O'Connor set up this color dichotomy? There is a greater reason than observing the biases of the South when it comes to color. In a story like this, she is reminding the reader that prideful people get nowhere in the world if they act too good to ask help from others, especially others who may be a different color. There is also the element of local color in this story. The black neighborhood is a miniature culture within the city, so it is natural for the white men to feel out of place there. Worse than that, they don't want to look uneducated or ignorant in this neighborhood where they are clearly out of place. Yet if they weren't in need of help, then they would assume the black people were all ignorant and unable to help them as they looked down upon the colored folks. O'Connor does the color reversal to show that no matter what color a person may be, the locals will always know more regardless of the color of their skin.