Discuss instances of racism in James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex- Coloured Man.

Johnson's work features much in way of instances where
race play a central role in the definition of one's character.  Consider early on in the
autobiography how the comment from the principal changes the narrator's perception of
the world.  This is a racial lens with which he views the world, one that differentiates
him from White society.  The feelings of inferiority and a lack of self worth that this
social bias possesses is what is internalized within the narrator.  He understands that
the social setting in which he lives validates and authenticates the predicament of
White America, and delegitimizes the experiences of American of color, in particular
African- Americans.  When Johnson goes to Atlanta, he recognizes a solidarity iwht
people of color because of their large numbers in the South.  In this instance, the
issue of race again projects itself into the discourse because the narrator recognizes
that race can also be a point of solidarity.  A reality that White America of the time
has already understood is something that the narrator grasps when he arrives in
Atlanta.  I think that another instance where race injects itself into the discussion
concerns the principle of "slumming," when White patrons would partake in largely
"Black" areas after hours, in the still of the night, and refer to it as being able to
be "fashionable" while being racist at the same time.  For Johnson, the production of
Black expressions of cultural art is perceived as something "chic" and simultaneously
"lower class" by White society.  In this, the presence of race helps to define even
moments where the narrator perceives White America and the America of color coming
together.