Black Boy Chapter 15

I'm writing about the third parenthetical passage on page 265. When I read this, it didn't sound like something someone would say if they were to experience it. I read it and it sounded like someone had observed situations and then written them down like a historian. That's just how I felt...it was kind of weird to read these and think that Richard had gone through so much and ended up writing as an observer rather then the person who had actually gone through it.