crooks says to Lennie " I ain't no southern negro .. I was born right here in California " . what does he by that? How was a life different for African Americans in the south compared to those out west in california?

Crooks desperately wants to believe that he is better off than the Southern Negro though something inside him tells him that he is not. Crooks enjoyed some freedom growing up. His father had a chicken farm and he was not exposed to the level of racism that he might have felt in the South. Blacks had more freedom and autonomy in California than Southern States like Alabama. Crooks, however, l still ivies in a horse stable and is segregated from the other men in the ranch because of his color