Response to Sept 5th's Blog
During this time period of 1945, the war is at a climax for America. We are ahead in Europe and progressing in the Pacific Ocean against Japan. Robert 'Bob' Jones arrives in Los Angeles coming from Cleveland Ohio to take a new job in a shipyard to support the war efforts. Bob gains a promotion but is immediately criticized and is racially abused. These comments are by a white woman who will not do work for Bob. This is one of the main examples of racism used throughout the book. The book thoroughly uses a very racial term towards Bob throughout the entire book. This word is repeated and used so much to stress the point that African Americans were still abused while America was 'cleansing the world' of all the racial and extremist countries. This example made me reflect of how hypocritical America was during World War 2. On one hand we are saving millions of lives in Europe and defending the world yet our own country we are racist, lynching, and abusing our citizens. It is incredible how a black man is scared to come home after serving his country because he is terrified of the backlash of being a black man in uniform. A man should be taking pride in serving his country, not ashamed to represent such a hypocritical system. I find it interesting of how America is encouraging Black men and women to serve their country yet cannot prevent any of the hate or racial abuse that comes with their service. These men and women should be glorified and honored for their tremendous acts of patriotism yet they are degraded for being a darker skin color. If He Hollers Let Him Go shows the struggle of Bob as he is going through his life at a Navy yard. He receives negative comments by co workers and higher ups. This shows the corruption America had during World War 2 of muting their own citizens who are doing anything for their country. I am proud of how we have taken steps as a nation forward in a positive direction in the 21st century for all tor achieve equal rights.
After reading the first half of Chester Himes' If He Hollers Let Him Go, a passage of the novel that really stood out to me occurred on page 29. Bob has been called into Mr. MacDougal's (his boss) office after he yelled at Madge, a white woman, for calling him the n word. MacDougal tells Bob that as a person who is in a leadership position, he can't lose his temper with any of the employees. "But one of the first things people in authority gotta learn is they can't lose their temper. I can't lose my temper. My superior can't lose his temper. You didn't have no right to lose your temper about it either." MacDougal also explains that Bob should expect people some days to behave like this, and that it will take some time for the white workers to get used to working with African Americans. Bob also learns in this conversation that the reason he was promoted to crew leader was to keep trouble from occurring between the white and black workers. This page really stands out to me for many reasons. This passage demonstrates racism on two different fronts. Not only is Bob called the n word to his face, but he is told by his boss that he must accept it. Bob is to be held accountable for his actions, but the white workers don't have to be, because, "they just have to get used to it. You just gotta give them time." I think this page demonstrates what African American workers were expected to endure in order to work in the defense industry.
ReplyDeleteIf He Hollers Let Him Go is a novel that is about Bob Jones, an African American who works in a ship yard. He has many difficulties with white people, and his race affects everything he does. He says, “Every time I stepped outside I saw a challenge I had to accept or ignore” (4). He faces challenges every day because he has dark skin. One of these challenges is with Madge, a white woman who refuses to work with Bob. She says to him, “I ain’t gonna work with no n*****!” and Bob replies, “Screw you then, you cracker b****!” (27). This is a heated exchange between them. Bob was very nice at first, but when Madge called him that, he shouted back. Because of this, his boss demotes him. This is wrong. Because he is black, he is labeled as the problem, even though it was Madge who created the difficulties. She should’ve just worked with Bob, and there wouldn’t be any issues. These challenges are examples of what every African American was going through in the 1940s. The United States treated them as second-class citizens. The United States was oppressing African Americans while they were fighting against oppression in WWII. This is very contradictory, and it forced many people to question the war, especially African Americans. How could we fight a war for liberty, while we made the lives of African Americans unbearable? The definition of Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. He go directly against the idea of liberty when we oppress African Americans, and our country was formed on the grounds of liberty.
ReplyDeleteIn Chester Times novel, If He Hollers Let Him Go, there is an overarching theme of blatant and under-the-surface racism. Out right racism like Madge calling Bob Jones, the narrator of the novel, the N-word, to more covert forms like Bob’s bosses telling him to just deal with it, or when white bosses do not explicitly say they are not gonna hire black people. These situations, coupled with the dreams Bob had at the beginning of the novel, depicting some of his fears, were, I can deduce, were common things that black people had to deal with during that time. While the executive order by President Rosevelt desegregated the defense industry, it did not solve the problem of racism in the country, especially the blatant racism of white people in power. However, in contrast to that, throughout the novel, Bob and Madge develop sexual tension between themselves. After getting demoted, Bob thinks about raping her in order to get back, not just at her, but to the white establishment. Furthermore, you can see Bob and Madge kinda flirt with each other, like on page 27, right before she calls him the N-word, Bob notes that she gets excited to see him, though in kind of a crazy way. This kinda shows the internal struggle that whites are also dealing with because racism is taught, and once learned, its hard to break, so when you (white person) start having to work and listen to a black person, and also you might find them somewhat attractive, the only way to deal with those feelings is to lash out.
ReplyDeleteChester Himes truly opens your eyes to a portion of World War 2 that simply isn’t discussed enough in “If he Hollars Let him Go.” I was captivated by the horrible things Bob was forced to endure during America’s so called “racial cleansing of the world.” Multiple times he mentions that he wished Japan would win. I had never thought that it was possible that someone could say that, not even an African American, since all we are told is that World War 2 was a time of great American pride and patriotism. In reality, it was a time of hypocrisy.
ReplyDelete-Jack Bish
“Every time I stepped outside I saw a challenge I had to accept or ignore. Every day I had to make on decision a thousand times: Is it now? Is now the time?”
ReplyDeleteThe first half of If He Hollers Let Him Go depicts the overwhelming stress that racial tension caused to African Americans of the time. During the beginning chapters, we see the immense amounts of verbal abuse, insults, and physical assaults that the main character Bob endures almost daily. He is subjected to the abuse everywhere, consistently. He endures it in his work place, as well as within his own home from the people that he is close with. This incessant maltreatment, is also highlighted by the usage of racial slurs, which degrade Bob, making him feel less-than. It was interesting how we originally see him try to cope with this by burying it down inside and reminding himself that he has a date with Alice. However, as time goes on and as the mistreatments worsen, we see him not wanting to accept that this is his reality. This increasingly abusive and derogatory treatment creates a large amount of pressure and stress upon Bob, which only continues to fester throughout the first half of the book.
The considerable amount of stress and suffering that is depicted in Bob is only a representation of the very real struggle of African Americans during World War II. They faced a substantial amount of pressure to be successful from their peers, although really being quite set up for failure by the systems in place at the time, all while being treated terribly by those around them. They may not have endured the exact same type of abuse, in the same ways, or to the same extent as Bob, however, it undoubtedly created the same reaction of stress, fear, and anger.