Post for Sept. 7th
From If He Hollers, Let Him Go:
“But now I was scared in a different way. Not of the violence. Not of the mob. Not of physical hurt. But of America, of American justice. The jury and the judge. The people themselves. Of the inexorability of one conclusion-that I was guilty. In that one brief flash I could see myself trying to prove my innocence and nobody believing it. A white woman yelling, ‘Rape,’ and a Negro caught locked in the room. The whole structure of American thought was against me; American tradition had convicted me a hundred years before. And standing there in an American courtroom, through all the phoney formality of an American trial, having to take it, knowing that I was innocent and that I didn’t have a chance” (Himes 187).
Despite FDR’s Executive Order No. 8802, the novel provides ample instances of institutionalized racism at the shipyard by Bob’s superiors and coworkers. This inevitably enables arguably the most significant quote from the novel in which Bob’s most pressing fear comes true. After being falsely accused of rape by Madge, Bob stands in a courtroom built upon institutionalized racism and prejudice against the black community. His guaranteed 5th amendment protections, such as the due process clause, are thrown out the window as Bob is sure to face prison time despite the lack of evidence. Throughout my reading of the second part of the novel, I asked myself if I would also attempt to avoid unjust persecution as Bob had done. I would have tried to escape the brutality of the mob and the unjust imprisonment too. Sadly, I find that Bob’s situation is still comparable to that of today. Even in 2018, black men are still treated with incredible violence and prejudice during traffic stops and other incidents involving police officers. Deaths such as Michael Brown, Antwon Rose, Eric Garner, and Alton Sterling (just to name a few of many) have proven the bleak truth that black men have been and will always be unfairly perceived by the American justice system.
The situation that Chester Himes writes about is very similar to a well-known story in the Bible which isn’t surprising due to the number of African-American churches at this time. Joseph experiences the same thing as Bob when he becomes highly respected by an Egyptian leader named Potiphar. Later Potiphar’s wife approaches him asking for sex and when he denies she screams that he attempted to rape her and because he is Jewish this story is believable by the court. The most powerful part of this storying being that after he was thrown in jail and relinquished of all his command, he still finds hope. Later Joseph grows and becomes the right-hand man to the pharaoh after being released. Himes alludes to this story, that even though the black community will be persecuted against there will be a time when they will get out and find success. Bob’s experiences are nothing but systematic racism focused at the destruction of his being. Much like Joseph he is falsely accused because of his skin color. As a man he struggles with the sense of manliness he must omit which forces him to be resentful to the idea of apologizing to Madge. Instead during his low he becomes convinced he must kill her. By none else then a white man. He fears the court knowing that he will lose his right to the 5th amendment due to his skin color. Sadly, these same situations are occurring today such as conviction rates being higher for African Americans to other races.
ReplyDeleteWill Kitsch
“Then it burst wide open in my mind. I wasn’t excited. I looked at it objectively, as if it concerned somebody else. I’s kill Johnny Stoddart and let them hang me for it. All they could ever do to me then would be to get even. I was going but I’d take him with me” (Himes 194-195).
ReplyDeleteFor a large portion of the novel, Bob is hung up with this idea of “getting even” with Johnny and Madge. He wants to kill Johnny for hitting him during the gambling game and he wants to rape Madge to get even with her since she called him the n-word and made him lose his job. This adds to Bob’s aggressive nature and makes him seem like a violent character, however, Bob’s plan to “get even” is justified in his eyes because it makes Madge and Johnny feel as if Bob feels. In America, Bob faces institutionalized racism at work, when dealing with the police, within restaurants. Bob constantly feels like he is in one of his nightmares (which are often not too different from the reality he lives). He wants Johnny, Madge and other racists to fear as he fears. To Bob, his action of killing or raping would ultimately get him killed. But, if he was to achieve making them fear or feel belittled, or weak, as he does daily, it is worth dying for. So, the thought of Bob getting killed for nothing that he has done scares him because Madge or any others involved of the institutional racism would not think twice, or feel weak, about their actions. Similarly, Bob’s car has meaning to his life along with “dying to get even.” Bob mentions that he would rather lose his job than lose his car. Bob’s Buick Roadmaster makes him feel bigger than what society does because he can prove that he is doing good for himself. In both circumstances, Bob’s pride is at stake: the pride of getting even with racist white people and the pride of his car. So when Bob is forced to enlist in the military (forced to swallow his pride), it made me feel hopeless.
From Chester Himes, If He Hollers, Let Him Go
ReplyDelete“ ….I thought about the packages in my hand and looked down and saw that I had a dozen or so grapefruit wrapped in a grey vest and a .45 calibre short-barrelled revolver. I went back into the hall and put the grapefruit on a table and then I stood there and tried to put the gun in the holster strapped around my chest, but when I got the gun in the holster the butt end of the holster stuck out so it showed under my overcoat….” (Himes 100)
I find it interesting that the two objects found in Bob’s hands are a pistol and a bag of grapefruits. I believe there is a deeper connection between the two objects other than just being two random selections. The bag of grapefruits could symbolize the daily opportunities or encounters he has in his life. As seen in the text, Bob faces many hardships daily. However, there are instances where he has positive encounters with white people that seem to conflict how he feels emotionally. This is equivalent to how a bag of grapefruit are. Most of the fruits in the bag are bitter and some are sweet. The eater is conflicted whether he wants to continue eating the rest of the grapefruit after tasting both types of fruit. That is where the gun is connected. The gun is cold and concrete. The .45 caliber bullets in the gun are identically the same. The main purpose of it is to shoot to kill. Bob often wants to shoot the bitter, hateful white people who bring him pain and fear in his life. So, he thinks it’s simple to just pull the trigger and accept the death of his enemy and his own death in result of his potential actions. However, it is not simple or concrete. There is still conflict between his actions and his emotions. Bob struggles to channel his emotions; which translate into dreams that further increase the chaotic emotions he feels in his daily life.
From If He Hollers Let Him Go
ReplyDeleteI turned and watched him for a moment, feeling good, feeling fine, loose, free. I had gotten over the notion; I had spit the white folks out of my mouth. There wasn’t anything they could do to me now, I told myself; nothing they could say to me that would hurt. (Himes, 128)
This marks a change in Bob’s character in the emotions and rage he had pent up over the course of the book. This quote was after he was going to kill Johnny in the copper shop. Bob had finally gotten himself in a position of power over a white person and saw the fear in his eyes. Bob felt sorry for Johnny, but he also started laughing in this moment because he was reminded of the kitten hiding from him when he took out the garbage. Because Bob had finally attained a position of dominance over a white person, he felt like he could take what they could give out, felt like he beat . He shows this with the recklessness in which he persues Madge, by going to her room and trying to rape her, possibly to feel in that dominating position again.
From the beginning on the novel, Bob makes many false promises. He says he will kill the white boy who fought with him, then that he will kill Madge for causing him to lose his job, and later on he promises Alice that he will apologize to Madge to get his job back. Part of the reason that Bob is so depressed, other than the constant discrimination he faces, is that he never accomplishes anything. He has a leaderman job, but he knows that he only got this job because they needed to put a black man in a position of slight power to look good, and he has a beautiful girlfriend, but he knows that he will never be the man that she wants him to be and that he will never marry her. Bob says, “All I had to do was marry her and my future was in the bag. If a black boy couldn’t be satisfied with that, he couldn’t be satisfied with anything,” and this is very true for Bob. There is no denying that his life is terrible, in every instance he is pushed down due to his race and he has no one that he can relate to in life, but Bob turns down any meager opportunity he has to make his life better. While it is completely unfair that he cannot live his life successfully like any white blue collar worker, Bob never commits to anything that will help him move up in life. He never even does anything that will just end his life but make him happy, like killing the white boy. Overall, Bob never really does anything with his life and he just moves along doing the minimum of what he has to, and now he is forced into the the Army and he has lost his chance at happiness.
ReplyDelete"But now I was scared in a different way. Not of the violence. Not of the mob. Not of physical hurt. But of America, of American justice. The jury and the judge. The people themselves." (Himes, 187)
ReplyDeleteIn class we began to discuss if Bob's anger is justified within the novel. As we also mentioned, although progress in civil rights was being seen on paper, society continued to have rigid notions of race and how people were to succeed/be treated because of that. I think that Bob's anger is justified within the novel. He repeatedly mentions that he simply just wants to "be a man," but because of his skin color he is inhibited of that position in society. Bob says he had "learned the same jive the white folks had learned" (151). By this he means inalienable rights to liberty, citizenship, equality, etc. When the society that instilled such values goes directly against them through its treatment of black Americans, there is reason to be angry. Not only this, but I believe Alice's notions of dealing with institutionalized racism are frustrating. She continuously tells him to "adjust your way of thinking to the actual conditions of life" (166). This means "earning" your way to a good life (qualified: as good as life can get for a black American), but this isn't enough for Bob, which is understandable. By submitting to such expectations, it still leaves the black community completely powerless and subjugated. This is clearly seen at the end of the novel when Bob finally accepts that life is easier when played by white dominated society's expectations, but still suffers from that same society.
The most interesting part of the reading for Monday to me was the military industrial complex. This is arguably the most confusing part of the entire government not only to private citizens like us, but to those in government as well. There are many different theories on the military industrial complex as an institution, with some saying it is uncontrolled rampant spending and some saying more money should to go our defense. I fall somewhere in the middle. As we see in the reading, the scope of this complex institution of the defense sector has taken many different looks in its existence. For example even back to the Mexican-American War, the first time it became abundantly clear the United States was the predominant power in the Americas, the US was putting money into national defense. This defense made up around 1% of the entire economy of the country up until the Cold War. The Cold War created a very different situation for the country. As we see in the reading for "the first time since the Cold War the United Stated faced annihilation. With the launch of the Sputnik the US quickly realized how far behind they were in this struggle with the USSR, and defense spending showed this realization, as it spiked to 10% of the entire economy. Public support would have most likely been on the side of increased spending at this time, as Soviet domination was something most all Americans feared. However the spending continued to grow, through Vietnam and Korea and even beyond. The spikes during wartime were not uncommon, but the continued spending after these conflicts were. For example after World War I the US cut back on defense spending, and for a short time did the same after World War II. However with the growth of "profiteers", military spending became big business in the US and has continued to be a major part of our economy even today. The US has been the world's largest arms dealer since I can remember. Even despite attempts of Robert McNamora to make the spending more efficient, the number continues to grow. With that being said, the US has slowed this increase, even cutting many weapons programs before they get off the ground, as we see in the post-9/11 era with "crusader". The US is really in a "Catch-22" type of situation for a variety of reasons. For example, since the Cold War ended the Us has been the world's sole superpower, and as a result have become the world's policeman. In order to maintain order throughout the world the US simply has to spend more money than other nations, and most do so by a large margin. While there can be a long debate over whether or not this is the right policy for our country to take, it has continued under every president since JFK, regardless of political position. We as Americans today cannot comprehend a world without the US as the world's superpower, and I'm not sure we want to. The solution? Spend.
ReplyDeleteRobby ^
Delete