Whenever people saw the title of the book that I was reading they all asked me the same question, “how can he be an EX-colored man—did he pull a Michael Jackson?”. And of course, until this morning when I finished the book, I couldn’t answer the question, because throughout the book (with the exception of the beginning) he does identify and is identified as black. So when I finally did find out how he can be “ex-colored” man I was surprised, but not in a bad way.
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| Michael Jackson literally peaced his black folks... the narrator just never corrected people's assumptions. Really it looks like the only thing MJ didn't change was his eyes, UM also, who adds a butt-chin? I mean they are lovely natural, but I didn't think it was a trait people sought. |
I really enjoyed the reality of his story. The narrator definitely didn’t end heroically, but he admits to the shame that pushed him to creating his white façade: “I knew that it was shame, unbearable shame. Shame at being identified with people that could with impunity be treated worse than animals” (90). I liked that it was a story about a normal quasi black man trying to survive in his world, where a black man could be burned at the stake if a group of white men decided it. We know about the few individuals that stood up for the African-Americans when they had no one. But if someone had a chance to leave, to not be forever condemned by a label, wouldn’t we all choose it?
It seems easier for him as well, because it’s not as if he grew up in a huge black community. Of course he had “Shiny”, but really it seems there are not other African-Americans in his childhood. He is surrounded by his mother’s clients who I perceived were well off white women, and his mother too never identifies in a black culture.
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| James Weldon Johnson. He's pretty light, and mustachie |
He doesn’t face the moral dilemma of leaving his friends and family for a white culture, since it seems his whole life he was never part of one culture, and never united with one color.
I like the way you tied this in with MJ, may he rest in peace. And I do think that anybody, given the option, would abandon a label that is negative. We are only human and we always try to avoid pain. And I like your last statement, because he does live in this cultural no-mans-land, where his fascinating insight can come from and expose the flaws in society at the time.
ReplyDeleteChris Kiick
He does feel that he's sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, though, by passing for white instead of becoming a respected "race man."
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