It is apparent that there was an imbalance of free speech in America. In the 1940's, only white people had the opportunity to exercise their first amendment rights, while people of color were coerced into keeping quiet when they wanted to speak. In this white-dominated culture, questioning those who held power translated to making the already tough situation tougher. There are countless examples of this injustice in just the first 6 chapters of Chester Himes' If He Hollers Let Him Go. On numerous occasions, Bob finds himself boiling over with rage after suffering verbal or physical abuse by white guards, shipyard workers, supervisors, drivers, or day-to-day people, yet he is forced to control himself out of a fear of what "trouble" he could face. He confronts this infringement on his free speech constantly, as he experiences his "usual once-a-day urge to tell them to take their leaderman job and shove it," (pg. 26) or when he stops himself from "bust[ing] him [Kelly] right on the side of his scrawny red neck." (pg. 22) The one time he does combat the abuse of one southern white women's disparaging remarks (pg. 27), he loses his promotion and faces being drafted to fight in the war while she gets off scot-free. Similarly, when the narrator in Ellison's "Battle Royal" mentions "social equality", the white townsmen rebuke his words, mentioning to him that he has "got to know your place at all times."
Fast forward 75+ years, there is still a blatant racially-motivated injustice over free speech in America. Movements like Black Lives Matter are publicly berated for demanding equality and figures like Colin Kaepernick are castigated and threatened for silently protesting. How can we, a country that lives by the self-appointed label "the land of the free", think that we are a country for everyone? How can the amendments unite and represent all Americans when not everyone is given the opportunity to exercise all their supposed constitutional rights? Is there such thing as contemporary free speech in the United States? If not, will there ever be?
This idea reminds me of the situation that Jackie Robinson was forced into when we became the first african-american baseball player in Major League Baseball. Each and every game Robinson would exit the team bus to protestors, he would get objects thrown at him on the field, he was the target of racial slurs and offensive signs, but Robinson knew that he had to ignore all of it in order for the experiment to be successful. If Robinson were to react negatively, it would only fuel the protestors and they would continue to "have a reason" to target him. Instead, Robinson had to accept the double standard and take everything in stride to prove to the racist fans that their actions had no effect on him.
ReplyDeleteJones is held to a similarly unreasonable standard, as Aidan alluded to above. It doesn't matter that he is racially targeted many times, but the second he decides to push back he is demoted.
Finally, to Aidan's questions at the bottom about whether free speech will ever be available to all Americans, all I can say is I hope so someday, but I don't envision it anytime soon.
Aidan, I agree that there is an imbalance of free speech in America. Himes indicates that there were unspoken consequences for blacks who stood up for there rights, or even so much as dared to argue to be treated as equals. When you ask how “the land of the free” can think that we are a country for everyone, and based on Bob’s observations, I start to wonder whether this white suppression of blacks’ free speech is fully conscious or not.
ReplyDeleteThinking back to the quote we talked about in class where Bob responds to his boss in a polite respectful manner but his boss just blows up seemingly for no reason (to be continued)
I think Cali brought up an interesting quote today in class which said "just the other day the doctor when into a restaurant downtown where he's been eating for years and they didn't want to serve him. Southern Negroes are coming in here and making it hard for us..." (52). This quote explains how Mr. Harrison is feeling the impact of the actions of other African-Americans. In a slightly different sense, this is an example of how limited their freedom of speech is. Since they are all grouped together, they are only as good as their weakest link. This, in my opinion, is stripping them of their freedom of speech because everything African-Americans do is under surveillance and subject to serious repercussions. It is sad that the actions of one person/a small group of people is allowed to reflect an entire race. I believe this is the same thing driving the Black Lives Matter movement in that they are protesting against the grouping an entire race together based on the actions of a few. Since nothing has changed since then, it feels hard to believe that we will ever come to a place of complete freedom. However, if we step back and look objectively at the history of America, we have slowly began resolving racial issues. Regardless of how long it takes, there is still a sliver of hope that this might be resolved in the future.
ReplyDeleteIt's undeniable that Bob experiences unfair standards regarding his speech and reactions. In the setting of 1940's America we see this injustice repeatedly perpetrated upon him in all contexts: at work, in public, in his private life. Of course the instance when he is demoted for retorting to Marge's slurs is a standout example, as has been mentioned. Mrs. Harrison's attitude to race relations is another telling instance, in my opinion; her response when he says he's "just found out how [he] can get even with the white folks" (p. 51) seems to represent a Booker T. Washington-esque view of docile assimilation/submission, which in her case seems to stem out of a combination of internalized oppression and comparative privilege. This, like the calmer first half of Mac's lecture, represents the more insidious face of bigotry.
ReplyDeleteFree speech only works if it is ubiquitously believed in and enforced. I think the discussion of racial slurs as a facet of language falling under the auspices of free speech is an interesting one, so I was particularly engaged by the blatant disparity between when whites wield such slurs against Bob and when Bob calls Madge a "cracker" (which isn't even really a slur). Blacks are still forcibly exempted from their constitutional rights beyond those guaranteed by the First Amendment. After hundreds of years of this kind of prejudice and oppression, how can we expect those who have been marginalized, ignored, and violated to stay quiet? In a country so divided-- not just by race, but by geography, religion, politics, anything we can be divided by-- I'm curious as to how we can get to a place where those divisions can disappear for the sake of national healing. How can we navigate how each of us "carries our race," as Bob notes of his white passengers?
ReplyDeleteI definitely see in the text and in the world today that people who are targeted do not feel safe to respond to acts of verbal or physical violence in fear of facing repercussions. Bob is forced into silence by his boss and his coworkers, and the only way he can get is power back is by leaving the plant and going for a drive. In some ways that is the goal of the white people, to demean and disrespect the black workers until the exhaustion of having their pride be stripped away from them is too much to handle and they isolate themselves. Bob even says how he wishes the white people would just leave him alone, and he can finally escape the brutal and continual harassment by going alone to his car.
ReplyDeleteBob's voice is his power, and when he tries to bring up the continual injustice he has faced that has led him to want revenge to Alice's mother, he faces a long lecture and in the end he has to concede and say, "you were right about it (p.53). We have seen bob continually filter his thoughts and actions and the few times he does speak out, he faces serious backlash even from one of his own people.
At a certain point, when talking proves to hurt him further, he turns to violence because that is the only way in his mind he can regain his dignity is through violence. But like Matt said with the Jackie Robinson example, as soon as he fights back his gives white people a reason to demonize and justify violence against him. Bob and other people in his situation are trapped, and that is why it is so aggravating when Alice's mom tells him that "some just don't deserve any more than they are getting."
Non-violence is the weapon of the strong. Resisting every urge to fight back with violence takes swallowing your pride, takes patience, takes creativity, takes organization on a mass scale, takes trust and takes a much longer time.
Colin Kaepernick expressed he did not have a voice in America. His act got more attention than black authors who have expressed his argument for decades, he got more attention than black activists who have stood up against our government for centuries. He act of kneeing during the national anthem was so powerful and smart because he and black people in America were forced into silence and to sit down, and he turned that silence and not standing into a non-violent weapon to reclaim his voice.
Aidan, I agree with most of your arguments. At the current moment, I don't think that America can be a voice for everyone, as evidenced by the recent election. People refuse to accept that they are sometimes wrong or to listen to other viewpoints and it seems that not everyone has a voice. This reminds me of the moment in the book when Madge makes an offensive remark towards Bob, and he then makes similar remarks, but then only Bob is punished. Clearly, not everyone is granted free speech, despite their American right.
ReplyDeleteAt this moment in American history, I'm not sure how the amendments can represent everyone, especially with the desire "political correctness." Contemporary free speech does not really exist, or it is very limited. If you say something to someone that they don't like or agree with, you are automatically labeled as intolerant and a bigot. I think that contemporary free speech could exist in the future as long as we are all willing to accept different perspectives without creating labels.
While most racial issues have been drastically improved between the 1940's and now, it that there are still racial issues prevalent today. I think that free speech today poses some of the most common and challenging issues. Just like in "If He Hollers Let Him Go" I have seen people today made to feel unsafe and uncomfortable by the things people have said. Cali briefly mentioned this in her comment, but people's words and ideas is what gives them power. Bob's ability to speak freely and not have to filter his thoughts gives him power. While issues have gotten much better, it is hard to say whether or not they will ever completely go away, and it is hard for me to imagine that they will.
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