Racism in The Family
One of the topics of
discussion we talked a lot about in class this week was the racism that
Coalhouse experiences with Father and the rest of the family. Coalhouse and
Fathers relationship lead us to discuss the racism of The Family including
Mother and Mother's Younger Brother.
Coalhouse first comes to
The Families house to request to see Sarah. Sarah and her baby had been living
with The Family. Sarah had buried her baby which Mother found. Mother when to the police and the police found Sarah. To prevent Sarah form going to jail
Mother took Sarah in. When Coalhouse visits The Family, he knocks on the back
door. At the time if you were African American you would be expected to come to
the back door of a white family’s house. When Coalhouse comes in Father is
surprised by Coalhouse because he does not fit his expectations of how a
African American man should look and act. He dresses and speaks well. Fathers
only previous exposure to African Americans had been through minstrel shows.
So, his perceived notions of African Americans are based off of a racist
entertainment show where white people would perform while dressed in black
face.
I think Mothers racism
is less obvious because she is nice. Mother essentially adopts Sarah and
becomes a maternal figure to her. Mother seems very paternalistic to me. As an affluent
white woman, she takes in a poor African American female and her baby. I do
think Mother truly cares for Sarah and her baby. However, I also think she
likes the good feeling she gets from doing a good deed.
Mother's Younger
Brother's racism is more hidden then Father and Mother's. While he lives in a
nice New York suburb he often goes to "hipper" or "cooler"
places at night. When Coalhouse plays Ragtime at The Families house Younger
Brother is the only person in The Family who has heard Ragtime before. Younger
Brother in enthusiastic when meeting Coalhouse and is nice to him. He seems to
want Coalhouse to be his friend because he considers Coalhouse cool. Younger
Brother reminds me of those people that are like "I'm not racist, I have a
black friend."
I think it is very interesting
to examine The Family’s racism because even though they all live together their
attitudes towards African Americans are very different.
I wouldn't say that Mother's Younger brother is necessarily racist, as you claim him to be. Nothing in the way MYB acts implies that he finds Coalhouse Walker "cool." They just talk. As far as we know, knowing Coalhouse Walker has not proven himself to anyone. It doesn't even get him into Coalhouse's group. He needed to seek him out and explain why Coalhouse should let him join. The phrase "I'm not racist, I have a black friend" isn't a good excuse, but both parts of that argument can still be true at the same time and not cause problems.
ReplyDeleteThank you for pointing out the different forms of racism. Last semester in african american lit we read white boy shuffle, and one memorable scene was a shakespeare competition comprised of rich white schools and the narrator's one black school. When a black student forgot his lines on stage, the whole auditorium started cheering him on. However, the narrator pointed out that it was a condescending sort of cheering. Racial microaggressions sometimes cannot be proven as such. We can't point to anything mother said or did as "racist" but sometimes there's a feeling or something. In white boy shuffle, the narrator points out that the situation is pretty much hopeless. If we can't identify something as racist, how can we hope to get rid of it?
ReplyDeleteI don't know, i thought mother's younger brother was doing the best he could given his upbringing and life. Not perfect but at least he's trying.
I think in this sense, the Family all seem to fit into their their stereotypical roles of the nuclear family. Father is the "man of the house" and is wary of Coalhouse because of his traditionalist values and what he believes is best for his family. Mother, on the other hand, is maternal/paternalistic, wanting to take care of people and help the poor young mother and her baby. Younger brother seems to be the young and hip one, in with the times so to speak, and clashes somewhat with Father (their dynamic somewhat reminds me of Archie Bunker and Mike, his son in law). The fact that their "perfect family" gets turned upside down by the events of the book is Doctorow's whole point about white families in the suburbs.
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