Chapter 1 of Angry Black White Boy ends in a very peculiar way. The robbery
scene is when we first see Macon act rather than be all talk, but it still
seems a little odd. I think the main problem I had with this robbery was how
much he managed to make it about himself and his personal life rather than his
cause. He might tell someone that he only robbed the men because he was appalled
by their racist remarks, but as readers, we see his thought process.
I was a little uncomfortable
because of how he related one of the cab riders to a high school bully. “The
one on the left, Mr. Eighty-fifth and Fifth, had the same rock-solid Roman nose
as a guy Macon had known in high school, a senior when Macon was a freshman.
Scott Cartwright was probably president of his fraternity; he’d been lacrosse
captain back then. Out of the blue one day, he had stopped Macon in the hall
outside the cafeteria and poked a thick finger into Macon’s bird-chest.”
Obviously, Macon has a lot of resentment built up towards his hold classmates
and by comparing these two people, it seems that possibly that hate was what
made Macon rob this man. It simply makes the who situation a shade of grey. Why
is Macon really doing this?
Another interesting part of this
cab section is when he first picks up the two men. “The vapors of entitlement
that steamed from these yuppies irked him; they were so fucking sure the cab would
stop for them. They’d never been snubbed in their lives, sized up and passed by
because the driver thought they wouldn’t pay or that they wanted to be taken
somewhere ghetto. Back home, Macon had flagged cabs while Lajuan and Aura stood
discreetly down the block, pretending not to be with him, approaching only when
Macon had the door open.” In this quote, we see how Macon is aware of how
entitled these white businessmen are, but we also see how Macon has used his
same privilege in the past. I found this passage to be important because it
sets a precedent for Macon using his privilege, but at the same time hating
others who have the same privilege.
The whole robbing scene is filled
with possible problematic elements. We never truly know what Macon’s motives
are. He even says “And your phone, Cartwright,” calling the man the name of his
high school bully. We will have to see if Macon figures out what he is fighting
for.
After finishing the book, I still feel like Macon's motives are mixed. He outwardly says that he is doing everything to be a race traitor, but at the end most of his actions are made to ensure his survival. Macon seems to be fighting more against demons from his past than making actual social change.
ReplyDeleteMacon's motives are very hard to distinguish throughout the novel. I like how you mentioned the hypocrisy of Macon hating when white people use their privilege, but then using that same white privilege for himself. This is especially evident not only in this cab scene, but at the very end of the novel when Macon reverts back to this white privilege. He tries to suck up to Burleigh and his friends so that they would spare his life and almost completely forgets about helping Leo in his haste to save himself. In response to your very last sentence, I don't think Macon ever found out what he was fighting for- at first it was supposedly the black cause, but at the end we see that he was more just concerned for himself the entire time.
ReplyDeleteMacon's thought process at the end of the novel still has me confused. You would think that a person with that much passion, and that much drive to make a difference wouldn't be so flaky as to run away and embrace whiteness again. To be fair though, in the scene where he is being beaten, most people would say/do anything to not be killed. Which is why Macon shakes his head at the end when he is called a martyr, becasue he knows he denied the things he stood for, and so he knows his death meant nothing.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most interesting things about this scene is Macon's own state of mind while this entire scene is unfolding. While we can see some sense of justice in the fact that the two people in the cab are very rude and talk a lot of trash, Macon seems completely convinced that what he is doing is correct given the circumstances. All of Macon's robberies seem to occur at very random times, especially with this very first one when we are bewildered by what he is even considering.
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