“This Morning, This Evening, So Soon” shows an interesting portrayal of race. The primary idea behind it is that it is not just black and white and I mean this quite literally. This story presents the idea that there are many different groups that are discriminated against. This idea that was previously explored in “Previous Condition”, in which Peter’s Jewish friend Jules, attempts to sympathize with Peter’s anguish by explaining that he has also been discriminated against for being Jewish.
This idea is shown through the Narrator’s Tunisian friend Boona. He is accused of stealing money from Ada by Pete, while they are at the nightclub. We are led to believe that this is true based on several people’s reports. However, Boona says otherwise and claims: “I think it is that Frenchman who say I am a thief. They think we are all thieves” (190). Clearly, he is insinuating that they are accusing him merely because he is Tunisian. Weather or not he did steal the money, it is very possible that this is true. Earlier, it was pointed out that he is unable to got out with French or White girls because he is Arab, so clearly it is common for him to be discriminated against. Intriguingly, this a dynamic that we have seen before, and if taken out of context, one could easily assume that it was between a white man and an African-American.
There are many parallels between the racism that the narrator receives in America and the ones that Boona is subjected to here. The most interesting one though, revolves around the use of the word “boy”. When the narrator gets off the boat in America, he is annoyed that he is being called a “boy”, which we can assume is a racially charged term given his reaction to it: “When will I ever get to be a man?” And his description of the man who said it: “This was the face I remembered, the face of nightmares” (164-165). This language then shows up again later in the book, however this time it is Pete, an African-American, using it to describe Boona, when he is telling the Narrator of Boona’s theft: “I fear your boy has goofed”. This is especially interesting to me as I would have thought Pete would be acquainted enough with that term to not use it. Yet its use appears to be the same in both case.
The racism against Boona was really quite disappointing to me, especially since it is indicated that the narrator views Europe as a safe-haven from racism. However, there is a possibility that this wasn’t racism. Maybe Boona was imagining the racism just as the Narrator may have done earlier. I doubt this, but what do you think? Did Boona steal the money? And if not, was his accusation racially motivated?
I think that the context of the civil rights movement gaining momentum is important to consider in this situation. The americans want to show that they are more than the stereotypical black personas that have been applied to them for the past many years, but Boona seems to reinforce a stereotypical black persona at first glace. We get the description that he is fairly large and he seems to sort of intimidate the americans. They may be accusing him because they want to get away from the stereotype.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Pete calling Boona his "Tunisian friend" I didn't really think this was much about race. I felt like this was a group of tourists whose money gets stolen, and Boona was an easy target. Whether or not he stole it, Ada isn't going to blame her friends or the movie star or director she is with. She is also likely to side with her friend that told her that she saw Boona take the money. While there may be some racial prejudice, I don't think that was everything this kerfuffle was about. I did notice that when Ada was talking about wanting to go to Africa, it almost seemed like the thought of it as more of a museum or zoo than a home to people. She's currently traveling through Europe, but as she is talking about Africa she seems to almost be referring to it as a country, not a continent.
ReplyDeleteI have doubts about how much this was motivated by race. The college students were also black and seemed very eager to let entire situation go rather than try to press onto Boona, with Ada even apologizing to him. Interestingly, Boona appears to view the students as no different from ordinary Parisians, despite them being black. He describes them simply as "Americans", and very clearly creates a divide between African and their black with his part about being Tunisian. That may even play a role in the theft (which I do believe happened given the accounts and even the narrator's thoughts on the situation).
ReplyDeleteThe situation with Boona definitely puts the narrator in an uncomfortable position, with regard to race and identity--he's sort of occupying the position of privilege now, being asked whether or not to jump to conclusions about a guy he admits from the start is pretty sketchy, and is very likely a thief as a matter of survival. I hadn't thought of Pete's use of "boy" as one reflection of these inverted racial dynamics, though--this is an interesting idea to consider. Because there's nothing "boyish" about Boona--he's older than these Americans, and as a former boxer, he's much bigger. We can surmise that his general style is more "street" than the clientele of this bar usually would be. I don't know whether the contemporary use of "boy" in the fraternal, inclusive sense of "my boy Doug" or "It's your boy!" as exclaimed by Jay-Z in an adlib was current in Baldwin's day. But Pete seems to be using something like this contemporary inflection, which is quite different from the "come on, boy" of a cop addressed to a black man.
ReplyDeleteI think this post is really interesting because through the eyes of the narrator it seems like Europe is an escape from racism. Of course, for him it is an escape from American whites and their racism, but for many others there is still lots of racism in Europe. The situation with Boona really puts things in perspective because it shows that Europe is not racism free, but more an escape for the narrator (Pete) from the constant fear of American racism.
ReplyDelete