WHITE IS AND WHITE AIN’T: REPRESENTATIONS AND ANALYSES OF WHITENESS IN THE NOVELS OF CHESTER HIMES Scott M. Walter A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2005 Committee: Dr. Ellen Berry Advisor Dr. Michael T. Martin Graduate Faculty Representative Dr. Donald McQuarie Dr. Donald Callen © Scott M. Walter All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Dr. Ellen Berry, Advisor This dissertation borrows and paraphrases for its title from the marijuana-dream sermon in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. As Ellison avers that “Black is, an’ black ain’t,” so too, I contend, “White is, and white ain’t.” Racial constructions are irrevocably embedded in each other. I trace this through selected novels of Chester Himes, who offers a specific way of reading whiteness, through his deployment and ultimate disruption of hard-boiled conventions, a style that other scholars have convincingly argued is a literary epitome of white male perspective. Chapter One is a biographical sketch, focusing upon those points in Himes’s life which best inform his representations and analysis of whiteness. Chapter Two engages Himes’s first published novel, If He Hollers Let Him Go in order to locate those tropes and figures of whiteness in both narrative and style which will later manifest themselves in his Harlem Cycle. Chapter Three moves to the Harlem Cycle itself. A Rage in Harlem is a transitional text of sorts, from the “social protest” conventions to the more absurdist aspects of the later novels. These stylistic departures are discussed alongside the later Harlem novels, in order to demonstrate how they result in texts more fully able to address the trope of whiteness. Chapter Four examines the last novel of the Cycle, Blind Man With A Pistol. Here Himes unleashes his most unsparing critique and unmasking of the effects of whiteness, moving effectively past the mere personification of white mannerisms into a clear assault on structural aspects. In doing so, he effectively deconstructs the hardboiled and detective genres, as there is no resolution available to the “crime” he narrates. The text itself devolves from the epistemological nature of the detective narrative into a more encompassing (and despairing) iv meditation on the ontologic character of the construction of race, particularly the construction and maintenance of whiteness. Some attention is given to the “last” of the Harlem novels, Plan B. This text, unfinished and unpublished in Himes’s lifetime, is the fictive rendering of his observation that “the only way the black man can solve [the “race problem]” is through organized violence. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing is a solitary pursuit in many respects; still, a project of this nature is not accomplished entirely alone. I take time here to acknowledge those people who have enabled the completion of this dissertation in many ways. First, I thank my advisor, Dr. Ellen Berry. Her combination of carrot and stick at the appropriate moments has kept me focused on completion at times when I might otherwise have walked away (again). Even recently, when she has had far more important things which to attend, she has been a constant and inspiring presence. The other committee members have provided intellectual stimulation and support as well. Dr Donald McQuarie’s good faith and effort in finding a way to allow me to finish this frequently languishing project is appreciated greatly. His advocacy for me, as well as other students in American Culture Studies, represents the epitome of a good administrator. In addition, his service on this committee earns him my gratitude. Dr Donald Callen fostered an intellectual curiosity for demanding and difficult scholarship that has guided my efforts, even if these fall short of my goals. In addition to his service as Graduate College representative, Dr Michael Martin offered a space for me in Ethnic Studies that not only allowed me to become a better instructor, it introduced me to several scholars who stimulated my own curiosity in ways that are represented in this dissertation. This project had withered, and was about to die on the vine until the persistent urging of Dr. Klevor Abo furnished the sustenance necessary to revive it and make it grow again. For that I thank him. Continued support in Milwaukee came from colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; their curiosity and interest provided me room to discuss and refine much of what is represented within. Foremost among these is Terry Thuemling; his challenging vi questions were always good, and his advice was often better. Dr. Sandra E. Jones provided invaluable encouragement, and will shout my success from the rooftops. She promised. I would not be writing these acknowledgements if not for Jan Singer. Milwaukee is a long way from Bowling Green, and I often found myself isolated despite electronic communication, and UWM colleagues. My weekly meetings with Jan were a space for emotional as well as intellectual refuge; from her I learned that it is when, not if. Thanks also to Jean Hoffmann. Her contribution in reading chapters was of great service. Her turn at this is coming. I hope I can help. Not all aid is academic. My parents, Kenneth and Yvonnne, may not always know, or care to know, what it is I write and study; still they encourage me to find and do what brings me joy and satisfaction. I save the most important for the end. There are not enough words to express the gratitude I have for my partner Jessica Poor, who continues to be a source of both intellectual and emotional growth. In addition, she has endured me at my worst, as I struggled through the most difficult points of this process. I hope for twenty more years, at least. The best is yet to come. No doubt there are omissions from this list, just as there are from the dissertation. Any success, however, is shared by all of the people named; the mistakes and shortcomings belong to me. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION: WHITE IS AND WHITE AIN’T .......................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: “No common shade”: CHESTER HIMES, A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ............................................................................................. 30 CHAPTER TWO: “All white men were guilty”: HARD-BOILED DESIRE IN IF HE HOLLERS LET HIM GO........................................................................................... 71 CHAPTER THREE: “and pull back a nub”: WHITENESS AS COLONIZATION AND VIOLENCE IN THE HARLEM CYCLE...................................…………………………... 105 CHAPTER FOUR: “You’ll find out there ain’t any other side”: THE BITTER END IN BLIND MAN WITH A PISTOL.................... ...................................................................... 137 CONCLUSION: ON THE MATTER OF AUTHENTICITY............................................... 173 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 179 1 INTRODUCTION WHITE IS AND WHITE AIN’T “Brothers and sisters, my text this morning is the ‘Blackness of Blackness,’” And a congregation of voices answered: “That blackness is most black, brother, most black . .” “In the beginning . .” “at the very start,” they cried. “ . .there was blackness . .” “Preach it . “ “ . .and the sun . .” “The sun, Lawd . .” “. .was bloody red . .” “Red . .” “Now black is . .” the preacher shouted. “Bloody . “ “I said black is . .” “Preach it brother . .” “. an’ black ain’t . .” “Red Lawd, red: He said it’s red!” “Amen, brother . .” “Black will git you . .” “Yes it will . .” 2 “Yes it will . .” “ . an’ black won’t . .” “Naw, it won’t!” “It do . .” “It do, Lawd . .” “ . an’ it don’t.” “Halleluiah . .” “. It’ll put you glory, glory, Oh my Lawd, in the WHALE’S BELLY.” “Preach it, dear brother . .” “. an’ make you tempt . .” “Good God a-mighty!” “Old Aunt Nelly!” “Black will make you . .” “Black . .” “ . or black will unmake you.” “Ain’t it the truth Lawd?” (Ellison Invisible Man 9-10). [W]hiteness remains a synergistic system of transversal relationships of privileges, norms, rights, modes of self-perception and the perception of others, unquestioned presumptions, deceptions, beliefs, “truths,” behaviors, advantages, modes of comportment, and sites of power and hegemony that benefit whites individually and institutionally (Yancy 9-10). 3 My own introduction to Chester Himes came in my early teens. Being an insatiable and indiscriminate reader, I haunted both the stacks of the local library and the newsstand shelves of the local supermarket with equal desire. It was on the shelves of the latter that I first spied Cotton Comes to Harlem. It was a paperback edition, evidently published in conjunction with the release of the film adaptation. Attracted by the lurid cover, typical of many paperbacks of the era, and particularly so in the case of Himes, I bought it and brought it home. No, I didn’t. The fact is, I stole it. In retrospect, I believe that Himes would be both amused and vindicated by this. I say amused, because in his early life he was a bootlegger, a thief and a gambler; the illicit nature of my acquisition might well have evoked for him some memory of his own illegal activities, although certainly my petty larceny hardly compares to his own experience. I say vindicated because, in that same small way, I enacted or performed the kind of expropriation of his work that was, in his (not unjustified) view, endemic of the white American culture, as represented particularly by the publishing industry. Calling himself “the lowest paid writer on the face of the earth,” Himes inveighed throughout his career against what he called a double-standard, not only in the publishing industry, but in every aspect of American culture (Conversations, 33). His novels and stories are informed by this, as is the case with many writers of color. Anyway, back to me. I took my illicitly acquired novel home, careful not to let my parents see it. Not only would I likely need to explain how I acquired it, but also I suspected that the novel itself might be met with no small disapprobation.