After reading the first few chapters of Adam Mansbach’s Angry Black White Boy, we are nothing short of bewildered by Macon Detornay’s awkward behavior and strange mannerisms whenever conversing with others. The Boston-native was born white, but constantly involved himself in traditionally black cultural practices and adopts many stereotypically black mannerisms into his actions. We can see just how committed and skillful Macon is at imitating black culture in one of the very first scenes of the book: the cab robbery. Despite Macon’s skin clearly showing that he is white, the two rich guys that were robbed report to the police that they only know one thing about the man who robbed them--that he is black. While we can attest some of this to other factors, such as the fact that the two guys might not have gotten a very good look at Macon or the potential divider between them and the driver, we can surmise that a large reason for the two guys reporting Macon’s race incorrectly is due to the manner in which he acted--one that resembled that of a black man and led the passengers to conclude that their driver must have therefore been black. In several instances throughout the first part of the novel, Macon finds himself in numerous awkward conversation regarding his race and must navigate his way out by explaining his reasoning for assimilating so heavily into black culture. Interestingly, Macon rarely gets flustered during any of these situations, and instead expresses a feeling of subdued elation whenever they occur. In addition, the sheer frequency at which these situations come up make it seem unlikely that Macon is simply an incompetent fool who is acting like a poser to seem cool, leading us to believe that Macon may be placing himself into these types of scenarios on purpose in order to prove his dedication to adopting black culture. Through constantly placing himself into a variety of awkward situations and subsequently navigating out of them, Macon is able to not only prove to others his legitimacy in his attempt to transcend race, but also satisfy his own conscience regarding his commitment to the lifestyle, thereby escaping his insecurities regarding his race.
A prime example of Macon’s tendency to purposefully place himself into conversations that question the discrepancy between his actions and race comes a mere few hours after Macon meets his roommate Andre at Columbia University. When Macon and Andre go to visit Andre’s friend Nique, Macon comments “Nice” after seeing a picture of the Rodney King scene, to which Nique responds: “”Nice? Either you got a real limited vocabulary or a serious problem. Ain’t nothing nice about the shit.” Macon shook his head. “No, I mean, of course not. I--What I meant was…” He gave up on speaking and pushed the left sleeve of his T-shirt to his shoulder. Tattooed on Macon’s biceps in small green characters was 4-29-92” (47-48). While it seems that Macon simply misspoke by exclaiming in that way to such a picture, we can understand the reason for Macon’s seemingly inappropriate response in the next few lines of narration: “Macon lifted one mouth corner in a half-smile that looked more like a twitch. “That’s exactly what my mom said.” The numbers glistened slightly on his skin, bathed in the soft light of Nique’s halogen” (48). We can see through Macon’s subtle, yet significant, reaction how he feels about the entire situation. Rather than feeling awkward and uneasy for making such a comment and hearing Nique’s response, Macon gives a smug smirk with his mouth, indicating that he feels confident when Nique and Andre question his reaction and the numbers on his arm, seeing it as an opportunity to assure them of his legitimacy and prove his commitment--through something as permanent as a tattoo. Macon constantly desires situations like these, and this is the reason why he appears so happy in this scene. Through showing Andre and Nique his seriousness about his life as a “black white boy,” Macon can convince himself that he is legitimate and not some kind of poser who is simply desiring attention. Macon’s excitement in this situation stems from the fact that he is able to use this would-be awkward scenario to debunk his internal insecurities about his race, allowing him to confirm to himself that what he is doing is unique and respectable. It is his lingering insecurities about race that lead Macon to seek out these types of scenarios in the first place.
There does seem to be something almost masochistic in Macon (analogous to Harley's desire to be beaten for his whiteness?) as he launches himself deliberately into these uncomfortable situations and conversations, and I agree that he is eager for every opportunity to prove his legitimacy (to the reader, at this early stage in the novel, as well as to the other characters). But it's clear that these situations aren't particularly easy or fun for him--he's nervous, sweating profusely, constantly worrying that the conversation isn't going as well as he'd hoped when he planned for it all summer. I won't go so far as to declare this "heroic," but there is a sense of someone willingly putting himself through an ordeal in order to prove himself worthy. There's something funny about the whole situation, when he's so eager to show that he's at ease in Andre's company that he lays back on his bed, and then immediately worries that he's seeming too much like an entitled white boy, spreading himself out on the bed as if the world is his--he couldn't be *less* at ease, in fact. And then Andre sits back in exactly the same posture.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably good that Macon is alert to the unthinking manifestations of privilege that most white people never think about, but it's also made his acutely self-conscious to the point where he never "acts naturally." He's too worried about what messages he's sending (and indeed, readers like us *are* scrutinizing these messages at every turn).