BROWN/christmas

During that time period media portrayed African Americans as “Brutes.”  Whenever they were featured in movies they were antagonists who often caused violence or the death of an innocent and pure protagonist.  For example in the film clip we saw the black man chased the white virgin woman to her death.  This portrayal of Black people in media influences how society views them in novels and in everyday functioning.

A seemingly recurring theme in the novel Light in August is the use of Racism in the southern town.  When a murder is committed in town all of the evidence suggests that a white man named Brown is the most likely suspect, however, when the questioning of his roommate, Christmas, race is involved fingers are suddenly pointed in a different direction (toward the black suspect).  In the novel the sheriff is questioning Brown about the murder and the situation at hand.  Brown’s story remains unclear and his facts never seem to add up causing continuous suspicion on the sheriffs point of view.  On page 98 in the novel it says, “‘You better be careful what you are saying, if it is a white man you are talking about,’ the marshal says.  ‘I dont care if he is a murderer or not.’”  This quotation to me points out that a white man killing someone is a completely different concept than the idea of a black man killing someone.  This point of view is the reflection of racism.  According to dictionary.com racism is “a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among thevarious human races determine cultural or individualachievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race issuperior and has the right to rule others.”  In this southern town it is obvious to me that the white community feels as though they have superiority over the black community. After the sheriff finds out that Christmas is part black he then says, "'Well,' the sheriff says, 'I believe you are telling the truth at last. You go on with Buck, now, and get a good sleep. I'll attend to Christmas.'" (pg. 99). The sheriff lacks evidence that is against Christmas, but believes Brown because of the skin tone presented on his body.

Earlier in the year we read an article by Jessica Benjamin who explained that there are psychological set ups in relationships of dominance rather than mutual recognition.  She also brings to light the creation of social binaries.  For example MEN/women or POWER/weakness.  I think that her idea binaries connects to Light in August.  I think that most obviously the binary WHITE/black can be applied but I also think that CIVILIZATION/savage, TRUSTWORTHY/deceiving, and JUST/unjust are great

examples

of lack of mutual recognition in the southern community.  In the case of the novel the white community believes that they are civilized, trustworthy, and just as opposed to the savage, deceiving, and unjust black community.  Benjamin also points out that enable for whites to consider themselves the upper binary they must have an inferior binary to compare themselves to and that is the black community. These binaries and comparisons of these two societies (white and black) support the theme or racism that is offered as a continuously appearing conflict throughout the novel. With the support of the media, conversations between characters, and articles from outside sources, such as Benjamin, racism in the novel is criticized and made more apparent.