The ending of Angry Black White Boy was not what I was expecting. I thought the book would end where it started, with some rant from Macon on a bus fleeing a crime scene, but instead it's in the south with Macon abandoning everything he's spent the entire novel trying to convince people of. One thing that does become more clear towards the end is the role of ancestors, who were first just mentioned to show Macon trying to distance himself from the white supremacy of Cap Anson. By the end, however, Macon starts to connect himself to his ancestors more, thinking of Cap as he sits on the bus and as he dramatically changes into "Uncle Macon" for a time. The idea of Macon likening himself to Cap shows the extent to which he is utterly confused and defeated. Everything Macon stood for was against what Cap did and for him to go as far as to join Cap's thinking was a little shocking to me. I think the last line of the book about Macon joining his ancestors is interesting because it's clearly not just there to tell us Macon died; it represents Macon's failure to change anything. It's saying he's just as bad as all those white people he condemned and tried to change while denying he needed to change anything about himself. I thought maybe Mansbach was going to give Macon a heroic ending, and one could almost say this is a heroic death, but I feel like this last sentence ruins any image of Macon as a martyr because it is bringing Cap Anson into the picture, who is the 1 clearly unheroic character in the book.
Probably my favorite element of Angry Black White Boy was the story of Fleet Walker, Cap Anson and Red Donner, because it had a lot of obvious parallels to Macon's story, yet there's a lot of room for interpretation. To me one significant reason for including this story was kind of to counter Macon and show that there's no "giving up" white privilege; if you're white, you're still going to be white, and you can't understand the racism felt by black a person like Fleet. Macon tries to be culturally black and convince himself he understands the suffering brought on by racism, but seeing his story next to Fleet's and the intense racism Fleet faces, it is apparent that Macon can't understand. When the baseball narrative brings in the character of Red Donner, it becomes especially interesting because that is exactly the character Macon would seem to be, yet the only way Donner is able to "give up" his white privilege and help Fleet is by making himself look black, by pretending, which isn't something that Macon likes to do. I think Macon would see himself as Fleet Walker, not as Red Donner; he thinks he has "transcended" his whiteness and doesn't need to pretend. In the end I think Macon's story is a less heroic version of Red Donner's: both in a way "transcended whiteness" and got killed for it, but Donner did it to save a life, whereas Macon almost took one.Donner stepped up when he was needed whereas Macon was actively trying to be a hero (until the end when he betrays the cause he was about to get killed for.
Angry Black White Boy was a weird book, but I really liked a lot of the questions it brought up, especially whether someone in one group of people can claim any sort of say in the decisions of a different group. It's a question I don't know how to answer, but it definitely needs to be asked.
I also thought that the last line of the book and its connections to the baseball story were extremely interesting. I agree that it's interesting that Red Donner is only able to help by pretending, which is something that Macon clearly hates. He prides himself on how "real" he is and how thoroughly he's adapted black culture, and he consistently talks negatively about white people who just sort of easily adopt the culture by listening to hip-hop or something. He thinks becoming part of the culture should take a very long time, and I think he wouldn't like the sort of "quick fix" that Donner uses. I think the fact that the only way that Donner can save Walker is by physically becoming black for a while might be sort of symbolic of how Macon's quest to become a black leader is doomed because he's just not actually black, so he won't be able to "save" them.
ReplyDeleteThe way you describe Macon at the end of the novel reminds me of Anse in a way. Throughout the novel we see each "hero" engage in some unheroic behaviors, but we can always try to defend them with evidence of perceived righteousness or at least some higher cause. In the end, both characters favor self-preservation over their ideals.
ReplyDeleteRaising good and urgent questions without offering any kind of clear answer is a great description of this novel, and I see the author himself sort of succumbing to the same confusion as Macon--his heart is in the right place, more or less, but it's not at all clear how to actually put those convictions into action. It is shocking to see such a thorough retreat at the end, but in a way it suits Macon's character--he goes all the way in one direction, and then rebounds just as far.
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