Journal Entry 7/7/10

This passage is yet another example of black people standing up for their beliefs and freedom of speech by challenging a group of racist white men. In many ways I am reminded of Rosaleen’s stand against the group of white men who accosted her in the beginning of the book. In that instance, Rosaleen taunted the white men by proudly stating that she was on her way to register to vote, which she knew would rile them up. Upon being approached in a threatening way by the white men, she poured her snuff juice out over the men’s boots and then was promptly arrested.

In the other passage, the method of provocation is different but the outcome is the same. The group of black boys noticed the white men standing around and yelled, “You gotta be dumb as dirt to believe Jack Palance is coming to Tiburon,” which they knew would evoke a similar reaction from the white men as Rosaleen’s proud statement. Like clockwork, one of the men approaches the boys in a threatening manner and just like in Rosaleen’s encounter, the boys don’t take kindly to being talked down to like a second-class citizen. When one of the boys throws a glass bottle at the white man, breaking his nose, they are more or less commanded by the rest of his posse to rat out the one that did it. By sticking together and not giving up the culprit, they all become “guilty” of the act and are hauled off to jail.

Although these two instances are very similar in how they play out, the most consistent factor in their similarity is Lily’s train of thought as everything is happening. In Rosaleen’s case, when Lily hears about the beating in the jail after the arrest, she seems more frustrated with Rosaleen for not just apologizing and escaping further vigilante punishment than she is with the white men for the assault. Likewise, in Zach’s case, Lily appears more frustrated with Zach for not pointing out the boy who threw the bottle than she is with the white men. I found this to be very interesting since Lily generally tends to challenge conventional racism and support the black struggle for equal rights wherever she goes, but when an altercation presents itself she secretly wishes her black friends would take a subservient “Uncle Tom” approach to diplomacy and simply back down. Although she may have her loved ones’ best interests at heart, Lily is actually subconsciously reinforcing the white majority’s view of black people as somehow below the white race.