Chester Himes: If He Hollers Let Him Go
...b can give in to the racism, or battle against it. He decides on the latter course. In this instance, everything hits the fan when a trashy white coworker named Madge, with whom he as had several near violent, aggressively sexualized disputes, accuses Bob of rape. Bob Jones and Chester Himes reveal many feelings and actions that are motivate by similar experiences in their lives. Himes was born to socially acceptable parents, but was troubled due to constant fighting because of the domination of his dark-skinned father by his light-skinned mother. She constantly scorned blackness, preventing the young Himes from playing with other black children. Her constant privileging of whiteness, combined with his father's coal black skin and sometimes submissive manner toward white people, instilled in Himes an ambiguity about black-white relations. This was a source of deep resentment that shaped Himes's racial outlook which served as a motivation in his novels. Similarly, Bob Jones’s girlfriend Alice is often mistaken for a white woman until she shows up in public with him at a fancy restaurant. Alice even comments that when she is “with [him] everybody here knows just what [they] are” (Himes 60). Suggesting that when she goes places with her light-skinned or white friends, she can be more accepted. Before they leave they are actually served with a warning that their service is no longer welcomed in the restaurant. His unconscious intentions for being with her may in fact be because she is “rich, light, and almost white” (Himes 47). She truly has feeling for him and is the pivotal vessel that allows him to skate along the edge of what was considered to be taboo. White women were often viewed as forbidden temptations, and in real life Himes submits to that temptation and dates many foreign French, and Italian women after his move to Europe. He eventually marries Lesley Packard who “was Irish-English with blue-gray eyes and was very good looking," (My Life of Absurdity) who provides him with companionship until the end of his life. Unlike Himes, Jones lusted after the white females he saw around his job but American society did not tolerate interracial relationships. Specifically, when he had a run in with Madge, “lust shook [him] like an electric shock; it came up in [his] mouth, filling it with tongue, and drained [his] whole stomach down into [his] groin. And it poured out of [his] eyes in a sticky rush and spurted over her from head to foot” (Himes 19). The “white woman privilege” provided her with an effortless defense, preser...