The title of the novel is Angry Black White Boy, but in
smaller print it says “Or the miscegenation of Macon Detornay”. Mansbach picked
the word miscegenation very deliberately. The word itself literally means “the
interbreeding of people considered to be of different racial types”. Macon is a
white man, yet Mansbach describes it as “the miscegenation”, meaning that Macon
is going through the process of miscegenation and becoming interracial. The
idea that miscegenation is a process that an individual can go through violates
the definition of the word, yet it fits the bill perfectly. When the novel
begins Macon is a self-aware white male who wants to actually help the black
community without imposing a savior complex. He does so in a way that he thinks
will actually help instead of the “help”
that he sees other white people give. Macon’s intentions are pure, and he
really puts himself out there. He doesn’t try to act black or fit in, and he
makes it explicit that he is just a white guy that is trying to help out. At
this point there are no signs of miscegenation, he is just a white guy involved
in a black community.
After his rise to popularity we see his mentality change. He
begins to get caught up in the moment, and starts to see himself above both
other white people and black people. When he is in the spotlight, people listen
to him and he feels like he is starting to make a difference. His ego gets a
little too large however, and when he goes on the different media networks gets
a little carried away. He criticizes the host, and indirectly accuses the
audience, for thinking the n-word in their heads. He brings the host to tears,
and then we see Nique and Dre a little on edge because Macon used the n-word
even though he is white. This is the first indication of Macon’s miscegenation,
yet it is not a very positive step. He thinks he is better than the white
audience that is listening, and he distances himself from the black audience by
using the n-word in a way that isn’t really acceptable for white people.
At the end of the novel, the process of miscegenation comes
full circle. Macon goes into the south to embrace his whiteness and distance
himself from his old ideologies and views about race. Yet, when he is
recognized by white supremacists in the south we really see Macon being
considered to be equivalent to a black man in the white supremacists’ eyes. By
being a race traitor, they lump Macon into the same category and treat him the
same way they treated Leo. Macon is begging for his life, and telling them that
he is white and he even beats on Leo to prove it, yet he is still treated like
a black person. He truly is interracial on a psychological level at this point.
Because when the gun is pointed at him, and he is told he is going to be a
martyr for the black cause he shakes his head and denies it because he is
white.
Interesting post. Yeah, I think a lot of Macon's intentions are in the right place and he is clearly well-studied. However, I feel like his egocentricity starts even before the media gets ahold of him. My impression was that Macon's problem was the fact that he was telling white people they could never escape white privilege and had to confront that while he was internally trying to escape his own privilege and avoid confronting his responsibilities himself. That inconsistency led him to do all kinds of far out stuff (like making a scene at the BSU and picking on the personality show host). His double standards become very clear at the end, when he has personally given up on trying to promote his cause but his previous inflammatory speeches condemn him to die as a "martyr" anyway at the hands of a white supremacist.
ReplyDeleteI agree that throughout the novel, we see an arc of Macon's miscegenation, but I would argue that Macon thought he was above other white and black people way back at the very beginning. When he first met Nique, he talked about how white and black people alike are never truly down for the cause and chicken out when the going gets tough, but he, Macon, would never desert the cause. Also, Macon commits the robberies at the very beginning without any concern for the impact they might have on the black community, so I'm not really sure if he's doing those robberies for the black cause or for his ego. That aside, I agree that at the end when Burleigh says "he ain't been white in a long time," in reference to Macon, it shows that Macon's "miscegenation" is complete.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the people in the South see him as the same as a black person. They see him as a white person who loves black people, and that threatens them more than a black person does. Macon did make people think about their privilege, but it had a much more negative affect than positive affect.
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