Going to Meet the Man by Koen Gildner

Connecting white men's sexual insecurity to racial tension

kgildner — 2025-03-19 00:08:35 UTC

Hatred is taught not inherent

kgildner — 2025-03-19 00:13:58 UTC

"He had a black friend, his age, eight, who lived nearby. His name was Otis. They wrestled together in the dirt. Now the thought of Otis made him sick. He began to shiver.

The progression of the story is pushed along due to Jesse's inability to get an erection, seemingly the only things that can get him going are ones of racial oppression and violence.

kgildner — 2025-03-19 00:19:59 UTC

"He felt that Otis knew everything"

kgildner — 2025-03-19 00:21:05 UTC

"He was terribly aware of his father's tongue, it was as though he had never seen it before. And his father's body suddenly seemed immense, bigger than a mountain."

kgildner — 2025-03-19 00:22:24 UTC

"The sounds of laughing and cursing and wrath - and something else - rolled in waves from the front of the mob to the back."

kgildner — 2025-03-19 00:23:43 UTC

"He began to feel a joy he had never felt before. He watched the hanging, gleaming body, the most beautiful and terrible object he had ever seen till then."

kgildner — 2025-03-19 00:25:08 UTC

We can see the change happening in Jesse as he conforms to everyone else's joy from the horrible violence.

kgildner — 2025-03-19 00:26:37 UTC

"One of his father's friends reached up and in his hands he held a knife: and Jesse wished that he had been that man."

kgildner — 2025-03-19 00:27:23 UTC

"At that moment Jesse loved his father more than he had ever loved him. He felt that his father had carried him through a mighty test, had revealed to him a great secret which would be the key to his life forever."

kgildner — 2025-03-19 00:29:06 UTC

Before Jesse grew up to be a horrible racist he was a boy who was not afraid to be friends with a black boy. For the most part, he even cared about them, wondering where they were on the way to the "picnic" and worrying about where Otis went off to.

kgildner — 2025-03-19 00:32:56 UTC

A metaphor for white men pushing down black men to make themselves feel better.

kgildner — 2025-03-19 01:43:49 UTC

To get ahead in life you can either make yourself seem better by doing better or you can make yourself seem better by pushing others down.

kgildner — 2025-03-19 01:45:44 UTC

How does James Baldwin convey racial insecurity through Jesse's relationship with his wife?

kgildner — 2025-03-19 02:09:06 UTC