Black Noir

The constant push and pull between darkness and light, the descent into the exigencies of society, the persistence of religion in the lives of people in all areas of gritty Los Angeles–these are essential facets of Himes’ If He Hollers Let Him Go. Black noir evolves the righteous male protagonist in that instead of merely playing with the shadows of society like Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade, Bob Jones is unable to shake free these chains. Yet he is able to navigate the anarchy of the 1930s and 1940s in a way that the white male protagonists of noir cannot. Bob is excluded from the “traditional” white nostalgia as he is the one who is changing the metaphorical and literal face of LA; nevertheless, he adopts the role of the Christ-like figure.

It is obvious that Bob is excluded from the religious nature of white nationalism; this is evidenced by the reaction of the white male workers after Bob curses Madge for refusing to work with him. At first, they hesitate to come to Madge’s defense, yet one of them invoke the name of God and appear to threaten Bob with a metal bar after she chastises them (27). The divide between white and black religion is solidified when Elsie, Madge’s sister-in-law, expresses her beliefs on black people and the way that Jim Crow religion views them. 

‘… the sooner you understand that God made you coloured folks ‘cause he wanted to, ‘cause when he made us in His image He had to make somebody else to fill up the world, so He made you. Not that I say coloured folks should have to serve white people, but you know yo’self God got dark angels in heaven what serve the white ones–that’s in the Bible plain enough for anybody to see’ (Himes 133).

Himes reveals the inherent bias that Jim Crow religion maintains against black people by referencing the infamous Mark of Cain and the rigid hierarchy of races. It is made clear that Bob does not belong to this religion, and he declares that he does not wish to either (153).

Yet Bob adopts the role of the Christ-like figure who usurps the authority of the majority religion. After Judge Morgan declares that Bob will receive a so-called “gracious” punishment by being drafted into the Army, two Mexican men who have also been imprisoned join him in his fate, making cracks about his appearance in an attempt to distract themselves from the loss of their freedom. “They fell in beside me and we went out and started up the hill towards the induction center, the three of us abreast and the cop in the rear. Two hours later I was in the Army.” (203) Himes alludes to the two thieves who were crucified alongside Jesus; their journey to hell is compared to the three men’s forced service in the Army. The Mexican youth mock Bob at first, just as the two thieves mocked Jesus. Yet all three accept that they are excluded from the Jim Crow religion, searching for God in the darkness of their own world.

As a child of the 20th century, my understanding of race in the United States (specifically the relationship between whiteness and blackness) was informed primarily through a retrospection of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. were central figures of the movement, informing my early understanding of how peaceful protest and civil disobedience successfully resulted in an equitable, colorblind society by the 1990s.

Years later and with much more experience, that naive understanding of race in the United States has been upended and recontextualized by seemingly endless acts of violence: the transatlantic slave trade, Jim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan, the Tulsa Race Massacre, the murder of Emmett Till, the War on Drugs, the Flint Water Crisis, the prison industrial complex/modern slavery, and policing have all contributed to a legacy of violence against Black people living in the United States. The White ruling class and those who seek its favor uphold racist institutions, which perpetuates racial violence, resulting in a society that continues to favor certain lives over others.

If He Hollers Let Him Go doesn’t shy away from the violence inherent in American society. As an aspect of noir fiction, violence is a necessary component in depictions of society’s more sinister side. However, writing as a Black man about a Black man, Chester Himes must have found violence an unavoidable trait of any honest depiction of American society. What I find so interesting in retrospect, while attempting to contextualize the novel with its time, is how Himes and his understanding of Blackness and American society speaks to what would come later with Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, and everyone and everything else to follow. Himes doesn’t sidestep feelings of rage and the internal yearning for violence experienced by a young and angry Black man. Instead, writing within the genre of noir, Himes explores those feelings, challenging readers to argue against Bob’s rage when presented with the various slights and injustices experienced within a single day.

Himes lived through the Civil Rights Movement and a quick Google search shows that he knew Malcolm X, though I don’t know the details of their relationship. However, as we continue reading, I’ll be interested in deciphering Himes’s personal feelings or ideology regarding the role of violence and rage in response to the realities of racism in the United States.

Starting this week, we were introduced to an entirely new version of Noir from what we have read so far. Gone is the rugged detective who is always one step ahead of the others dipping his toes into the nitty gritty world of darkness. Now, we are immersed in the reality of that darkness. The opening of “If He Hollers, Let Him Go” begins with Bob waking up from a dream with nothing but terror filling his heart. Unlike our protagonists before, Bob is not invulnerable to the consequences of this black world. In fact, the racial divides of the warring Jim Crow world permeate through his entire being, consuming him with an uncontrollable hatred. Instead of being on the outside looking in, this new perspective gives us the experience of what it really feels like to belong to this peripheral world. 

Perspective plays a critical role in the context of a story because from Bob’s view, everything must revolve around his race because that’s what the world identifies him as. The binary of black and white prevents him from being allowed to think in other terms. For example, when he picks up the white hitchhiking boys, they have a great time talking and chatting about the women they see, but when an ugly black woman finds her way into their conversation it stalls because of the discomfort of these racial divides. Bob wants the conversation to continue, but unfortunately, the divisions win. The color of your skin determines your societal fate before you take your first breath in this world. Bob’s perspective of life cannot escape the fear that is simply living in his skin. When the only world available is the world of the other, there is an inherent inescapable vulnerability he tirelessly works to push out of his mind. This is why we see Bob succumbing to his violent desires and fantasize about killing Peckerwood and raping Madge because it provides a way for him to wrestle power from the oppressor and shift his perspective from fear to triumph over the villains. He lives squarely as the “other,” but he desperately wants to define and legitimize his place in this world.

Conversely, Chester Holmes gives us a glimpse into the white world, where the coloured folk are nothing but tools at their disposal. It’s in the way Kelly orders around Bob and his crew. It’s in the way Madge uses her feminine figure to lure black men into her twisted plays for power, and almost blatantly in the way her sister-in-law declares that the coloured people were placed in the world to simply fill the space after God created the white race in his image. It’s also in the way Leighton always gives Bob those curious looks whenever they meet. It is the inherent belief of superiority from one look. These people get to live free of the constraints of being explicitly defined by their color. Although the implicit white identity is perpetuated throughout their daily lives, they get to live with no concept of what that identity entails, other than their own advantages. 

As the story progresses, it will be interesting to discover how these clashing perspectives will play a role in the fate of Bob. At some point these intersections must go head to head, and when Bob finally gathers his courage the aftermath cannot end well because of the vulnerability that follows him around, like a shadow he just can’t shake. When his vision burns blue with rage, he forgets these tragic truths and when one forgets, real tragedy ensues. 

In both The Maltese Falcon and If He Hollers Let Him Go, the masculinity of the leading male characters is definitely on display. However, Sam Spade and Bob display and prove their masculinity differently. Their individual expression represents a contrasting expectation for a white male versus a black male to be viewed as masculine by society.

Sam Spade, the white male anti-hero in The Maltese Falcon, arrogantly claims that he does not carry any guns when being questioned. His openness is admitting to not carrying any defense indicates his security in being able to defend himself. Spade asserts that he can successfully handle any conflict that arises with his brain and two bare hands. His rejection of traditional masculine objects, such as a gun, projects Spade as a male above all males. Manly men are supposedly tough and supposed to carry around guns, but for Spade to regard that as somewhat immature and unnecessary proves to others that he is just that much more masculine than the other male characters in the book.

In contrast, Bob in If He Hollers Let Him Go is a black male who frequently references asserting his dominance through violence. Dominance over others is a signifying characteristic of a masculine man. Very early on in the book, Bob makes no effort to hide his aggressions, whether it be picking a fight or stating his impulses to kill others. Violence is a much more obvious and desperate means of proving and displaying one’s masculinity. Although Bob does not always act on his aggressive desires, he is still has no intention of hiding them.

Sam Spade never has to prove his masculinity throughout the book, yet as a reader, I still always viewed him as an intelligent and brave detective. I never doubted his masculinity. This theme is indicative of the superiority that comes with being a white male. No action needs to be taken for the reader or anyone in society to know that they are masculine. It is rather his actions that will either inflate or negate this notion. In Spade’s case, his lack of additional self-defense further emphasizes his masculinity. However, Bob, as a non-white male, has to make it very clear that he is tough and masculine. This dichotomy between the two characters represents the inferior status that non-white males held to white males. White males were just automatically the masculine hero while non-white males had to overplay with their behavior.

As we continue to read more books, it will be interesting to explore this further as we encounter more books with white versus non-white male leading roles.

Throughout Farewell, My Lovely, the white citizens consistently other the foreigners, making them distinct from the main characters. Malloy laments that Florian’s changed from a white bar to a colored bar. This change causes him anxiety and factors into his fear of a changing world. While fear of change and xenophobia play into the noir genre, the more pressing issue remains that noir centers on darkness, and darkness cannot exist without light. Therefore, creating the other becomes essential, regardless of how it plays out within the genre. This frequently manifests as a fear of foreigners entering the city, however in If He Hollers Let Him Go, Bob does not possess the same anxieties because he is a part of the new wave of people entering Los Angeles. As such, he must find a new way of distinguishing himself, so he turns to the materialism of Los Angeles. Bob owns a car and uses it to set himself apart, even reflecting on the inability of rich white people to purchase a new car during the war. He buys into the materialism so completely, that the fear of losing his car keeps him from killing a white man. He does not care about losing his job or facing prison because those do not set him apart, only his car and other similar material possessions can do that for him.

            Noir’s fascination with the other manifests in varying ways, but I think it plays more deeply into the othering within people’s own persona. They focus on external image and an external fear of others in order to ignore the darkness within themselves. They fear becoming the other and facing the isolation and loneliness, but they continue to divide. Therefore, the physical darkness becomes representative of the journey people will take within their own mind, and that which they fear most becomes their destiny.

I have always associated the word “nostalgia” with familiar scented candles, music that is forgotten until when it is not, or my favorite blanket that I dragged with me everywhere. All these sentimental moments and objects have the same thing in common each other and that is the past. I want to know, why is that? Why do we have a connection to the past? Why do we curate a way of punishing ourselves by living in the past? These questions can only be answered with speculation and the answers also differ between every individual. I want to take attempt at answering these questions. I argue that our longing for the past not only has the deeper implications of violence and death but also entertains the human quality of wanting something that we can not have.
Before I move on and bring examples to help justify my claim, I would like to first define what I mean by “human quality.” I am referring to ordinary human elements that can be described as less than perfect. These elements are essential to living a normal human life that we will be forced to experience at one point in our life.
In Farewell, My Lovely, the notorious opening scene objectifies a human being just for the color of his skin. The readers in this time period wouldn’t have given much thought to the language of objectifying a black man. This opening scene allows insight for the readers of today to see how life was back then, how it is different from today, and how the cultural values have changed over time. The first line of the book states, “It was one of the mixed blocks over on Central Avenue the blocks that are not yet all negro.” The writer is characterizing black people as an invasive species that is taking what belongs to the whites. When in reality that was never the case. Black people have always been around Central Avenue, but why does the author feel that something is being taken from him like it was better before the “negros” came to central avenue?
That is the toxicity of nostalgia. Where you lie to yourself that everything was better back then. I believe that people do this because it has to do with the fact that we want something that never was. Wanting something that never existed in the first place already dooms the fulfillment of this expectation, which can make people lead to violent outbursts. Which can lead to no happy endings. Like the black man that was killed by Moose. A modern example is the White Christian Nationalists rioting at the capital on January 6th, because they believe the “Christian values” are gone in the USA. As stated by Professor Samuel Perry of the University of Oklahoma on CNN news, when white Americans hear the language of Christian nationalism they feel a sense of nostalgia for a time when the “right kind of people” had cultural-political influence. When minorities hear this language they gain hope for a chance of accountability for the past. So to sum White Christian nationalism wants to “take back America,” to satisfy their nostalgia for something that never was.
What’s more tragic than living in the past? What is more heartbreaking than thinking that the grass is greener where you once were compared to where you are now? Why can’t people ever be satisfied with what they have? Nostalgia is meant to reminisce on good memories. It is not meant to torture us and force us to lie to ourselves to the point of destruction.

Bob, the protagonist of If He Hollers Let Him Go by Chester Himes, embodies the aspect of interiority and introspection that is integral to the noir genre. Similar to the other protagonists in the books we have read, Bob exists within the shadows of society. Like an outsider looking in, he has a fatalistic outlook on society, moral ambiguity, and an alienation from society. Spade and Marlowe have an unquestioned personal autonomy and masculinity within their respective worlds as white men. Bob, however, has an identity that is not self-defined. His personhood is instead defined by its proximity to whiteness, taking away his autonomy at the very basic level. 

In our discussion in class, the question of paranoia came up in regards to Bob’s anxiety towards white people. Some may argue that he seems overly paranoid, however I would argue that this anxiety is founded in truth. As a black person who has existed in predominantly white spaces for most of my life, the sense of dread and hypersensitivity to your perception by others is something that is a constant in my life. I am always aware of color: I notice that I am the only black person in a room and brace myself for looks from people. I am constantly aware that I am “the other”. There is something that is uncanny about having this awareness about oneself. It is the idea of double consciousness: to be both your interior self, and to watch how other people see you from the outside. There is a certain sense of detachment from reality that this psychology brings. 

The liminal space that Bob and black people in general exist in can be stretched to discuss the inverse descent into darkness that Bob experienced in his decision to kill that white man. Coming from a place that is charged with anger and anxiety, there is a freedom in allowing oneself to descend in the darkness. I may pursue this idea in a later paper. 

This investigation into blackness is leading me to a broader thesis about blackness and noir. I think that being a black American, having no real roots to cling to because we can never know our true heritage, and having an identity that is exterior rather than interior, creates an existential feeling that is similar to the tenants of noir: oneiric, strange, ambivalent. 

Paranoia has two definitions in the dictionary. The first deals with the type of paranoia that is classified as a “mental illness” in which a sufferer experiences delusions of persecution. The second definition describes paranoia as a tendency, rather than a mental illness, of someone toward excessive distrust of others. During class this week, the question about whether our narrator, Ben, in Himes’s If He Hollers Let Him Go is paranoid. Judging by both definitions that have been put forth above, I believe it to be the case that he is not portrayed as paranoid, at least when it comes to white people, in the text.

First of all, I think it is important to establish the reason for why I am discussing his paranoia with respect to white people rather than another thing or group of people. Up to this point in the story, Ben’s negative experiences have been almost exclusively in his interactions with white people. One notable exception is the conversation that he has with Alice’s mother, Mrs. Harrison. Alice and Mrs. Harrison are both black, but as Ella Mae points out, Alice is the “whitest coloured girl [Ben] could find.” Beyond Alice’s whiteness, her mother can be described as, at the very least, a white apologist. As a rich woman with a $3,000 carpet (which today is close to $60,000), Mrs. Harrison more closely resembles white people of her day than most black people. Most importantly, Mrs. Harrison repeatedly blames black people for their own mistreatment from white people. Her rationalization of the Los Angeles racism of the day comes across as severely out of touch with reality. This naturally rubs Ben the wrong way and represents the only significant negative experience that he has with non-white people thus far.

Since race, up to this point, has been the main driver of conflict in the novel then, it makes sense to consider the white people as the main object of Ben’s potential paranoia. In order to dispel the notion of Ben’s paranoia, I will focus in on two scenes in which he has interactions with white people. The first scene to focus on is Ben’s gambling session with the white men – one of whom knocks Ben out and becomes the object of his murderous fantasy. In this scene, Ben is shooting dice and is running very well to the point that he has earned over $30. A blonde white man, infuriated by Ben’s perceived luck, resolves to “cool” him, which turns out to be his way of saying that he will knock Ben out. The important part of this scene for my purposes, though, is Ben’s actions before getting assaulted. After winning several times, a paranoid narrator would almost certainly reveal his internal fear to the reader, and probably display it through their actions as well. Ben, however, shows no fear. When someone yells out that the game is invalid because the last roll was determined by reading “cocked dice,” Ben responds forcefully. He says that he will not give away a “goddamned thing.” Doubling down, he continues, “I made my goddamned eleven and now I’m gonna take my goddamned money.” This, as far as I am concerned, is not the response of a paranoid black man that is scared of the white people he is surrounded by. Perhaps it can be argued that he is paranoid in this scene, but is so fed up with the day that he has had that he digs his heels in and decides not to back down this one time, but I believe that the next scene serves to further dispel the narrative of his paranoia.

The second important scene to discuss is when he is riding in the car with the two white men – one from San Francisco and the other from Memphis. In this scene, not only does he have a civil conversation with the two men, he actually reveals that he genuinely likes them. This scene, coming chronologically after he is knocked out, demoted, and belittled by white people, would be a narrative impossibility if Ben was already paranoid. Ben wonders when “white people started getting white.” He is grasping with the reality that you can look at two white people from the same place, and end up with one who carries his whiteness like a “loaded stick” and one who carries his whiteness “as if he didn’t have anything to do with it.” Such a cerebral observation by Ben, I am arguing that this absolutely dispels the argument that he is paranoid at this point in the book.

A black narrator paranoid about white people does not react in the ways that Ben did when confronted with the two previously discussed scenarios. As the story moves forward, I will keep a close eye on whether or not evidence of paranoia begins to surface, or if Ben remains simply cynical (but not paranoid) about white people.

In these first chapters of If He Hollers Let Him Go, my mind has been swirling as I attempt to understand to navigate this world Himes has displayed. Although If He Hollers Let Him Go does not seem to follow the Noir genre at first, it does as it explores living on the bounds of society. However, unlike the case of Spade and Malloy, Bob is unable to escape these bounds of society as they are dictated by race. In this novel, the readers can get a glimpse of what life is like for people of color. Looking at the examples of Bob in the workplace and Alice’s upper-class family, who are stuck on the bounds of society, unable to escape because of their race.

First looking at Bob, as a black man in America, it is evident that even as he enters the workforce, he is not accepted nor respected in society, and because of this it is causing him severe distress: “Nobody bothered me. Nobody said a word. But I was tense every moment to spring” (4). This contrasts characters such as Sam Spade, who is smooth and controlled, and never worried at all. The bounds of society are where Spade wants to operate whereas Bob is forced to the bounds of society, not by his own choice. This force to the bounds of society shows the prominent role that race plays in the world Himes is describing, so much so that it cements someone in a certain role or position, always to be regarded as an outsider. Even as Bob enters the workforce, he is an outsider. In the shipyards, readers see a lot of tension between white women and black men; however, when called a racial slur by a white woman, the manager does not take Bob’s side. While this is not shocking, due to the time period, it is indicative of how race dictates a person’s role in society. Although white women and black men are both new to the workforce during this time, black men are still regarded as less than, solidifying them on the bounds of society, a place where Bob doesn’t want to be. At the beginning of chapter 5, Bob talks about the feeling of being included and how wonderful that felt. This shows that Bob does not want to exist on the bounds of society, but rather wants to experience this sense of inclusion and belonging.

Alice and her family similarly want to experience this sense of belonging, but are also on the bounds of society, even though Alice can pass for white and is a part of a higher class. Alice and her family are of a higher social class and Alice has more fair skin. She has been described by other characters as almost white; however, her family still feels the need to prove themselves and flaunt their wealth because they know that their race cements them on the bounds of society. Regardless of their class, they will always be seen as different and not be respected by the white upper class, which is why “passing” acts as a way to escape these bounds. Alice can exit the bounds of society that black people in this novel are pushed to; however, as she exits this one bound, she is once again pushed into another as she is not fully accepted by the black community either, as she is judged for being fair skinned by other characters such as Ella Mae. Even for a character who can “pass,” race still confines her to the bounds of society.

Unlike Spade and Malloy in our other examples of Noir, the bounds of society are not where these characters like Bob and Alice want to exist because in this world that Himes has depicted the bounds of society include discrimination and mistreatment, and they are inescapable, as they are determined by race, something that cannot be changed or muted, even for people like Alice.

You won’t find a lot of women in the noir texts we’ve read. Rather, you’ll find“little girls,” “darlings,” “babies,” and “little sisters.” Through Himes, you’ll meet “little fat brown-skinned girls,” “short-haired, dark brown, thick-lipped girls,” and even “tall white girls” with “big blue babyish eyes.” All of these “girls” bring about a deep desire and lust within Bob Jones, a concept which I find disturbing, considering that Bob seems to connect the word “girl” with a deep sense of “sexual thrill.”

These girls never grow up. All the females in the noir genre remain girls for the entirety that they are present in the plot, conniving their way to safety and beguiling the protagonist.

 You will, however, find a lot of men. But the only “boys” you will ever meet (other than legitimate male children) are exclusively black men. Even Irish workers, who have faced their share of prejudice in America, may call their black coworkers “boy” to establish a sense of hierarchy. “Bob, you’re an intelligent boy.” “You colored boys better lay off the gin.” Bob even refers to the workers underneath him as “boys,” further emphasizing the dominant energy within the word, and its powerful ability to remind someone of their inferiority. The host at the restaurant calls Bob “Mr. Jones,” but “the ‘Mr.’ almost strangled him,” depicting how difficult it is for a white man to acknowledge a black man as anything other than a young, naïve, bothersome boy.

 All women are “girls,” but only black men are “boys.” This made me think of our discussion of the combination of white women and black men and who dominates that realm, since both possess qualities that demote them, but who is shoved to the bottom of the food chain is debatable.

This makes me conclude that the noir genre associates blackness with femininity. Both are weak, undesirable qualities that make a person less than a straight white man, who is the only one in all our noir texts that is free from prejudice. Being black or being a woman makes you simple and childlike and in need of protection, guidance, or nurturing.