The novel Sing, Unburied, Sing written by author Jesmyn Ward is a beautifully composed piece of literature that compiles difficult issues in society, the supernatural, and a brutally realistic family dynamic. The family structure in the book is not the typical American family that is portrayed in most American media. Instead, this book tells the story of a very real family dynamic including drug-addicted parents. I have grown up with many friends who have been through similar experiences and have had to rely on their grandparents to be raised. The elegance of the story written by Ward is exemplified by the unfiltered reality that Jojo, Kayla, Leonie, Michael, Pop, and Mam are living.
The construct of race in the novel is extremely prevalent to the overlying themes in the book. Race is consistently discussed throughout the novel and there is clearly a sentiment being expressed by Ward that echoes the cry of inequality for people who are not white (especially black). I believe the intention of putting a special emphasis on skin color was in order to establish what is already known about the social construct in America: white privilege is real and black Americans continue to face inherent inequalities. On page 22 of Sing, Unburied, Sing, Pop is discussing his time at Parchman and says, “Stag got convicted of assault, I got convicted of harboring a fugitive” (Ward). Pop was sent to prison for five years for simply being with his mentally challenged brother who had committed a crime. It is undeniable that Pop was actually sent to this horrendous environment because he was a black man. Michael, Jojo’s white dad, was sent to Parchman years later for much more serious crimes involving meth making and dealing. His sentence included only three years in prison and two years probation. Even though this was happening a generation later, the disparities between sentences for whites and nonwhites are astoundingly large.
The novel does an excellent job of displaying the many obstacles that people of color face today and have faced for centuries. The passage from when they are pulled over by a white police officer offers a glimpse of the modern day abuses black Americans are forced to live through. The police officer has a thirteen-year-old black child on his knees with a gun pointed to his head, waiting for the child to make one wrong move so that he has the authority to kill Jojo in front of his family (Ward p. 159-167). The character of Misty, a white friend of Leonie’s, helps further display the concept of white privilege that is constantly a theme throughout the novel. Her character parallels Leonie’s aside from one key variable: the color of her skin is white and not black. The two women are drug addicts and both have too many flaws to count, however, the novel portrays Misty as a character who is never concerned about the consequences of her actions. She is cussing and complaining while Leonie is fearing for the life of her black son when the police incident occurs. This is what white privilege is: the lack of anxiety towards the criminal justice system and the implicit biases amongst the police force and it’s officers.
I think that you did a really good job of explaining how Ward displays the systemic racism in criminal justice throughout the novel. The scene you described where Jojo has a gun pointed at him by a police officer is horrifying, and seems as if it cannot be realistic. But as we have seen by many recent real world events, such as with George Floyd and many other African Americans who have been treated unfairly by police, this scene paints a brutally realistic picture of the justice system.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of racism that is seen in the book is the disparities in how white and black prisoners are treated in Parchman. The white prisoners in Parchmen are allowed to use guns to watch the dogs, and as Richie points out, “It’s different, they said, for the Black man to be a trusty, with a gun… But it was something about a colored man running the dogs; that was wrong” (Ward 91). The white prisoners, who were put in prison for doing something illegal, were trusted with guns, while Black prisoners were put to work in the fields, much like slaves. River is a good example of how poor the criminal justice system is, as he is unfairly put into prison, then he is forced into unpaid labor just because he is black. I think Ward does a good job of showing the readers how African Americans still face racism through the government and justice system, and how there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to amend that.
Ward expertly paints a dark and unsettling picture with her writing, characterized by the way she depicts issues such as police brutality and disparities within the U.S criminal justice system. Your post definitely did a wonderful job of showing how Ward deliberately infuses these societal themes into her writing. The topics she expresses are especially relevant now, with their being much needed focus on how the topic of race affects those in all facets of the justice system. The combination of hardships her characters' face, of both prevailing racism and injustice, as well as being stricken by poverty and drug addiction, is a stark image of struggle in the United States. I once heard an anecdote that the U.S Justice system "treats those who are rich and guilty better than those who are innocent but poor." I think that unsettling quote encapsulates part of the issues faced in the book, issues of injustice only made worse by the state of prevailing racism in the deep south. The cycle of people having low wages or unemployment, leading to the use of drugs or sale of drugs, which potentially leads to time in prison, completely deleting any chance of creating generational wealth. The cycle of poverty affects people of every race, but as my group members and I discussed, people of color face additional hardship simply because of their skin color.
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