Haitian Political Justice: Reeding Between the Lines
In the dockside seizure of Hinkle and Safecracker, Reed twists the conventional narrative of U.S.--Caribbean history as satire. The tactic once used by the U.S. to extract Haitian sovereignty becomes the exact stage where Haiti asserts its justice.
The U.S. occupation of Haiti happened from 1915 to 1934, nearly 20 years. Yet, it is not covered in a traditional school curriculum. Reed notes that the history that most Americans know selectively omits the occupation, yet we now know it happened. Clearly, history can be warped, and the version of history that most know and understand is flawed. He raises the following question: is any version of history objectively correct? Rooted in postmodernist thought, he (somewhat satirically) claims that a version of history with secret orders, African spirits, and ancient Egyptian scripts is equally correct.
Another layer of this story is that the Black Plume is literally docked at a U.S. port. This satirizes the "gunboat diplomacy" of the U.S.: 330 Marines docked at Haiti and took away anyone who opposed them, thus exerting U.S. police power on foreign lands.
With this in mind, Reed orchestrates the Black Plume and the Haitians as a kind of long overdue debt collector, finally here to deliver political justice against Hinkle and Western society. In fact, they plan to feed him to the loa, which has "a Yellow Back to symbolize its electric circuitry" (151). This loa, Battraville claims, is "a very mean high-powered loa" (151). Reed constructs the loa as a symbolism of Haitian and Black rage toward the Wallflower Order. It's electric and mean, and seeks to devour White supremacy.
By creating a scenario where Haitian officials literally take away the embodiment of White supremacy and blackface, Reed gets the last laugh.
Hey Jay! Really great topic, Jes Grew obviously played a huge role in the cultural development of America in the 20s. But the roots of that i find quite interesting because obviously with Haitian roots, the Culture will develop with those tendencies. That raises the question of whether a new kind of Jes Grew can be developed from different cultures across the world. I think that the answer to that is yes. But in a way, Jes Grew LEAD to further strains of it that have different objectives with LGBTQ+ and other movements world-wide.
ReplyDeleteIt's a nice detail in this reversal of the usual "gunboat diplomacy" that Battraville promises to submit HVV and Safecracker to the loa, to "do with them as it will." There's some neat poetic justice in the core anti-loa forces in the universe being turned over to the ultimate authority in this way, especially because it's an authority that the ones who are subjected to it don't even acknowledge as valid.
ReplyDeleteAnd the US occupation of Haiti--a historical fact that I had to look up to verify when I first read this book, since I was sure it was one of Reed's fictional embellishments--works as great "evidence" for the reality of Atonist suppression of Jes Grew culture. We see within the novel how the Atonist newspapers are explicitly ordered NOT to report on this occupation, and we know that the news media is the "first draft of history." We can see the act of suppression happening in real time, and of course the history books written later will likewise hide this truth. It's just the icing on the cake for Reed to also be able to claim (with no counterevidence to dispute the claim!) that indeed the US Marines are on the island in order to try to suppress Jes Grew at its source. In so many ways in this novel, Haiti assumes much more importance than it is typically granted in world-historical narratives--and that shift in perspective is very much the point.
I love your use of external research! For your point about history ever being objectively true, I think that's really interesting. Personally, I think some narratives are more true than others, because they're based in objective fact, but then again: what even is objective fact? Nonetheless, this idea of justice that's carried out by this narrative is incredibly compelling, which brings another group of questions: does the most compelling narrative have to be true? and can a narrative not built on objective fact still be true?
ReplyDeleteHi Jay! I really like how you emphasized Reed’s use of satire to flip the power dynamic between the U.S. and Haiti and it shows how he reclaims history through irony and justice. Your discussion of the loa as a symbol of Black rage and retribution was striking; it gets the intensity of Reed’s message perfectly.
ReplyDeleteI think Reed's usage of "the master's tools to dismantle the master's house" is very interesting. Having the Black Plume docked in the USA is a role-reversal that brings out the objectivity argument of history, and your choice of evidence for this really broad argument is impressively specific but effective. It's a very concrete example of "history is written by the winners."
ReplyDeleteReed constantly uses satire to make different points throughout this book. One that comes up for me is the satirical depiction of Moses. The stories seem absurd and a rewriting of Christian theology. He uses this to point out that all religions have absurd stories that might not make sense to a different culture or religion.
ReplyDeleteHi Jay! I love how you focus on the historical side of the book in this post. You're very right in the fact that this history isn't covered in a traditional curriculum. I never had any context on it while reading the book. And looking at the ending with the Haitians as overdue debt collectors makes an even more satisfying end to the novel.
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