If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945) – Chester Himes

Moving on then.

READ ON James Baldwin, Donald Goines, Chester Himes, Richard Price

Of those four authors, three could be eliminated. I had already read Donald Goines and the trail wouldn't make sense if I allowed myself to get into a loop. Neither James Baldwin nor Richard Price are considered cult authors by Cult Fiction. I'm surprised James Baldwin didn't make it into the book; he is a big name and Go Tell It on the Mountain is a hugely significant work of literature. Being black and gay he would certainly seem to qualify as a cult author. Calcutt and Shephard, the authors of Cult Fiction, define cult fiction as "literature from the margins and extremes", which includes the literature of ethnic minorities and of homosexuals (as well as that of drug users, hustlers, alcoholics, punks, political radicals, bohemians, the insane and any other group from the social margins). However, perhaps James Baldwin is too big. Maybe his following is too mainstream to be called cult. Richard Price could also make claim to be a cult author, seeing as his favourite subjects include gangs and drug-dealers.

So, the only available option was Chester Himes, another big name in African American literature. The options for books were:

MUST READ If He Hollers Let Him Go, A Rage in Harlem

There is plenty of Chester Himes in the library, so I was able to choose either of the two options. If He Hollers Let Him Go was Himes' first novel, so this seemed a good choice.

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If He Hollers Let Him Go is the story of Bob Jones, a black man in L.A. during the time of WWII working as a leaderman in a shipyard. Despite being smart and capable, Jones has reached the glass ceiling, he has no prospects of being promoted to the rank of supervisor – in fact, he has found that the glass ceiling is itself deceptive as he commands considerably less respect than white leadermen. When he tries to assert his seniority over a white woman worker, she refuses and calls him a nigger, but when he curses her back ("Screw you, then, you cracker bitch"), he is demoted.

The rest of the book follows the next few days after this event and further examines the state of racism in the U.S. in the 40s. Jones is well aware of the simmering racial hatred in L.A. In fact, he is terrified of it and haunted by it in his dreams. Bob's wealthy girlfriend, Alice, however, has had less experience of racism and advocates making do with the way things are, finding a place within an admittedly unjust society rather than fighting against it. Her views are then somewhat shaken by her experiences with Bob, as together they are refused service in a restaurant and are hassled by the police. However, Bob's perspective shifts as well and he decides that his best course is to make peace and settle down with Alice.

Bob returns to work with the intention of apologising to his co-worker. However, when he accidentally comes across her alone and refuses her perfunctory seduction, she accuses him of rape, leading to him being beaten by a mob and arrested. Alice abandons him in his hour of need, suggesting that he throw himself on the mercy of the court. The charges are dropped, but only on the condition that Bob enlists in the army and joins the war.

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If He Hollers Let Him Go depicts a nation at war with itself (while it is itself literally at war). Racism has risen to a level where society will wilfully do violence to its own people. A backdrop of the novel is the forced internment of Japanese American citizens (the Zoot Suit Riots, where zoot suit wearing Mexican Americans were the target of violence by white servicemen, were also part of the background of the era of the novel), and Bob palpably feels the mistrust and hostility between races as an imminent threat of violence. It was almost inevitable that he would suffer some tragedy or misfortune. His superiors at the shipyard seemed to be waiting for him to make an error so they could punish him, while he was assaulted by obstacles and provocations seemingly intended to make him lash out. In this way, the story of Bob Jones is similar to the story of Bigger Thomas – they were both caught up in events they had little control over.

If He Hollers is largely inspired by Chester Himes own experience of racism: Himes said of L.A. "Los Angeles hurt me racially as much as any city I have ever known – much more than any city I remember from the South. It was the lying hypocrisy that hurt me. Black people were treated much the same as they were in an industrial city of the South. They were Jim-Crowed in housing, in employment, in public accommodations, such as hotels and restaurants... The difference was that the white people of Los Angeles seemed to be saying, 'Nigger, ain't we good to you?'" However, it is easy to see that it is also a commentary on Native Son. In fact, Bigger Thomas is directly referenced:

'Native Son turned my stomach,'Arline said. 'It just proved what the white Southerner has always said about us; that our men are rapists and murderers.'

'Well I agree that the selection of Bigger Thomas to prove the point of Negro oppression was an unfortunate choice,' Leighton said.

'What do you think, Mr. Jones?' Cleo asked.

I said, 'Well, you couldn't pick a better person than Bigger Thomas to prove the point. But after you prove it, then what? Most white people I know are quite proud of having made negroes into Bigger Thomases.'

There was another silence and everybody looks at me. 'Take me for instance,' I went on. 'I've got a job as leaderman at a shipyard. I'm supposed to have a certain amount of authority over the ordinary workers. But I'm scared to ask a white woman to do a job. All she's got to do is say I insulted her and I'm fired.'

The difference between the books is that Native Son postulates that the racist U.S. society will turn black men into brutes, where If He Hollers suggests that society will cause violence even to good black men.

It is a bleak view, but one that Chester Himes strongly held. In the end, it was disgust with racism that chased Himes out of America to France. It seems he feared turning out like Bigger Thomas or Bob Jones. In his memoir he admitted "I had always believed that to defend my life of my honor I would kill a white man without a second thought. But when I discovered that this applied to white women too, I was profoundly shaken."

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I have to say that I was a bit disappointed in having chosen to read If He Hollers as part of my series and finding that it was so reminiscent of Native Son. Not disappointed in the book, which was very good, but disappointed in my choice of which book to read. While If He Hollers is a highly regarded book and an important protest novel, Himes is in fact better known for his pulpy crime novels featuring Coffin Ed Jones and Gravedigger Jones, regarded by some as being key characters in the history of literature. Although not ostensibly protest novels, Himes' crime novels, such as A Rage in Harlem, are perhaps even more insightful regarding the black experience in America.