payment page
“But I know people who’ve known them, better than they know their black selves. And I read in the papers about them. Always robbing and killing people. And,” he added darkly, “worse.”
Although Jack admits that he has never actually met a Black person, he wholeheartedly believes the propaganda that he consumes through the media or through acquaintances. In Part One, Chapter Three, he also ironically states that white people have the ability to know or understand Black people and their behavior better than Black people themselves do – however, Clare and Irene point out multiple times that the opposite is more common, and that white people know very little about either Black people or Black culture. This ignorance, of course, leads to further incorrect and racist stereotyping on the part of white people.
It was, Irene, thought, unbelievable and astonishing that four people could sit so unruffled, so ostensibly friendly, while they were in reality seething with anger, mortification, shame. But no, on second thought she was forced to amend her opinion. John Bellew, most certainly, was as undisturbed within as without.
When Jack Bellew introduces himself to Gertrude and Irene in Part One, Chapter Three, he immediately shares his incredibly racist propensities with them. The tension in the room is palpable, as he is unknowingly insulting all three women; however, Jack is entirely unbothered, and assumes that everyone else is as well. For Jack, racism is natural and legitimate. He has no concept of the severe consequences that his racism has on real people like Clare and Irene. In his privilege and ignorance, he sees his ideology as little more than a joke, to the extent that he calls his wife a racial slur as a pet name. Meanwhile, Irene and Clare must privately bear the burden of the damage that Jack’s racism does to their psyches and lives.
