Slim's Table by Mitchell Duneier

Author:Mitchell Duneier [Duneier, Mitchell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Discrimination, Ethnic Studies, American, African American & Black Studies, Psychology, Social Psychology
ISBN: 9780226413563
Google: j4ZCCwAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2015-12-21T05:46:32+00:00

CHAPTER 7

A Higher Self

Human beings desire to participate in a world that validates their own image of self-worth. What is it about Valois, and especially the larger society, that confers a sense of respectability upon the black regulars?

Though these men still have great confidence in their own notions of “right” and “wrong,” they sense also that the climate of opinion has turned, irresistibly, against whatever is correct. They are sensitive to their separateness when behaving in accordance with specific ideas of moral worth. Many of the black regulars no longer feel sufficiently comfortable in the ghetto to engage in the type of interaction that once predominated there. They feel an intense desire to rise above what they sometimes term the “negativity” of the streets, the moral isolation inherent in ghetto life. When they speak of the desire to escape from the lower depths in which they find themselves submerged, they mean they want to make contact with a world that is appropriate to their own sense of moral worth, one that represents greater order. To begin to understand the intensity of their moral isolation, it is important to again take note of how they feel about ghetto conditions.

Willie was sitting at one table while Elvin was sitting with me nearby.

While I was reading the paper, Elvin began describing conditions in the slum a few blocks away.

“Over there I will be violated,” Willie chimed in. “It levels my nerves to come out here because nobody is gonna mess with you on Fifty-third Street.”

Elvin went on to talk about what a violent country America had become. “If there was a good murder in a show we used to say, That actor really knows how to die good.’ Now movies show so much blood that it doesn’t take any talent to die.”

The men laughed and joked, but beneath their jovial appearance was a sad acceptance of conditions.

Willie reminisced: “At that time you could sleep out there on a box and nobody would bother you. Try it now and it will be an eternal sleep.”

Willie was referring to conditions on the other side of Cottage Grove Avenue, where many of the men in the restaurant used to live or still do. Throughout the conversation I had continued reading my newspaper. When I looked up, Willie’s eyes met mine. Cocking his head back, he interrupted himself: “As long as you are my friend, Mitch, don’t accept nothing over there. Don’t go over there unless you have police and bodyguards with you.”

I told Willie and Elvin not to worry, that I’d be afraid to walk around by myself. “I’m white and I’m not known in the neighborhood, but what do you have to worry about?”

“It don’t make no difference,” Willie responded vehemently. “They looking at your pocket. They don’t give a damn if you black or white. If they think you got some money and you’re black, you’re just a black ass gone.”

What is it about Valois that encourages the black regulars to participate in a

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