Group 2 post 4/21

A major theme in How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America was the theme of "the worst of white folks." This idea of Laymon's is that even though not every white person is a member of the KKK or outwardly and explicitly telling black people they want the worst for them, white people are still responsible when they could take ownership of a racist situation and still don't. For example, if a friend tells a racist joke and you don't point out the wrong in it, you are responsible because you have "ducked responsibility" as Laymon says (32). Laymon says that he is even guilty of shirking this responsibility when he could have invited his cousin Jermaine to stay with him and get out of a bad neighborhood of Chicago, but never reached out. Though he is black and doesn't fall into the category of "the worst of white folks" he still maintained his own comfort instead of changing a situation of a family member for the better. This theme is interesting especially when paired with Baldwin's essay, "Stranger in the Village" because it shows how white people have and treasure a "jewel of naiveté" even though most don't truly want bad things to happen to African Americans.

Another theme that was incredibly moving in How to Slowly Kill Yourself was the idea that white people constantly put black people into "boxes" of stereotypes ever since the beginning of colonization. For example, Laymon's neighbor, Kurt, said he should move to Pennsylvania because he "ain't like his kind" (51). This offended Laymon immensely, and rightly so, because it shows the expectation that so many white people have for African Americans. In class we talked about the idea that black people have to be "twice as good" as white people to get half the credit or credibility. This idea was played out in Laymon's retelling of this instance with his white neighbor--the neighbor was a bad parent, a cheater on his wife, and had less responsibility (academic, financial, professional) than Laymon, but he still acted above and authoritative of Laymon's worth just because Laymon did more than he expected black men are capable of.