From the early stages of life, males are in a seemingly constant battle for the title of most dominant. From watermelon seed spitting contests to a “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality, those species with a Y chromosome illustrate competition and the basic need to be dominant in every facet of life. Dominance perhaps defines harder, better, faster, stronger (thanks Kanye) and men continue proving this through their looking down of women, other cultures, and specifically, other races. The consensus in the psychology world is that people overcompensate when they lack something else, or fear something. In “A Man’s Life Isn't Worth A Penny With A Hole In It,” the driving force behind black suppression by whites is solely fear, and the need to protect the white women, who by their own admissions, need protecting.
After the Delta had been riddled with absences of men-turned-soldiers for a prolonged period of WWII, it saw a different homecoming than when it left. Suddenly the “comfortable” segregation of such rural “Christian” towns were challenged with FDR’s New Deal, which included the purpose, “bring the South to her knees, and force upon us non-segregation and social and political equality amongst the races." The diction of this quote by white conservative Walter Sillers, Jr. connotes the attitude of the South at this time, and it is almost as if Sillers is referring to the plague by the use of “force upon us.” He acts like FDR is handing out diseased blankets to the white southerners, rather than proposing and enacting a morally sound way of life. Sillers goes on to name white fear “the South’s racial philosophy” and hopes to earn the “sympathy” of then-president Truman. Again, Frank was not sending them packing with the same fever-infected blankets that were given to the Native Americans in the 1812, which destroyed nearly the entire population. It seems that the fear in white southern conservatives stems from change. (Ironically this sad statement remains true today. Because he’s a Muslim. Right…)
The author tactfully infiltrates a smooth insertion of rhetoric by aligning the antithesis of “racial consciousness of blacks” and “white concerns” when referring to the fear of bloodthirsty black war veterans coming home, to terrorize and pillage the small thriving wholesome community. It is stated that Delta whites “had formed a home guard to protect white women” thus killing off black war men “at the rate of one per week." Why were the white men, after returning home from fighting alongside their black neighbors, so fearful for their women? Territory.
A crucial aspect of dominance is territory. The white men had served in their country’s war as patriotic citizens (albeit, against some of their own free wills since there was actually a draft…) and upon returning home, felt entitled to the land that they fought for in that most primitive of ways. Presumably, a soldier from Mississippi in the throws of World War II reflected on his home as a mere Utopia compared to the horrifically dire straits of warfare. It is no wonder that upon returning home, this white southern God-fearing man felt that he deserved to have things just the way he wanted: the way things had always been. The fear of inconsistency within a small town in Mississippi points straight to the black man.
The black soldiers of the second world war probably felt the same sense of entitlement, and perhaps this is the root of the civil movement surge post-war. Did he not fight in the same war? Carry the same gun? Experience the same terror? Maybe plan to own a shrimpin’ boat with a best good friend? These men longed to express their own exuberance for their country, rather than suppressing their pride under the watchful eye of an overseer.
The white men, having experienced the war firsthand themselves, realized the prevalence of primal qualities that become illuminated as a man murders another man. It really is an animalistic sense of violence to take someone’s life into your own hands, and dispose of it. Perhaps this contributed to the slew of violent acts following the war, though there was violence prior. One makes the assumption that white men took these instincts into consideration and asserted them on the black soldiers. The southern white feeling towards blacks had always been that they were lower than whites, that they were possibly less man, less human. What is less than human? Animal. Perhaps the white men developed the idea that the same masculine instincts brought out in themselves during the war had a far more impacting effect of the black men. This, they feared, would be the end of traditional southern whiteness.
When a severe beating is the reprimand for requesting a receipt, fear is at an all-time peak. (At Popeye’s, if the customer fails to receive a receipt, the meal is free!) On one hand, the two white men guilty of this disgusting portrayal of sheer dominance were prolonging the tradition of “respect” which blacks were required to show whites. This was the generation of grandkids and great-grandkids of the antebellum period, when black people were subservient to even Bozo Barrett, the six-year-old white boy who frequently took off running stark naked through the cotton fields shooting a cap gun. What a slap in the face to an established, honest black citizen. On the other hand, (sorry for keeping your hand there so long) this black tenant farmer simply asking for his water bill receipt is not reported to be out of line in the sentence citing such event. How shocking the circumstances under which he was emasculated: a citizen bothering to keep up with his own finances.
Let’s compare the two archetypes of men in this time: the black man and the white man. The black man, as shown in the instance of the receipt beating, is not reported for “back-talking” or issuing violence in any way. The black men featured in this writing are proud, docile, and silently strong, while the white men maintain the “aggressiveness” of their actions. The white man continuously exudes anger and unrest, committing erratic violent behavior. When a fourteen-year-old vivacious black boy appeared in Mississippi, and ultimately wound up viciously murdered, it became clear that white men had been shaken up by such an “unruly” person who confidently took on the qualities of what a white fourteen-year-old should possess, according to the white men.
Through this piece, the John Grisham novel A Time to Kill comes to mind, as Samuel L. Jackson’s character retreats to his primal need to protect his family, exclusively and most importantly, his little girl. The opposition is the group of white men portrayed as rednecks, belonging to the KKK, and treating the black people like varmints from the onset of the movie. In a profound example of dominance, Jackson’s character takes the law into his own hands after years and generations of knowing that justice would not be activated in such a horrible case. Throughout this article are several examples of white men eluding any sort of sentencing. In the novel, Jackson’s young white lawyer learns the value of male dominance, uniform to every race. As a result, he ultimately sees Jackson’s character as a father, a husband, a working man, a Christian man, and as a citizen, just as he sees himself.
The white men of the Mississippi Delta basically use the need to protect their women as a vehicle for outright racism. Most instances of violence in this piece stem from a simple talking to of a woman by a black man. After all, the white southern woman was one of the last remaining artifacts of the antebellum period, subservient, lovely, and merely a support system for any crazy moonshine-fueled idea her husband might concoct. (One might also speculate that men, in another attempt to be dominant, instinctively feel required to act on any such reporting of an encounter with a black man by his wife because he feels leaned upon, and what man doesn't like being the hero?)
This piece is a sad portrait of a time, and an even more horrifying glance of humanity and the necessity of men to feel like they have conquered something. To have territory is to have dominance, and to have dominance is to have the crown. Still, there are no kings in the Mississippi Delta.
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