Brotherhood's impact on Harlem

The Brotherhood’s racism is shown even in first few scenes featuring it, with Jack angrily commenting on how race is all that, he insinuates, black people, ever talk about. Without giving us time to breathe, another scene comes up, showing the crowd of Brotherhood members’ reaction to a tipsy man asking that the narrator sing for him and yelling racial stereotypes at him as other members lead him out of the room and try to quiet him. Moving past the fact that an openly racist member is in the organization at all, the main concern of everyone else in the room is shutting down the man and hiding his words from the narrator, rather than the fact that a member is racist. They simultaneously react in an extremely awkward and unproductive manner, while also trying to assure the narrator that this is a small insignificant case not worth any worry and that some members just aren’t quite caught up. A woman comes up to him, basically saying that she agrees with the drunk man’s opinions but explains that she, in contrast to him, knows it’s not socially acceptable to say them out loud.

This scene almost seems like an instance of the Brotherhood being very against racism, yet not quite knowing how to deal with it. As we learn more, however, it becomes apparent that they are not concerned with racism at all. Based on their focus on erasing differences and individuality between members, as well as willingness to assign the narrator to the Woman Question, a field completely outside of his interest and experience, they do not care about any societal issues, but rather, of course, gaining followers. The narrator was hired not because he could offer something to the Brotherhood in terms of experience or ideas, nor because he could help the black community in Harlem, but because he was a dynamic speaker who would gain them black supporters.

This possibility is confirmed as we keep reading. Wrestrum gets incredibly uncomfortable and angry at the chain link lying on the narrator’s desk. Not only does the chain make sense as a symbol for a social progress organization to appreciate the importance of and keep around, but for the narrator specifically as a speaker on black issues and someone working on uplifting the black community in Harlem to have. And, in the end, even outside of its political, cultural, and historical significance, the chain is in fact a personal item of the narrator’s. However, Wrestrum’s reaction is to demand that the narrator remove it and claims that it sows separation in the Brotherhood. So, rather than admiring the significance and message behind the object, Wrestrum, as a representative here of Brotherhood values, prefers uniformity and devotion to the Brotherhood over individual experiences and motivations and takes away that expression of identity and values away from the narrator.

The narrator is then transferred out of his very successful position in Harlem… because he was gaining the attention and loyalty of too many people. Again the Brotherhood chooses devotion to their cause over actual positive changes – and it’s clear that the narrator was having an impact, based on the disorder he comes back to after a few weeks gone. The Brotherhood looked at clear improvement in jobs and community growth and rather than celebrate the apparent goal of their organization, they shut the progress down.

I know we’ve discussed the faults of the Brotherhood to death already in class, but I did find it interesting that the Brotherhood is not only neutral, uncaring, or unhelpful in terms of race, but is actively destructive towards the black people they claim to help.