Artie is the head of the band that Billie has joined in this chapter. He sticks up for Billie because she’s black and is mistreated almost everywhere they go. He has his own his problems, but he doesn’t bother the others with them, and Billie respects that he has his own moods.
Most of the characters in this chapter are people they met while they were going around the United States trying to find gigs for them to be in. Most of the “white cats”, as Billie calls them, in the band respect Billie, and would stick up for her when needed. However, there was this other vocalist who didn’t like her because she was black and that vocalist thought she was being discriminated against.
“I’m the girl who went West in 1937 with sixteen white cats, Artie Shaw and his Rolls-Royce – and the hills were full of white crackers.”
I feel that this sums up the chapter because it was basically talking about her time with Artie Shaw and the band. When she was traveling with them, she met all kinds of people, white crackers she called them. They were people who didn’t like Negroes; they would call her names, wouldn’t allow her to stay in a hotel, or would tell her to go through the back door. At this time, racism is still a huge problem, and while traveling to the South, where racism is most prominent at this time, it became a huge problem for her. What hit her the hardest, however, was when she reached New York, her home town. She said that she liked it better when the people in the South would just tell her up front that they didn’t like her because of her skin color. However, in New York, they backstabbed her, and slowly made her go off air. In the end, she just fired herself though.
My question is, have you ever suffered racism in your life? If so, how have you dealt with it, and did you have friends there to help you through it? How does it feel to suffer racism? I myself know exactly how it feels, and I must say, it’s horrible.
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Rascism impacts everyone a little differently, for me it was as though I did not want to be alive during the acutal event. It was as though my dignity was being stripped form my body. No man, woman, or child should ever have to deal with these types of events.
ReplyDeleteRacism is the idea of one group of people feeling superior to another. It is wrong and unhealthy. This belief does not value the individual, which is vital for success in this world. It is an unfortunate fact of life and can potentially put people in danger. Yes, I have suffered racism, and it was not fun. It puts you in a very vulnerable and powerless position, which is a horrible way to feel.
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