Kruse's Keys: Read "James" to Hear Jim's Perspective on the those Hucklberry Finn Adventures

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Percival Everett's novel, "James," is an incredibly imaginative retelling of Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" that boldly centers the narrative on the character of Jim. More than just a new perspective, it's a searing indictment of the institution of slavery and a powerful reminder of the terror of everyday life for enslaved people. Through Jim's narrative, the reader is forced to confront evil in all its iterations.

One of the most striking, and chillingly humorous, aspects of the novel involves Jim's "language lessons." He teaches the children "slave speak" because, as he explains, "white folks expect us to sound a certain way and it can only help if we don't disappoint them." He reviews the overarching principles with the kids:

• No eye contact

• Never speak first

• Always let whites name the trouble

• Give whites the opportunity to correct you

While much of Jim’s internal dialogue is tongue-in-cheek, it's also a deadly serious survival and coping strategy. These lessons are designed to prevent the slightest external slip of the tongue, which could easily lead to painful death or torture. This ever-present danger brings a profound seriousness to the "adventure" upon which Jim embarks—which, spoiler alert, is more of a harrowing marathon for freedom.

While Jim is the principal character, the novel retains much of Twain's stinging satire. Jim often depends on the young white child (i.e., Tom Sawyer) for his very survival at several junctures, precisely because no one would ever believe a Black man would be out on his own during that period. Yet, it is Jim’s heart—for Tom and, more importantly, for the family he leaves behind—that truly shines. He grapples with the lunacy of the system into which he is born without losing faith in himself or hope for the seemingly impossible.

For an author as prolific as Percival Everett, "James" feels like a magnum opus of sorts—perhaps even a catharsis. If not a total cleansing of the soul, then at least an unburdening of the anger, outrage, and generational injustice that he would argue make up the Black experience in America. His acknowledgments section sums it up best, adapting a well-known Twain quote: "Heaven for the climate; hell for my long-awaited lunch with Mark Twain."

Key Quotes:

Quotes: 

23 'Religion is just a controlling tool they employ and adhere to when convenient." 

23 'the better [whites] feel, the safer we are.

27 Judge rules he can't indict on a slave burned to death b/c it was a mob that

did it... 

35 "But where does a slave put anger?... the real source of our rage had to go without address"

Kruse's Keys: Read "Caste" to Consider America's Origins and the Vestiges of a Caste System

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I’m embarrassed to say that I came late to Isabel Wilkerson’s rich writing and extensive research—first reading her seminal 2010 The Warmth of Other Suns in 2017.

In my review, I called *Warmth* mandatory reading for every American because, before it, “there had never been a definitive and comprehensive analysis (at least in the ethnographic sense) of these waves of migration that began following the Reconstruction era as Jim Crow set in.”

Wilkerson's book is particularly relevant because of the short historical space between 2017 and the enslavement (through legal or socio-economic means) of a race of people. 

In *Warmth*, Wilkerson presented a gift to Americans—she captured a fundamental piece of our history that previously only existed buried in the margins of dusty newspapers and the crumbling, fading memories of aging octogenarians.  

By weaving the personal with the historical, she brought to life the brave flight of millions who sought a better life only to find roadblocks—yet fought on, hoping to give their children and grandchildren a better chance, or at the very least, the chance to bloom.

This brings us to her follow-on deep dive into the soiled roots of America’s origins dating from the failed Reconstruction era: her 2020 (and 2023 updated) *Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents*.

Unfortunately, parts of this book read more like a Ph.D. thesis (with some distracting near non sequiturs—such as a chapter comparing wolf pack behavior [“Alpha dog”] to the racism/caste system) than the non-fiction masterpiece that *Warmth* was.  

It does still, however, pack a jarring gut-punch, as she makes a strong case that, “In America, race is the primary tool and the visible decoy, the front man, for caste… caste is the bone, race the skin.”

In other words, race is what is seen (and heard, and felt), but caste is the malevolent, artificial gravity that holds each group in its place—in places like America and India.

In laying out some of the history and the way caste is embedded into the very psyche of Indian society, she makes the case that the same caste system is embedded into American society even today—but in a way that is harder to see and sense by the dominant white caste.

Because caste is not personal but is instead the “worn grooves of comforting routines and unthinking expectations,” it means that if you’re in the dominant caste, you’re less likely to notice things that fit squarely in your comfort zone—those worn grooves.

She also argues that it’s the lowest economic and social rung of whites that have needed the caste system the most, as it enables them to have an outgroup to look down upon.

The book is at its most powerful in her research on how the Nazi party and government studied the caste system in the United States and sought to emulate it in its systemic subjugation and extermination of the Jewish population.

Most shameful (for the United States), though, is her keen observation that in post-WWII Germany you don’t find echoes, monuments, or memorialization of Nazi heritage.

You don’t have monuments to Rommel or colleges and highways named after Hitler.

This distinction is striking and worth considering as Confederate relics still remain in the U.S., despite recent shifting political winds.

Ultimately, even an unconvinced reader must acknowledge the troubled history and origins that Wilkerson lays out.

And while an outright caste system may no longer remain in the United States, vestiges of it still echo today across the spectrum of the Black experience as an American—from health challenges to the stories told to children about how to survive each day.

(For more on this, read Coates’s “Between the World and Me-his letter to his son”--my review is here)

Key Quotes:

17, 19 Caste defined: “artificial construction, a fixed and embedded ranking of human value that sets the presumed supremacy of one group against the presumed inferiority of other groups  on the basis of ancestry and often immutable traits, traits that would be neutral in the abstract but ascribed life and death meaning in a hierarchy favoring the dominant caste whose forebears designed it.”  Keeping groups of people separate and in a hierarchy. 

18 Thesis: “In America, race is the primary tool and the visible decoy, the front man, for caste.”  “caste is the bone, race the skin”  Race is what is seen but caste is the malevolent artificial gravity that holds each group in its place.

22 “Yes, I am untouchable, and every Negro in the United States of America is an  Untouchable.” Martin Luther King after his trip to Italy

25 caste vs. race–1942 race problem is really a caste system with its associated problems

44 SECNAV Pauling.  Expressed horror at the system of slavery in pre civil war America in the 1940s

47-8 slavery heritage.  

49 how to be white–immigrants from America only took on a white identity when they came to American

53 Only black in America.  The african identity is not “black”--they are tribes.  This observation does ignore teheway various tribes fought and looked down on each other: i.e. Tutis vs. Hutus.

70 Caste vs. racism. Caste is not personal but is instead the “worn grooves of 

comforting routines and unthinking expectations”  Caste is the structure, racism is the actions of hatred and harm.

76–77
Caste is reinforced by belief in reincarnation—making it more culturally accepted.

80–82
Disturbingly, there's evidence that the Nazis studied the caste/racist system and sought to emulate its "strengths."

109
"Endogamy," the third pillar of caste: you can only marry people in the same caste. 41 out of 50 states made intermarriage a crime.

111
Alabama didn’t repeal that law until 2000!

114
Death of Willie James in 1943 was never prosecuted—he was murdered.

117
SAD. In the South, Blacks had to use a different Bible than whites.

121
Only the U.S. created a "racial absolutist" system where one drop tainted you.

124
In the 1920s, Italians didn’t meet the definition of “white.”

127
Japanese weren’t viewed as white either—the U.S. caste system embraced illogic to keep its upper caste in power.

141
In creating the “out-group,” the upper caste didn’t dehumanize exclusively—instead the entire group bore the stigma. Much more effective as a control mechanism.

155
From 1900 to 1940, there was a lynching every 3–4 days!

181
Working-class whites need caste the most—so they aren’t on the bottom rung.

201–207
"Alpha Dog" chapter—bizarre.

209
Black reality: to seek to prolong their child’s innocence as long as possible while still protecting him.

212
Quote: “Modern-day caste protocols are like the wind—powerful enough to knock you down but invisible as they go about their work.”

223
Quote: “This was the thievery of caste, stealing the time and psychic resources of the marginalized, draining energy in an already uphill competition.”

226
Private Burton Holmes (WWI) showed bravery against the Germans. White officers nominated him for the Medal of Honor along with Freddie Stoners, but U.S. Army HQ refused. (French military was aghast at American racism.)

236
Post Brown vs. Board of Education, one Virginia city shut down its own school system for 5 years rather than integrate.

287
Heartbreaking story of Devan Hart (adopted by two white women), who was abused by them. They were never prosecuted, and in 2018 drove off a cliff, killing themselves and their adopted kids.

304
Blames caste for killing people through health problems—American food is most likely to blame.

306
Middle-class Blacks are more likely to have high blood pressure than those with lower incomes—this is crazy! Discrimination actually causes the growth of a subcutaneous fat layer.

316
Mitch McConnell’s drive to make Obama a one-term president is blamed on the caste system—but another interpretation ignores ideological concerns.

345–347
There was no shame in the Confederate South vs. post-WWII Germany.

• Confederate president got to live out his life on his plantation.
  
  

• Colleges named after Robert E. Lee.
  
  

• Germany has no Nazi memorials—for good reason.
  
  

This is a great point—and a point of shame for the United States.

386
Radical empathy: “Kindred connection from a place of deep knowledge that opens your spirit to the pain of another as they perceive it.”

Kruse's Keys: Read "Between the World and Me" to See the Intersection of the American Dream and the Black Body

I first became aware of Ta-Nehisi Coates when someone posted an excerpt from one of his Atlantic articles in which he talks about “guardrails” in marriage. Coates is a secular-atheist so there’s lots I don’t agree with him on but there was some real wisdom in his article:

“I've been with my spouse for almost 15 years. In those years, I’ve never been with anyone but the mother of my son. But that's not because I am an especially good and true person. In fact, I am wholly in possession of an unimaginably filthy and mongrel mind. But I am also a dude who believes in guard-rails, as a buddy of mine once put it. I don't believe in getting "in the moment" and then exercising will-power. I believe in avoiding "the moment." I believe in being absolutely clear with myself about why I am having a second drink, and why I am not; why I am going to a party, and why I am not. I believe that the battle is lost at Happy Hour, not at the hotel. I am not a "good man." But I am prepared to be an honorable one.”

When I came across his memoir “Between the World and Me” I decided to give it a try. I realize that Coates is a controversial writer (for a lot of white people) and I may not agree with everything he writes but none of us got any wiser by reading only those with whom we agree.

“Between the World and Me” is a love letter from a father to a son written with the urgency of a man who knows he may perish at any moment. Coates writes beautifully as he recalls his youth and experiences as a father. His memoir reflects serious inner self-examination as he seeks to create a blueprint for his son to survive and possibly even thrive in a world that Coates argues is stacked against him from a historical, institutional, and psycho cultural perspective.

As Coates warns his son to keep his guard up, he adds, “Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free.” This observation reminded me of Isabel Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns” which I wrote about it here. That book on the great northward migration of blacks from the Jim Crow south points out that 77 years ago killing blacks was not a crime in ⅓ of the United States. Both observations point to a corporate (but also deeply personal) memory that white people just don’t have and that I never thought about it prior to reading these books. But it puts much of what Coates in perspective and should give the reader pause in considering the author’s hypothesis that the system created by the “dreamers” (all the white people that benefit from an American society designed to make their lives better and easier, exclusively) has always sought the disembodiment of the black body. He adds: “Disembodiment is a kind of terrorism, and the threat of it alters the orbit of all our lives and, like terrorism, this distortion is intentional.”

While his hypothesis is one which inspires much heated debate--his writing is strongest as he make personal the stories of murdered black youths, in particular, that of his Howard classmate Prince Jones: “Think of all the love poured into him. Think of the tuitions for Montessori and music lessons. Think of the gasoline expended, the treads worn carting him to football games, basketball tournaments, and Little League. Think of the time spent regulating sleepovers. Think of the surprise birthday parties, the daycare, and the reference checks on babysitters. Think of World Book and Childcraft. Think of checks written for family photos. Think of credit cards charged for vacations. Think of soccer balls, science kits, chemistry sets, racetracks, and model trains. Think of all the embraces, all the private jokes, customs, greetings, names, dreams, all the shared knowledge and capacity of a black family injected into that vessel of flesh and bone. And think of how that vessel was taken, shattered on the concrete, and all its holy contents, all that had gone into him, sent flowing back to the earth. Think of your mother, who had no father. And your grandmother, who was abandoned by her father. And your grandfather, who was left behind by his father. And think of how Prince's daughter was now drafted into those solemn ranks and deprived of her birthright — that vessel which was her father, which brimmed with twenty-five years of love and was the investment of her grandparents and was to be her legacy.”

Overall, though, Coates' atheist outlook makes much of his advice ring rather bleak.  He talks of hope in such limiting terms--instead valuing "struggle" since there's nothing beyond this life.  That's my personal take as a Christian, of course, and I would add that Coates doesn't belittle those with faith in his writing but in his strident atheist stance one can't help but get the idea that he actually is searching...for something or someone.  

See our 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 Reading Lists.
Related Reading:



Key Quotes:

11 “And I didn’t comfort you, because I thought it would be wrong to comfort you. I did not tell you that it would be okay, because I have never believed it would be okay.” Coates on why he did not console his son’s heartbreak after Michael Browns killers were acquitted.

51 “Poetry was the processing of my thoughts until the slag of justification fell away and I was left with the cold steel truths of life.” Coates on his discovery of poetry as a distiller of one’s beliefs and truths.

61 “But this girl with the long dreads revealed something else--that love can be soft and understanding; that, soft or hard, love was an act of heroism.” Coates on love as first discovered at Howard70 “Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free.” Coates’ observation on black history.

71 “These are the preferences of the universe itself: verbs over nouns, actions over states, struggle over hope.” Coates outlook on life in which he states is not to be confused with despair.

81-2 “Think of all the love poured into him. Think of the tuitions for Montessori and music lessons. Think of the gasoline expended, the treads worn carting him to football games, basketball tournaments, and Little League. Think of the time spent regulating sleepovers. Think of the surprise birthday parties, the daycare, and the reference checks on babysitters. Think of World Book and Childcraft. Think of checks written for family photos. Think of credit cards charged for vacations. Think of soccer balls, science kits, chemistry sets, racetracks, and model trains. Think of all the embraces, all the private jokes, customs, greetings, names, dreams, all the shared knowledge and capacity of a black family injected into that vessel of flesh and bone. And think of how that vessel was taken, shattered on the concrete, and all its holy contents, all that had gone into him, sent flowing back to the earth. Think of your mother, who had no father. And your grandmother, who was abandoned by her father. And your grandfather, who was left behind by his father. And think of how Prince's daughter was now drafted into those solemn ranks and deprived of her birthright — that vessel which was her father, which brimmed with twenty-five years of love and was the investment of her grandparents and was to be her legacy.” Coates grappling with the death of Prince Jones. This is a powerful personalized reflection on death that rescues it from being a mere headline.

97 “I am ashamed that I made an error, knowing that our errors always costs us more.” Coates on his reaction to an older white woman who pushed his son.

113 “You exist. You matter. You have value. You have every right to wear a hoodie, to play your music as loud as you want. You have every right to be you. And no one should deter you from being you. You have to be you. And you can never be afraid to be you.” Admonition from a murdered black boy’s mother to Coates’ son.

114 “Disembodiment is a kind of terrorism, and the threat of it alters the orbit of all our lives and, like terrorism, this distortion is intentional.” Coates on the persistent threat to the “body” of black men and women.

125 “How much I would have loved to have a past apart from fear. I did not have that past in hand or memory. But I had you.” Coates’ revelation upon visiting Paris and seeing another reality.

127 “Do you remember how your eyes lit up like candles when we stood out on Saint-Germain-des-Pres? That look was all that I lived for.” Beautiful writing from Coates as he remembers he and his son together in Paris.

131 “Should assaulting an officer of the state be a capital offense, rendered without trial, with the officer as judge and executioner?” Coates on the unanswered, unaddressed questions following Michael Brown’s death.

Key Takeaways:

29 Coates speaking of writing as not merely organizing sentences for effect but as a means of investigation.

36 Coates speaks to Malcolm’s appeal. For the white outsider this is a great distillation of his movement and philosophy--”Malcolm never lied…[he] spoke like a man who was free.”

69 The idea of the the black body and Coates’ admonition that his son must guard his body as a sacred object--never giving it away willingly.

90 Any guidance to be “twice as good” really means to accept half as much as steals away ones self-worth.


110 The successful retired black couples are to be lauded but must also be acknowledged as survivors against the backdrop of countless others who didn’t make it.

110 Coates drafts a great takedown of the notion of “black on black crime”. He argues that the term itself is a product of the “dreamers” who are basically people “who believes themselves white” and benefit from the institutional and societal construct of the US. I believe it’s also a critique of the notion of the American dream as understood by most whites.

125 In his time in another country Coates yearns for a “past apart from fear”, that is, memories associated with freedom.

For Further Study

45 “Destruction of Black Civilization” by Chancellor William

106 Thavolia Glymph