Sex As Segregation In “Going To Meet The Man”
Taking place during the civil rights era of the southern United States, clashing racial sentiments are at their peak in James Baldwin’s “Going to Meet the Man”. As the protagonist, Jesse, sits in his bed unable to perform with his wife Grace, the chronology of how he got to this mental block beings to unfold. Tracing back this dark lineage arises a carnal and cynical desire to dominate, in all aspects, African Americans by white supremacists. Jesse utilizes sexualization as the ultimate means of masculinity in himself and oppression in African Americans.
The opening scene establishes the feelings of emasculation and weakness in contrast to his typical superior bravado. The immediate cause being his impotence with Grace, but by peeling back that initial layer there is far more mental turmoil present. He feels he cannot ask her to do certain things in bed because she is too pure; the white woman being the epitome of purity and fragility at the time. He then proceeds to fantasize about dominating a black woman- sexually and in a manner of elitism, claiming, “the image of a black girl caused a distant excitement in him… but instead of forcing him to act, it made action impossible.” When considering black people in a hypersexual position there is excitement on one hand for the ability to control them, but also distress as to the emasculation Jesse felt at work previously that day. After detaining a protester that was singing in front of a courthouse, Jesse was taken aback by his inability to stop the man from singing; this is the other cause of his impotence. Jesse not only felt emasculated by not being able to get hard, but by not being able to control this black man from singing. Had he not experienced this retaliation, it could be assumed he would not have had the problem with Grace because his earlier emasculation fed into his current one. This instance of challenging his superiority complex by the singer caused a mental switch in Jesse’s brain: emasculate the black man in custody.
The scene then morphs into a sexually charged encounter: Baldwin uses language such as, “lying on the ground jerking and moaning,” to illicit that dynamic. The opportunity laid at Jesse’s feet to return the feeling to the black man caused, “a particular excitement that refused to be released,” and led to him using his cattle prod to, “prod his testicles,” a physical act of trying to regain his power through the embodiment of manliness. This is the first chronological robbery of a black man’s manhood. By this action Jesse, “felt himself violently stiffen,” which though not an inherently sexual association, the connotation and the situation itself makes it assumed that the stiffening is an erection. Meaning Jesse prioritizes sex drive and control as the highlight of his power over the same people he feels emasculated by. However as this moment progresses, there is an allusion to the lynching later to come: “he felt very close to a very peculiar, particular joy; something deep in him and deep in his memory was stirred, but whatever it was the memory eluded him.” The seamless shift into Jesse’s recounting of the lynching truly cements the origin of sex and manhood being the criteria for superiority. When he is sitting in his bed and starts to remember the song before the lynching he, “felt an overwhelming fear, which yet contained a curious and dreadful pleasure,” that pleasure being the events done to the lynchee. Formerly to the lynching though, Jesse hears his parents having sex. Viewing his mom as the ideal woman who sets the standards for all others to live by, this action serves as a subconscious realization to the importance of sexual competency. Baldwin even continues the sexual diction as mentioned before when Jesse hears the, “dog yawning and moaning outside,” a parallel drawn to his parents inside. Once the family packs up and goes to the picnic, Jesse’s father comments towards his wife, “when that black man looks at you, he’s going to swear he throwed his life away for nothing,” almost promoting the idea that the only crime worth committing of a black man would be raping a white woman.
This perverse dichotomy of white people making emasculation of black people a spectacle while endorsing the mixture of white and black is odd. It could be a desire to punish on the behalf of the father, or an unintentional disclosure that deep down white people do regard black people as superior even if it’s just in the case of male physiology. Devoid of the actual performance during the lynching, the atmosphere is stuck on the desperate clinging to elitism by white racists. Despite Jesse being uncomfortable and scared by the events, he begins to rationalize it as a necessary lesson. Primarily regarding the physicality of the man, Jesse quickly picks up on the sexuality in the actions- wishing he, “had been that man,” holding the knife about to castrate the, “African jungle cat.” The knife being almost like a phallic object in itself, yet the primary difference between the knife of the white man and the penis of the black man is the white man must exert violence to feel superior. The events are as followed: “He took the black man’s privates in his hand, one hand, still smiling, as though he were weighing them. In the cradle of the one white hand, the black man’s private seemed as remote as meat being weighed in the scales; but seemed heavier, too, much heavier, and Jesse felt his scrotum tighten; and huge, huge, huge, much bigger than his father’s, flaccid, hairless, the largest thing he had ever seen till then, and the blackest,” This is why the castration is so symbolic: by removing the black man’s masculinity, the white men can now impose their own. Even Jesse recognizes this importance when he feels his own manhood harden. They cannot maintain and uphold their dominance without first caricaturizing the black mans. The acknowledgement that his father does not even compare is a premise for the subconscious need to always be on top- without making a spectacle of this robbery, white men would be inferior.
The story ends with Jesse recalling all of these events and becoming aroused, almost primal, telling his wife that he wishes to, “do her like a black person,” exercising complete control which he felt he couldn’t before. As he thought of the morning coming, “he labored harder than he ever had before,” trying desperately to cement his manhood and elitism as a white man. The last image being the sound of tires approaching his house.
A representation of the fact that he has always known: eventually African Americans will catch up, and his crippling fear of being inferior, or even equal to, will become a reality. An idea that has been a subconscious element throughout the story to every male character. The efforts made to belittle and dehumanize are no longer going to save him. With civil rights rapidly gaining momentum and the car coming up to his house, he realizes his time on top may finally be coming to an end. Much like the man in the cell, African American’s refuse to stop singing. The lynching being the first event in his life leading up to the moment of Jesse and Grace in bed shows the chronology of where the need to exert power sexually came from, despite being the last major event in the narrative. Jesse equates sex with the assertion of power and masculinity over his African American victims. By robbing the lynched man of his identity in every aspect, leaving him as a literal unrecognizable black blob, Jesse and other white supremacists fortify their savior complex while solidifying their own power in the robbery of someone else’s.
