For a moment I stood before a shop window staring at my own reflection in the glass, trying to recover from the ride against the woman. I was limp, my clothing wet. “But you’re up North now,” I told myself, “up North.” Yes, but suppose she had screamed… The next time I used the subway I’d always be sure to enter with my hands grasping my lapels and I’d keep them there until I left the train. Why, my God, they must have riots on those things all the time. Why hadn’t I read about them?
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man. New York: Modern Library (1994, first published in 1952)
There aren’t many obvious lynchings, riots, and other violence based on “wrong” behaviour" by Black men towards white women anymore. However, Black men today still need to learn certain precautionary behaviors in order to survive in public. I can highly recommend these podcasts from TWIB’s Historical Blackness for a further discussion how white woman fear is still a factor.
Thoughts?