Macon Is A Gray-Area Character

            Throughout the semester we’ve talked several times about questionable heroes and antiheroes (Anse in particular comes to mind) and while they’ve been interesting discussions, I usually had a pretty set opinion on the character – I stand by the fact that Anse was a terrible person who wrongfully screwed over his children. However, as we read Angry Black White Boy, I struggled to place Macon into a clean category in my brain, whether I liked him or not, whether I agreed with him or not. Since I like to be able to fit characters into black and white categories in my brain, this was something that I went back and forth on throughout the book.

            Of course, my liberal and activist background of growing up in Urbana, going to Uni, and the general social and political climate of today made me want to agree with Macon. Many of the points that he made were good and common in today’s political climate. He was well educated on the issues that black people in America face and wanted to do something about it. One of his points that really stood out to me was when he was on the phone with Joe during his first radio interview and he points out that whiteness is invisible and that white people aren’t aware of race when it comes to other white people the way that they are when it comes to people of color. This was one of the few moments in the book where I strongly felt that yes, I could stand behind what Macon was saying and he was saying it in a polite way that I didn’t feel a little bit gross about the way he went about getting his point across.

            However, at first, I was just a little hesitant because I was unsure of where he was going with his positions and what his end goal was. The beginning of the book could easily lead a reader into a concern of Macon appropriating black culture. As the book goes on, this doesn’t necessarily clear up. His education about black history and culture makes it clear that he’s not just trying to be black to “be hip” as many celebrities do today, but at the same time, he is a little when he expresses his desires to be recognized among the black community. We don’t see Macon doing blackface or trying to wear dreads or a typically black hairstyle as many public figures today have been guilty of. Yet, he does try to step in often in places where he normally shouldn’t. A good example of this is when he went to the Black Student Union meeting. This to me, was where Macon finally went a little over the line between using his privilege to help lift up the voices of black people versus talking over the voices of black people.

            While I am brushing over the aspect of Macon’s crime, of course I don’t condone crime as a way of activism. Without taking into account his criminal activity, I still would have been on the fence about my feelings towards Macon simply based upon the things that he says and thinks and the way that he says and thinks them. His awareness of racial issues in the US is commendable and I agree with him that it’s a problem that should be addressed (both during the time when the book was written and today), but sometimes his brash way of approaching the issues put me off just enough to make me reconsider whether I really thought he was doing the right thing and whether I thought he was the right person to be carrying this message and bringing the issue to the attention of the white general public. Much to my frustration, I still haven’t come to a conclusion on what perfect box I can fit Macon into in my brain, but I think that is the nature of this book and Macon’s character and was one of the things that was so interesting to me about this book.