Was Melville’s Ishmael, dare I say, black?

[Anonymous No.21632839]

>Carlyle Van Thompson, a professor of African American and American literature at Medgar Evers College, argues that Fitzgerald “guilefully characterizes Jay Gatsby as a ‘pale’ Black individual who passes for white.” I read this sentence twice, feeling like I had finally been granted license to enter the novel, to see myself in it, to make my way through the prose and develop my own interpretations.

> In America, we are taught that canonical literature foregrounds the experiences of white people. Rarely do we question the racial identities of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s characters, or Herman Melville’s, or Willa Cather’s. If the race of an American character is not specified, we assume the character is white.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/03/great-gatsby-book-fitzgerald-race-interpretation/672778/?

[Anonymous No.21632876]

future societies will be baffled on our obsession with race. it's almost creepy?

[Anonymous No.21632897]

>>21632876
Biologists over here like guys race isn't even real, the entire homo sapien species' identical ancestor point is only a couple thousand years ago max. We're more of a giant inbred family than an actual genetically diverse species.

Racism and ethnic distinctions are a psyop by the money-men to keep the lower classes infighting and distracted so they can keep looting us. They only killed Malcolm X once he started trying move beyomd black liberation to unite all the poor and disenfranchised and oppressed (which is the majority).

[Anonymous No.21632925]

>>21632839
Gatsby was an abbo. That's why he didn't fit in.

[Anonymous No.21632970]

>>21632876
>future societies will be baffled on our obsession with race

"The earth may have exploded, but at least we weren't racist"

[Anonymous No.21633178]

>>21632897
>Biologists over here like guys race isn't even real,
Race isn't real, but white people bad.

[Anonymous No.21633196]

>new way
>race

Why are people like this?

[Anonymous No.21633214]

>>21632897
>Biologists over here like guys race isn't even real

Yeah, but they aren't being truthful, it's about saving face. DNA companies have been able to predict someone's race since the 90s and they can even now create an approximate image profile of someone merely through their DNA.

However, race obsession REALLY needs to go away; and that is especially the case for those championing racial inclusion, ironically enough.

[Anonymous No.21633228]

>>21632839
>If the race of an American character is not specified, we assume the character is white.
Umm....yes. especially in pre ww2 literature.
This isn't a new revelation.