Moby Dick - Bonus Episode - On Racism and Language

Ken Reads the Classics - bonus episode - regarding race and language Hello loyal listeners, First, I want to say thank you for listening.  I really appreciate it.  Please tell your family, friends, and neighbors about the podcast and leave a review, if you are so inclined.  Reviews help others to discover this podcast. Now, I need to say something about racism and the language Melville uses in Moby Dick. I also should qualify my remarks because I have not finished the entire book yet.  As of today’s date - 22 June 2020, I have only read up to chapter 42; so if more racist language appears in later chapters, I may have to address the issue then. Regarding racism: Melville certainly buys into the white supremacy of day as clearly depicted in Chapter 42 and others.  The entire chapter is dedicated to the color white and all its meanings and portentions.  However, in the same chapter in which he discusses the supposed purity and superiority of the color white; Melville also mentions the evilness and darkness associated with the color.  It is the whiteness of the whale that vexes him more so than any other aspect of the great fish. Melville also portrays characters of color such as Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo, as the most confident, most serene, most “normal” people on the ship. At the same time the White, Anglo-Saxon, Male, Protestant characters have major character defects.  Ahab is the most obvious of these characters with his obsession to kill Moby Dick but others in the book also have deranged components of their beings well.  We haven’t met them yet but we will soon and they will flaunt their flaws in gallant fashion. Unfortunately, Melville uses language to describe and address people of color which was offensive then - but in common use; and offensive now - and thankfully, not in common use today. I am personally uncomfortable reading these words but they are in the book and I cannot ignore them nor do I wish to re-write Melville’s classic novel. Instead, I choose to accept it as it is and hopefully we can use this as a way to understand where we were regarding race and language and social norms; then learn how far we’ve come and also how far we need to go to achieve racial justice and equality. Thank you again for listening. I hope you continue to enjoy my reading of Moby Dick.