Tom Buchanan

24 January 2018: "Have you read The Rise of the Colored Empires by this man Goddard? ... Well, it's a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we don't look out the white race will be -- will be utterly submerged. It's all scientific stuff; it's been proved." --Tom Buchanan, in The Great Gatsby

We read The Great Gatsby every semester in my ENGL 301 class and I never get tired talking about Tom Buchanan. He's an awful, despicable, deplorable character, but so well-drawn. The "cruel body," the peaking-at-21, the yearning for a lost football game. I say to students, "You know someone like Tom Buchanan," and they nod their heads. He's a villain, but what a villain. (I do think there is a moment late in the book--in the scene where everything comes out in the open--that I do feel a twinge of pity for him, but that's another post, maybe...) The quotation above, in which he reveals his racist anxiety, is so important for understanding how white, male privilege responds when even the hint of a threat emerges.

Just like yesterday, students didn't need me to do anything for them to see Tom Buchanan's (and the damage they can do/are doing) everywhere today. So far, a good week for validating my career choices.