If He Hollers Let Him Go: A Novel (Himes, Chester)
Chester Himes
Language: English
Pages: 224
ISBN: 1560254459
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings: Poems, Tales, Essays, and Reviews
Further Tales of the City (Tales of the City, Book 3)
flattening against my teeth. I began to cry. Not openly. But all down inside. Two white soldiers and a white chick came in, looked about hesitantly, then went back and sat at a table near the juke box and ordered beer. Every eye in the room was on them. The soldiers were ordinary boys, didn’t look too bright; but the girl was strictly an Arkansas slick chick, a rife, loose, teenage fluff, with a broad face and small eyes and a hard mouth and straggly uncombed hair, dressed in a dirty white
never been farther than grammar school. ‘Nobody but a white tramp would marry a nigger!’ she shouted, almost hitting me in the mouth with her gesticulations. ‘And nobody but a nigger tramp would have ’em. I was at a party in Chicago and saw one of our supposed-to-be leading Negro actors sitting up there making love to some white tramp’s eyebrows.’ I laughed out loud. ‘To her eyebrows?’ I said. ‘Now I’d like to see that.’ Polly and Arline were exchanging strange looks, as if to say, ‘Where did
a white guy take my girl out on a date. I wouldn’t have minded so much if he had been the sharpest, richest, most important coloured guy in the world; I’d have still felt I could compete. But a white guy had his colour – I couldn’t compete with that. It was all up to the chick – if she liked white, I didn’t have a chance; if she didn’t, I didn’t have anything to worry about. But I’d have to know, and I didn’t know about Alice. At first the brandy made me hate her with a blue violence. I wanted
impulsively. I felt myself frowning. ‘I don’t know of any place in the city we can go now. The place in Watts is closed for the duration and you know how most of these other places are – they don’t even want us to park and watch.’ She didn’t answer right away and I wondered for a moment if she’d been riding at the white places. Then I thought about her going out with Leighton the night before, and while it didn’t exactly bother me, I had to say something about it. ‘Did you have a nice time
job,’ he went on. ‘They wanted you to set an example for other Negro employees, to open the way for those with more than average skill. I, personally, am anxious that Negroes make a good record in industry, and it is indeed regrettable, I assure you, to learn that you are not to be trusted to work alongside white women employees. ‘That is all I have to say to you,’ he concluded, rising. ‘But I hope, seriously, that you will think about it.’ He had to say all that, I thought, just to cover up
