I have Facebook friends who are friends of Matt Bracken, some who think very highly of him, and I wondered if I was wrong about my impression, after reading Castigo Cay, that "wow, this guy spins a good yarn but what a racist." so I googled and found that a guy who calls himself "Janklow" thought the same thing, and, like me, couldn't back it up. so I skimmed the book again. I may have missed something, but the only somewhat good reference to a black in the book was of the Jamaican guy selling bootleg gasoline. the only other reference I found (yes, it was a quick re-scan so I might have missed something) was the mob on Oakland Park Boulevard. none of the book's protagonists were black. none of the really "good" or really "evil" people were black. it's as if they don't exist in Matt Bracken's world except as a seething mass of discontent. his little treatise on the CW2 Cube does little to dispel that idea.
if you're reading this, Matt, I would love to hear how your black friends all read your book and told you it was just super. but if that's not the case, maybe you ought to ask yourself why.
for the record, I'm a racist too. but I know that, it bothers me, and I am trying through education and outreach to cure myself. it's a long, slow process, and I might never achieve full victory over it in my limited time on earth, but I intend to keep at it.
last updated 2015-06-07 23:32:28. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com