Benji's Post Blackness Julius Maingi Muthusi College

In Colson Whitehead’s Sag Harbor, Benji is an embodiment of a changing definition of blackness despite his father’s attempt to orient his son to a desirable blackness. Thus I contend that racial socialization for privileged black boys does not guarantee a constant black identity, fostering an individualized notion of blackness.

Violence as a means self-protection does not always transform black boys own their black identities. Benji’s father uses violence to train his son on racial self-protection while Benji believes “the lesson was, Don’t be afraid of being hit, but over the years I [Benji] took it as, No one can hurt you more than I [Benji’s father] can” (164). “Lesson” is a piece of instruction meant to teach someone how to interpret and respond to something. It refers to the slap that Benji receives from his father as instructive of Benji’s blackness in response to a racist behavior. The words “No one” and “more than” function as part of an idiomatic expression emphasizing the greatness of the effects of someone/something compared to another. In this case, it emphasizes the hurt that Benji’s father can cause on his son and not the one that is external to the family/race. The idiomatic expression implies that Benji has...