Malcolm Gladwell has an interesting piece in The New Yorker on the limits of Southern liberalism in the mid-20th century, focusing on how supposed liberals like Gov. "Big Jim" Folsom (D-AL) and fictional lawyer Atticus Finch were more willing than is usually discussed to twist the laws of the time in ways to uphold long-standing prejudices. A taste of his argument:
Posted by armand at August 9, 2009 11:48 AM | TrackBack | Posted to BooksFinch will stand up to racists. He'll use his moral authority to shame them into silence. He will leave the judge standing on the sidewalk while he shakes hands with Negroes. What he will not do is look at the problem of racism outside the immediate context of Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Levy, and the island community of Maycomb, Alabama.
Folsom was the same way. He knew the frailties of his fellow - Alabamians when it came to race. But he could not grasp that those frailties were more than personal - that racism had a structural dimension. After he was elected governor a second time, in 1955, Folsom organized the first inaugural ball for blacks in Alabama’s history. That's a very nice gesture. Yet it doesn't undermine segregation to give Negroes their own party. It makes it more palatable ...
We are back in the embrace of Folsomism. Finch wants his white, male jurors to do the right thing. But as a good Jim Crow liberal he dare not challenge the foundations of their privilege. Instead, Finch does what lawyers for black men did in those days. He encourages them to swap one of their prejudices for another ...
"Scout," Finch says to his daughter, after he and Sheriff Tate have cut their little side deal. "Mr. Ewell fell on his knife. Can you possibly understand?" Understand what? That her father and the Sheriff have decided to obstruct justice in the name of saving their beloved neighbor the burden of angel-food cake? Atticus Finch is faced with jurors who have one set of standards for white people like the Ewells and another set for black folk like Tom Robinson. His response is to adopt one set of standards for respectable whites like Boo Radley and another for white trash like Bob Ewell.