Self Victimization in “And Love Them?”

“And Love Them?” is a short story published in 2000 by an African American author named Thomas Glave.  This story is told from the perspective of a very ignorant white woman who’s self-centered nature makes it difficult for her to understand people different from her, specifically African American people.  Glave gives examples of the narrator’s interactions with black people in her New York City based life that show how her ignorance has led her to have unpleasant situations with black people that further her bigoted views.  These examples include interactions with black coworkers, a black stranger on the street and black homeless people.  Glave ends “And Love Them?” with a story of a traumatic sexual experience that the narrator had with her black ex boyfriend.

Glave focuses exclusively on the perspective of the white female narrator so that the reader is limited by her internal biases.  An example of this limited perspective is shown in her story about the strange man who is struggling to get a cab.  What she describes as “A truly human moment”(107), is actually a situation that he is offended by.  Instead of giving us his side of the story, the limited narrator just uses his reaction as another reason to confirm her biases.  The narrator is the center of her own world and as she walks the streets, works in her office, and interacts with other people, the reader is limited by her ignorance.

Reading this text was a frustrating experience, because the main character was designed to limit the reader’s understanding of the events in the story, as well as provide some viewpoints that are drastically different from my own.  I was most frustrated when the narrator thought that she was going to be raped by a strange man just because he was black and was walking behind her.  This instance of self-victimization was frustrating, but also reminded me of Emma in “Color Struck” because both characters blamed the race of other people for their problems, instead of examining their own internal biases.