Later in the story, in a flashback to beating a Black protest leader nearly to death earlier that day, Jesse “began to hurt all over with that particular excitement” and later shouts at the protestor that he is lucky that white men like him “ pump some white blood” into “Black bitches.” To his horror, this moment of uncontrollable sexualized rage leads him to become erect. This memory of being with Black women causes a “distant excitement” in him. After being unable to stay erect while having sex with his wife, Jesse reflects that he doesn’t have this problem with the Black women he picks up or arrests. Of Black people, he thinks, “They were animals, they were no better than animals,” and about the protest leader, he thinks “ this ain’t no nigger, this is a goddamn bull.” Beyond simply using violent language to refer to Black people, Jesse also imagines and enacts violence against them, thinking about how much easier it would be to bomb all of the Black people in town if they all lived in one place, and also violently beating a Black protestor almost to death.ĭespite his conscious rejection of Black people, Jesse unconsciously experiences pleasure in his interactions with them, demonstrating that racism is also about sexualization and desire.

In addition to using slurs, Jesse dehumanizes Black people at several points in the story.

While lying in bed with his wife at the beginning of the story, Jesse says, seemingly out of the blue, “Goddamn the niggers,” before referring to Black people as “black stinking coons.” His comfortable use of slurs demonstrates the depth of his anti-Black racism. This is particularly true, Baldwin suggests, for white men (like Jesse) who crave the sexual prowess they project onto Black men.īaldwin establishes early on that Jesse, like most racists, feels deep hatred toward Black people. By having Jesse experience pleasure while witnessing or enacting violence, Baldwin subverts the idea that anti-Black racism is simply a matter of white people hating Black people, suggesting that it also involves white people envying and desiring Black people. Recalling these events, Jesse becomes erect and is finally able to have sex with Grace. What those moments have in common is his sexual arousal while watching racial violence against Black men. But as he struggles to become erect and Grace drifts off to sleep, Jesse starts remembering scenes from his past, including beating a Black protest leader nearly to death earlier that day and witnessing a brutal lynching as a child.

Set in the South of the 1960s, “Going to Meet the Man” opens with Jesse, a 42-year-old white police officer, trying to have sex with his wife.

Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin