Discussing the novel by Charles Chestnutt in regards to the Wilmington Riots, the article “Charles Chesnutt and the Epistemology of Racial Violence” by Bryan Wagner examines the reasons behind the riots and the violence against the middle class African Americans following the integration of African Americans. According to the article, there were many occurrences of violence during this time period and that most of this violence could be best understood through the idea that the African Americans were to remain inferior in society so that the whites could maintain their belief of themselves as the superior race. This concept led to the destruction of many buildings that aided the production of African Americans as rising towards the middle and upper classes within society. Although the integration of the African Americans was supposed to create equality, the whites seemed to believe that equality of opportunity was beyond the scope of what was acceptable and felt that it was their right and responsibility to keep the African American at a lower class in society.
The article gives a second hand account of the violence through analyzing a novel which seems to move the reader further away from the true accounts. Through this, it is meant that the article reads more like a book report that could be analyzing fact or fiction rather than an actual analysis of the violence that occurred during the riots. However, aside from feeling removed due to the representation of a novel, the author, Wagner, describes the scenes of the action in a manner that brings the violence directly to the forefront of the article. Defining the reactions of both sides of the Reformation, Wagner brings out prime examples of opinions and reactions from the novel and elaborates the causes and effects of the violence during the time period. Through these examples, the author gives the reader a better understanding of how badly the violence impacted the community.
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The wording of the article seemed to be appropriate for a variety of readers and did not involve elaborate words or necessary definitions in order to understand the key parts. Additionally, according to the accounts by the author and information obtained through reading material, the descriptions of the riots were very accurate and portrayed the circumstances in a manner true to the historical content of the era. There were numerous direct references to the history books in both the novel and the article that could be further researched should the reader choose to do so as the author gives adequate location and event information throughout the article.
On a personal response to the information in the article, the concept that is relayed that the whites were thought to be superior beings and the existence of African Americans in the middle class world was a symbol of ignorance and insecurities among the whites. The true benefit of promoting all of mankind into a higher socioeconomic status is that the entire society is then also risen based on numerous social welfare functions that have been modeled to determine the value of the society. Violence, in any scenario but especially based on the superiority complex of a race, shows the inability of that society to rise above differences for the benefit of mankind.
