BLACKOUT ONLINE SUMMARY

In the story 'Blackout', Roger Mais addresses the power dynamics of race and
problematises racial bias with the paradigm of gender. The illustration of
inequalities inherent in both race and gender is pronounced by the author's
decision elements of superiority and inferiority to both the characters. The
encounter between a white woman and a black man, in the backdrop of racial
tension, gives the reader an insight into the negotiations of power relations
between race and gender hierarchies. Mais establishes a strong ground for the
construction of the character's psychology by describing their state of mind
through their actions. The woman, feeling safe in the "wave of panic", reflects
her privileged position. Her air of condescending calmness is what the author
stresses at as it is the very thing that is brought crashing down.

The “approach” of the “black” man is narrated in a style that sets the tone for
story in a way that leaves the reader as expectant and worked up as the woman
herself. The geographical setting of the story is a deliberate choice on part of the
author to further the complexities that he introduces into the theme of race, class
and gender. The manner in which a foreigner behaves in a country based on a
monologist discourse of racial superiority is pitted against the violence and
political unrest which cease to pose any danger to this foreigner just because she
is American.

By making the encounter about cigarettes, Mais brings the issues of race and class
superiority at the convergence of the simple act of smoking. In expressing racial bias
through something commonplace and mundane, Mais exposes the atrocity of racism
and the utter baselessness of its underlying 'logic'. The movement of the cigarette,
from the lady's hand to the man's face, to the gutter with a flick and then back to
the man's hand demonstrates the balance of power in the story. The act of throwing the
cigarette away that results in the black man's censuring stare causes the racial issue of
the story to coalesce with gender. Mais brings out not only stereotypical assumptions
related to race but also gender which intersect to achieve a semblance of balance in
power between the two characters. The man is able to go beyond his racial
“inferiority” by drawing strength from the masculine attitude that his gender allows
himto adopt. In the beginning of the story, the man’s conduct is quite frank and reflects
presumption of normalcy in a black man approaching a white woman at night on a bus
stop. For the woman, on the other hand, he goes expectations of normalcy which
makes her nervous and agitated at the same time. Mais, therefore, destabilises the
belief of normalcy that racism internalises in people.

The continual negation of the woman’s expectations, right from the man’s approach t
o his reproach of her throwing the cigarette away, is intentional as it is the only way in
which the man (and the author) can rail against the discrimination and harassment that
has taken such a deep seated position in people’s psyche. The woman’s act of
throwing the cigarette highlights that she has “plenty” while the man is saving a half
for later. Juxtaposition of “half” and “plenty” illustrates the proximity of class
difference to that of race. The woman feels the need to explain or justify her action
to a complete stranger shows the fact that she enters a process of investigation her
beliefs with new eyes. As her grounds of beliefs are made to shift under her feet, the
man asserts his stance with greater force by commenting rather harshly on her action,
yet again going against the expectations she formed the minute she saw that “he was
black”.

The man's comment in an "even voice" about having responded differently had a man
been in place of the woman shakes her assumed superiority. His division of
the country's population on basis of gender provides a complex outlook on equality in
man's creation. It is the very rhetoric that racism uses for the justification of its
mandates that is brought up at the end of the conversation. By juxtaposing the 'same
ways' of a man's and a woman's existence with their own unequal positions in the
situation, he leaves the woman's "supreme confidence in some important sense"
shaken. It is the woman's shaken state of mind that prevents her from turning back to
see the man, thereby saving him from losing the achievement of making her admit to
herself the problematic nature of her racial bias. It also serves as the leveller between
the two and emerges as the result of commendable self assertion on part of the man.

Cigarette Symbolism

There may also be some symbolism in the story which might be important. The
cigarette that the woman throws away could symbolise wealth or class especially if it
is compared to the half cigarette that the man is smoking. Also the woman may feel as
though the cigarette has been tainted in some way because she allowed the man to
light his cigarette from it. Which may suggest to some readers that the woman is
racist. That she does not consider the man to be her equal. Through his skin colour the
woman may believe there is a fault. Something that would have been widely believed
among white people at the time the story was written. The fact that the story is set
during the war (WWII) might also be symbolically significant as Mais could be using
the setting as foreshadowing to the conflict that develops between the man and
woman. The fact that the man also touches the woman’s hands when he is lighting his
cigarette could also be important as by doing so he is breaking down many socially
accepted barriers of the time. That being a black man touching a white woman.