"Fish and Finance" by Arthur K. Akers (from Blue Book, July 1932)
"Whut's done put de pe'manent wave in my backbone, is carryin' on all de brain -work around here for de both of us!" quarreled Mr. "Frogface" Reeves, of color, as he scowled at his shrimp-sized associate in business across a liberal platter of fried channel-cat. Mr. Reeves was large, loud, prominent as to eyes, mouth, and garb, and with but little time, his manner indicated, to fool away on small-rime boys like this Marmaduke Brown.
"Whut brain-work?" Marmaduke mumbled derisively above the cornbread and "Blackstrap" molasses that were a mere junior partner's portion. "Thought us was gwine in de fish business: aint need no brains to sell fish."
Mr. Reeves blasted him with a look. "Aint keer whut kind of business it is," he snorted. "Somebody got to do the head-work and de financin' -- dat's me. And somebody got to sweep out de place and wait on de trade -- dat's you."
Marmaduke kept on making a noise like a boy eating cornbread
"Jest de financin' now," continued Frogface peevishly. "takes up all a man's time, when he's got you for a partner. Bankers looks at you, and den starts hollerin' for mo' collateral on de loan right off. Class is somep'n whut you ain't got."
Racist stereotypes, much?
"Fish and Finance" is one of 112 popular stories about "Darktown" that Akers published in Red Book and Blue Book magazines from 1925 to 1937. (According to the FictionMags Index, Akers published nearly four dozen other stories from 1909 to 1937, nearly half of them before he started the Darktown series.) As a modern reader, you are offended by the stereotypical black characters, behavior and language in these stories, you may want avoid the illustrations that accompanied the tales, which make Winsor McCay's turn-of-the-century cartoons about Blacks seem flattering. But those were different times, you say.
Perhaps.
Akers (1886-1980) was born in Tennessee, and spent much of his adult life in Birmingham, Alabama, which may or may not have anything to do with the racial stereotyping in the Darktown stories. Another Birmingham resident at the time was Octavus Roy Cohen, whose stereotypical Black character, Birmingham private detective Florian Slappey, appeared in 96 stories from 1919 to 1950, almost all in The Saturday Evening Post. The Florian Slappey stories did draw some complaints from readers, but the Post was a slick and the Red and Blue Books were pulps, so there may not have been as much flack given to the Darktown stories as to the Slappey stories. Nonetheless, the longevity and popularity of both series with their readers is without question. (What is a question is whether Cohen had influenced Akers' Darktown stories. There is no positive information regarding this, and no indication that the two ever met, although both were active in Birmingham Rotarian clubs at the same time.)
Akers' Darktown is festooned with such characters as Frogface, Bugwine, Samson, Ducktooth, Gladstone, and Skilletface, all in search of money, success, or romance. In this manner they remind me of the denizens of Damon Runyon's Broadway -- all with their stereotypical idiosyncrasies. Even the dialect of Darktown is more stereotypical than realistic, much like Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, where the dialect is close enough to what many people think to make it work. (Although why Akers uses "of" instead of "ob" is beside me. )
The question remains, are these stories racist? Or care they merely reflections of attitudes and tropes of the time, which would also include Jews, orientals, American Indians, gays, southerners, Italians, Irish, Arabs, Germans, women, Catholics, and a gazillion other categories (including, in more modern times, blondes)? As a White, male, (somewhat fallen away) Protestant, I can't answer that. No matter what category one falls into, it is human nature to make fun of the other -- and for some humans, it is in their nature to demonize others, alas. The Darktown stories, like Amos and Andy (which was created by a couple of white guys) can be as amusing as they are offensive, so let's leave it at that.
As for "Fish and Finance," Frogface's big idea is to borrow money from the Afro-American Bank and Burial Society. that way there will be money to buy fish, needed refrigeration, cash registers, and so on -- all to avoid Frogface doing some actual fishing. The company, by the way is named Reeves, Reeves, and Brown, Dealers in Fish -- with Frogface being both Reeves in the name as his way of showing his importance in the concern. What could go wrong? Just about everything, it seems.
I enjoyed the story, but as I indicated above, my cultural background is pure WASP. Am I wrong for liking this tale?
Discuss.
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