“Finding out you were free six months after the fact didn’t seem like something to celebrate. More like it was telling you to read the morning paper.”
“Step outside your known streets and different laws apply, crooked logic.”
"Good old America know-how on display: We do marvels, we do injustice, and our hands were always busy.”
Those are three of the many instances of internal dialogue from Colson Whitehead’s 2021 crime novel Harlem Shuffle.
You’re listening to Remarkable Receptions—a podcast about popular and critical responses to African American novels and more.
Harlem Shuffle focuses on a furniture salesman Ray Carney, who becomes involved in crime while working as a fence, that is, someone who buys and sells stolen goods. Throughout the novel, Whitehead presents an abundance of inner thoughts or internal dialogue from his protagonist and various other characters.
The instances of internal dialogue can be categorized as intra-racial critiques, city thoughts, and chronicles of corruption, among other classifications.
The “intra-racial critiques” category collected moments of inner thoughts from Black characters that commented, often negatively, on Black characters. Often these comments presented dissenting views among Black people.
For example, at one point, the protagonist Ray muses about another person he knew: “The little man was the white system hidden behind a black mask.” Here, Carney was critiquing a Black person who was, like various other white people in the city, exploiting and misleading Black people.
With his “city thoughts,” Whitehead paints a picture of a metropolis with as many secrets as the characters who inhabit them. The city is sinister, dark, and slow to reveal its true nature.
At one point, Whitehead dares us to notice the shifting attitudes to the city streets, telling the reader, “step outside your known streets and different laws apply, crooked logic.” The entire city seems to be an enemy, and with each turn of the page, the danger rises.
The internal dialogue that we refer to as “chronicles of corruption” reflects a critical exploration of wrongdoing, bribery, fraud, and other misdeeds among city officials. The internal dialogue encapsulates a broader theme of societal corruption, revealing the interplay between injustice, deception, and the pragmatic compromises individuals make within a morally ambiguous environment.
In part 3 of the novel, a poignant moment unfolds, “He wondered how many black boys [police officers] had worked over and then tossed into the backseat on the way to the station house.” This quotation serves as a lens into the chronicles of corruption, laying bare the systemic abuse of power and racial injustice entrenched within the law enforcement system.
Overall, Harlem Shuffle gives readers a chance to experience the many unvoiced thoughts of characters and ultimately showcases Colson Whitehead’s creative ability to offer thoughtful and humorous observations and social commentary.
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This episode was co-written by Nicole Dixon, Rie’Onna Holmon, Jalen White, and Howard Rambsy. The episode was edited by Elizabeth Cali.