“Crooked stays crooked and bent hates straight. The rest is survival.”
“If white people haven't killed you yet, you can do what you want.”
“Survival meant manipulating flaws and outwitting the system.”
Those are three of the many instances of internal dialogue from Colson Whitehead’s 2023 crime novel Crook Manifesto – the sequel to his 2021 novel, Harlem Shuffle.
You’re listening to Remarkable Receptions—a podcast about popular and critical responses to African American novels and more.
Crook Manifesto continues focusing on the experiences of furniture salesman Ray Carney, who only reluctantly returns to criminal activity in the hopes of getting tickets to a Jackson 5 concert for his daughter. In the midst of describing Ray’s experiences in New York during the 1970s, Whitehead also highlights police corruption in the city. Similar to how he does in Harlem Shuffle, in Crook Manifesto, Whitehead presents the many inner thoughts or internal dialogue of his various Black characters.
Among other classifications, the instances of internal dialogue in the novel can be categorized as crook mentality, race consciousness, and life lessons.
The internal dialogue we’ve categorized as crook mentality shows the views of people who think about, theorize, and make sense of criminal activity. Whitehead elevates their inner commentary about unlawful behavior to the level of proverbial wisdom.
At one point, a character concludes to himself: “Crime isn’t a scourge, people are. Crime is just how folks talk to each other sometimes.” The sentiments here reflect the interpretation of criminal behavior from the perspective of someone who possesses a crook mentality.
As Black people navigating New York in the 1970s, Whitehead’s characters are often aware of race and racial barriers. If a character noticed, commented, or criticized racism, it was placed in our race consciousness category.
In true Whitehead fashion, these inner thoughts were often somber, but humorous as well. An excellent example comes from an observation a character makes while running through crowds of people in New York: “Always plenty of bystanders to help an old white lady to her feet. Old black ladies, you’re on your own.”
The life lesson inner thoughts portrayed in the novel are warnings of a dangerous world and cautionary tales of a broken system meant to cheat you. Whitehead weaves streetwise tactics with traditional family parables to demonstrate how the community and the crooked are one and the same.
Carney thinks to himself at one point that for him and those who live in his environment, “survival meant manipulating flaws and outwitting the system,” a stark reality for those with little to no access to opportunities afforded to more privileged groups. This lesson, and many more throughout the novel, shows that the world is a dangerous game, where exploitation is the only means of advancement.
Crook Manifesto showcases an abundance of inner musings. Through those musings, Whitehead demonstrates his talent for transforming the thoughts and reflections of Black characters into literary art.
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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.