FictionThatMatters.org

Incognegro
Written by Mat Johnson; Art by Warren Pleece
Vertigo, 2008. 136 pages.

Most people would prefer not talk about race. It makes them uncomfortable, and there isn’t a lot of positive room to move in the conversation. Someone is frequently accused, someone else victimized. At its worst, people state that talking about racism helps perpetuate it; only by ceasing to talk about race will racism disappear. This is a conservative argument. It allows racism to exist by preventing the reporting of abuses, denying epidemiological differences, and ignoring economic disparities. If we deny race, we deny diversity. And we will allow history to repeat itself. According to the Dalai Lama, only the acceptance of diversity will foster positive peace.

Mat Johnson’s graphic novel Incognegro probes deeply into America’s horrific racial past. This story combines a film noir procedural investigation with insightful social commentary.

On the sleuth

Set in 1920s America, the story depicts Zane Pinchback’s undercover investigations of the lynchings of blacks in the South. Pinchback is a light-skinned black who, with a little help from a pomade and hot irons, can straighten his hair and pass for white. He has successfully infiltrated a number of lynchings by printing the names of the perpetrators in his Harlem-based newspaper. But the Ku Klux Klan is becoming suspicious and Pinchback vows to give up his beat after they nearly catch him undercover at a hanging. He is then drawn back to the South when he learns that his very own brother is next in line for the gallows.

This is a vivid, brutal tale of America’s sordid history that benefits greatly from Warren Pleece’s art. The images are laced with dark shadows, underscoring the racial distinctions made along color lines. The backstory of journalism moves the narrative forward at a frantic pace. Racial identities shift rapidly; blacks become whites, women become men, and everyone has an ulterior motive. Johnson successfully recreates a political era in which at least several thousand blacks were lynched. (Many more lynchings were never recorded.)

To draw, or not to draw

Violence, to me, must be carefully considered when placed in a story. The danger is that violence will merely be glorified. Johnson and Pleece navigate this danger well when depicting the lynchings. Johnson peppers the dialogue with historical references and Pleece enriches the tale with period details. There are several images of the victims of hangings, allusions to rapes of slaves, and castrations. I did not enjoy reading them but these acts are a part of history that we should continually confront. The most disturbing scene occurs when a Klan leader proudly shows off photos of his lynching victims like playing cards.

However, I believe the work goes too far in other scenes. In one, a woman has her face destroyed by a shot gun; in another, a woman’s face is mutilated. I am not sure what Incognegro gains from these images. If anything, they place the story beyond a high school curriculum and narrow the audience significantly.

Another issue is an absence of positive white characters. Pinchback is indeed investigating atrocities perpetrated by whites against blacks, but wasn’t there one good egg in the bunch? The 1920s Harlem renaissance was patronized — or at least supported — by some whites. Their patronage may have stemmed from an interest in the ‘exotic’ but even Langston Hughes acknowledged their encouragement. Johnson might have placed a character in the scenes in New York if the South was so infected by racial hatred. Instead, the only neutral character is mother nature:

The south. How beautiful it is. There’s so much killing. So much strife, going back, so much strife. But the nature’s got nothing to do with that. The nature, don’t no man own that. And it’s just beautiful.

But this is a detective story, and there is no requirement that detective stories have good guys. Nor must such stories be free from violence.

From the heart

Johnson developed the idea for Incognegro as a result of having been raised as a light skinned black who was frequently mistaken for being white. According to an interview in Racialicious he explained his motivations:

I took the shame and judgement out of Passing [for a white person], and tried to show it being used in a positive, practical light.

The character Pinchback is a hero, affirming his belief in racial justice in the face of virulent mobs of white supremacists. And the plot twists keep your eyes on the page, whether or not you are moved by the historical backdrop.

Lynchings have not disappeared. Only last year, teenagers in Louisiana were accused of threatening fellow black students by hanging a noose on a tree next to their high school. Incognegro takes a bold, honest look at what could make such cruelty come to pass.

–Deji Olukotun

Would you like to know more?

For an intense multimedia experience, read Incognegro in conjunction with watching DJ Spooky’s Rebirth of a Nation.

DJ Spooky’s film treats the racist propaganda of the early 20th century, and Incognegro takes the misinformation head-on.