Police Males In James Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk

James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk discusses the unique relationship between police officers and black Americans, specifically in regard to their tendency to target black men unfairly act outwardly to hold them down with violence. Dave Chappelle speaks to this behavior in his act, Killin’ Them Softly.Chappelle jokes about the police presence in his home, New York, describing differing experiences which posit race as the deciding factor in the behavior exhibited by police officers. Chappelle’s act echoes the situation put forth by Baldwin’s character Officer Bell, who in If Beale Street Could Talk represents the New York Police Department and their racially-biased actions. Both Dave Chappelle’s comedy in Killin’ Them Softly and James

Fonny went around the block for some cigarettes, and left Tish to pick out some Tomatoes. She does so, and is harassed by a “small, young, greasy Italian punk” (Baldwin 136). Fonny comes back to see the Italian boy, known affectionately to the reader as an “urchin” (139), putting his hands on Tish, and he proceeds to beat him up. Officer Bell, Baldwin’s main antagonist, sees Fonny beating the boy, and he rushes over, intending to kill Fonny. Tish prevents Bell from killing him with the help of the Italian woman who runs the store. Bell is insistent about busting Fonny for something, however. He discovers Tish and Fonny’s address, and he patrols their neighborhood constantly, itching to ring Fonny up on some charge for his ‘disrespect.’ Bell’s desire to take Fonny down stem solely from a standpoint of racism. He harbors hatred for black people, and is ever eager to stomp on them when he gets the chance. His actions after having seen Fonny beat Tish’s assaulter are not the actions of a police officer who wants to keep the public safe, but rather the acts of an officer who has a goal to rid the world of those who he doesn’t like. He sees Fonny act out once, and he possesses an almost hateful sexual desire to bring him to his knees, licking his lips at the thought of arresting him (138), and pouring his eyes over his body “with the unanswerable cruelty of lust, as though he had lit the blowtorch and had aimed it at Fonny’s sex” (172). Bell’s chief desire as a police officer is not to keep the public safe, but rather to regulate the behavior of black people, and to punish harshly those who do not fit the mold that he feels they need