In “To Prevent Flare-ups”, Colson Whitehead finally provides some insight about Benji’s homelife. He begins by comparing the Coopers to the Huxtables -- a doctor father, a lawyer mother, and an overall a well-mannered bunch adored by black audiences and white audiences alike -- each embodies the ideal successful African American family. What tips the scale is how the Coopers conduct themselves behind the scenes. For some reason, Mr. Cooper has an insatiable appetite for asserting dominance in front of his family. We see glimpses of this when Benji describes how he is coached to have a zero-tolerance policy for even the slightest throwings of shade and to react with violence when his racial identity is even suggestively disparaged, but until now, the implications of his father’s moral character have remained chiefly speculative.
What makes The Cosby Show significant is the fact that it is the first mainstream non-“coon” show to depict a picture-perfect family the Coopers can finally identify with and take pride in doing so. However, the sitcom aspect as well as the overtone that Cooper family dynamics are not as they seem further cements Mr. Mitchell’s statement that family itself is a performance. Just as boys tend to pick fights in public when they know they have an audience, families usually want just the opposite to avoid making a scene. What’s interesting is that Mr. Cooper doesn't seem as concerned as he maybe should be in terms of who can can see their dirty laundry. It’s Benji who closes all the windows so the neighbors don’t hear his parents arguing and Gail -- a woman who argues for a living -- who has to back away into the living room so that her friends don’t hear her husband debase her. Meanwhile, Mr. Cooper himself is perfectly content with being seen as the chipper dad who can make a killer barbecue, implying perhaps that he believes as long as he can preserve his outwardly innocuous reputation he can somehow remain immune to the consequences of his personal infractions.
It’s impossible not to draw some parallels between Mr. Cooper and the other dads we've met, in particular those of Stephen and Jason. All three have a history of alcohol abuse, a device that often reveals facets of their true nature. For the previous two dads, drinking is used to fill the space left by impotence and to compensate for the increasing lack of control they have in their downward spiraling lives. It takes on a completely different form in Mr. Cooper, who not only appears to be very successful in his industry, but also has no problem staying in control in his household, despite being absent 24/5. In fact, all of his family members are scared of him. And who can blame them -- Reggie gets two C-’s and immediately becomes “Shithead”, for Gail, every paper plate purchase is a gamble, and who knows why we never see Elena? In this regime founded on fear, the only coping mechanism has been total submission; you either agree to everything he says or suffer the consequences. If you displease him, your your options are limited; you can either to completely avoid him by booking extra shifts at Burger King or write a bullet-pointed list of his abusive practices.
So far, Mr. Cooper has attempted to teach his son how crucial it is to assert dominance. Apparently this means you have to scream at your wife in front of all her friends, lest you take the fall for dropping some macaroni salad. He has hammered it into Benji’s head that no one should be able to get away with snubbing his race unless it’s with a black eye. But to Benji, the only message received was that “No one can hurt you more than I can.” Is it really the same end result, psychologically? I think it’s important to realize that the only way a dictator like Mr. Cooper can continue to maintain a reign of terror is if people are actually scared. In “To Prevent Flare-Ups”, Whitehead reveals that at least in Benji’s eyes, his time may be up.
I definitely noticed a parallel in Mr. Cooper, Mr. Taylor, and Mr. Dedalus. But Mr. Cooper's priorities are different. Mr. Taylor and Mr. Dedalus constantly seem to be trying to impress someone. Mr. Cooper isn't interested in sucking up to people like the other two fathers. He wants to assert dominance, as you said. He doesn't care how he appears to others as long as he can assert dominance. More than anything, he wants his family, especially his sons, to assert dominance too. He even beats them to get his point across. This is not obviously any better than what the other two fathers do. Mr. Taylor and Mr. Dedalus would both kiss anybody's ass if it meant increasing their reputations, even if it is at the expense of someone they care about. Mr. Cooper's behaviors aren't better than those of Mr. Taylor and Mr. Dedalus, but Mr. Cooper definitely has a different approach on parenting than the other two fathers.
ReplyDeleteI feel like it's also important that the comparison to the Cosby Show is made by Benji who saw things from within the family. The belief in being watched is a very internalized thing, where in reality the family may not have as much of an audience as they believe. We see in a more recent chapter when Benji walks away from the house, closes the screen door, and realizes no one can actually hear his parents' arguments from outside. Since he spends so much of his life in a super self-aware act, perhaps this suggests that Mr. Cooper's dominance is a kind of performance as well, that thus far has worked. Like you said, it has been about fear, and soon that may no longer be effective.
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