Previous
Guns
In Blues for Mister Charlie, Richard’s photos of his white girlfriends represent how, in a white-supremacist society, white people project their sexual anxieties onto Black people in a racist fashion. The photos initially appear in the play when Richard shows them to Juanita, Pete, and Papa D at Papa D’s juke joint to prove that he had white girlfriends when he lived in New York. Juanita, Pete, and Papa D all advise him to put the photographs away, suggesting that they could be a pretext for white violence against him. After virulently racist white storeowner Lyle Britten kills Richard for a perceived humiliation, the defense lawyer at Lyle’s trial, called only The State, repeatedly asks witnesses about supposedly obscene or pornographic photographs that Richard had of white women—even though Richard’s photos were ordinary snapshots—and then claims that Richard must have been a “pimp” and a “rapist.” The State’s false characterization of the photos and Richard shows how in a white-supremacist society, white people attempt to police Black male sexuality with violence. It also highlights how white people’s sexual anxieties (about white female sexuality, white male masculinity, and their relations to Blackness) get projected onto Black people’s perfectly normal behavior, such as having non-obscene photos of old girlfriends.
Photos Quotes in Blues for Mister Charlie
The Blues for Mister Charlie quotes below all refer to the symbol of Photos. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 3
Quotes
Lorenzo: They been asking me about photographs they say he was carrying and they been asking me about a gun I never saw. No. It wasn’t like that. He was a beautiful cat, and they killed him.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Meridian: I don’t think that the alleged object was my son’s type at all!
The State: And you are a minister?
Meridian: I think I may be beginning to become one.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Blues for Mister Charlie LitChart as a printable PDF.
Photos Symbol Timeline in Blues for Mister Charlie
The timeline below shows where the symbol Photos appears in Blues for Mister Charlie. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1
...Black man who touches a white woman will be castrated. Then he starts showing Pete photographs of white girls he’s dated in New York, bragging about how desperate they are. He...
(full context)
Act 3
...had been drinking or smoking “dope”—and whether Richard decided to act out what his pornographic photos of white women suggested. Lorenzo retorts that he never saw any such photos, he and...
(full context)
...still addicted to drugs. Lorenzo says no. The Counsel asks whether Richard was carrying pornographic photos of himself and naked white women. Lorenzo says no—people keep asking him about photos and...
(full context)
The State asks Meridian about Richard’s obscene photos of himself and white women. Meridian says Richard never told him about any such photos....
(full context)
...politics. The State asks whether Richard told Black people to carry guns or showed around photos of naked white women. Parnell says he never heard of Richard telling people to carry...
(full context)
When the State mentions that Parnell is the first witness to say the photos existed, Parnell says he discouraged Richard from showing them to anyone due to the “danger”—and...
(full context)
