Harlem Riots Symbol in Harlem Shuffle

The Harlem riots represent the different ways crime is defined and justified in an unequal society. The tension at the center of the riots revolves around such divergent perceptions: on the one hand, the police officer who kills James Powell believes his actions can be justified as self-defense, while the protesters deem those same actions as unlawful homicide. In the same way, the protesters believe that rioting and looting stores is a reasonable response to the injustice of Powell’s death, while the police who arrest them obviously disagree. It is important to note that the response of the novel’s Black characters is in no way monolithic. Carney, as a Black small business owner, feels conflicted about the riots, understanding the righteous anger of the protesters but worried about his own livelihood. Alma and Leland condemn the rioters and side with the police. Pepper expresses skepticism that the protests will have any lasting effect, and yet he, like Carney, carries a protest flyer on his person as a kind of “talisman or a crooked hymn.” Although the riots occur in the background of Carney’s interpersonal conflicts, then, the novel utilizes this historical event to portray systemic racism as a crime in and of itself, comparable to and with far greater impact than Carney’s own crooked behavior.

Harlem Riots Quotes in Harlem Shuffle

The Harlem Shuffle quotes below all refer to the symbol of Harlem Riots. 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:

Crime, Class, and Social Mobility Theme Icon

“You’re against the protests now?” Elizabeth said. “After all those benefits for the Freedom Riders?”

“It’s not the students I mind,” Leland said, “so much as the shiftless element that attached themselves. […] They looted everything one day, picked it clean like vultures, and torched it the next. Why would you do that to your own neighborhood store?”

“Why’d that policeman kill a fifteen-year-old boy in cold blood?” Elizabeth said.

“They said he had a knife,” Alma said.

“They said they find a knife the next day and you believe him.”

“Cops,” Carney said.

Related Characters: Raymond Carney (speaker), Elizabeth Carney (speaker), Alma Jones (speaker), Leland Jones (speaker), James Powell

Related Symbols: Harlem Riots

Page Number and Citation: 210

Explanation and Analysis:

Small men with big plans, Carney said to himself. If this room was the seat of black power and influence in New York City, where was its white counterpart? The joint downtown where the same wheeling and dealing happened, but on a bigger stage. With bigger stakes. You don’t get answers to questions like that unless you are on the inside. And you never tell.

Related Characters: Raymond Carney, James Powell, Terrance Pierce

Related Symbols: Harlem Riots

Page Number and Citation: 241

Explanation and Analysis:

Later, Pepper explained it was the principle of the thing: Let white people think they can fuck all over you and they'll keep doing it.

That was two months after the night on Park Avenue. […] Carney said, “You said with the riots, what was the point? Everything keeps on the way it is, so all the protests were for nothing.”

Pepper said, “I am right in that. Grand jury had nothing to say about that cop, did it? He’s still on the job, right? But as it pertains to me shooting those dudes…maybe you start small and work your way up.”

Related Characters: Raymond Carney (speaker), Pepper (speaker), Freddie, Linus Van Wyck, James Powell, Ambrose Van Wyck, Ed Bench

Related Symbols: Harlem Riots, Necklaces

Page Number and Citation: 308

Explanation and Analysis:

It was unreal to have your city turned inside and out. He felt unreal those days of the riots when his streets were made strange by violence. Despite what America saw on the news, only a fraction of the community had picked up bricks and bats and kerosene. The devastation had been nothing compared to what lay before him now, but if you bottled the rage and hope and fury of all the people in Harlem and made it into a bomb, the results would look something like this.

Related Characters: Raymond Carney, Aronowitz

Related Symbols: Harlem Riots

Page Number and Citation: 317

Explanation and Analysis:

Harlem Riots Symbol Timeline in Harlem Shuffle

The timeline below shows where the symbol Harlem Riots appears in Harlem Shuffle. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...that kids were taunting the officers outside Arthur’s house, which reminds Carney of the race riots of 1943, during which his father participated in looting. Pepper told Freddie about Arthur and... (full context)

...World’s Fair, prompting an argument from Elizabeth. Leland and Alma disapprove of the protests and riots that have broken out in Harlem since a police officer killed a 15-year-old Black boy... (full context)

Carney is glad the riots are over, for everyone’s safety and for fellow business owners. Carney’s store wasn’t looted, though... (full context)

...slow, so Carney sends Rusty home early. He gave Rusty a new title during the riots: associate sales manager. Now, Carney locks up and works on a pitch for a newspaper... (full context)

...he hasn’t seen his cousin in months but checked in with Aunt Millie after the riots. Montague states that the protesters should have kept going and torched all of downtown. When... (full context)

...his practiced charm, taking him around the showroom and talking business. He alludes to the riots only to assert that families of every race need a furnished home, no matter how... (full context)

...asks him to hold a sculpture for him—he has plenty of overtime pay from the riots. They instruct Carney to keep an eye out for Freddie, as Linus apparently came from... (full context)

...at the club. Looking around, Carney appreciates the men’s various influences, especially in light of Harlem’s recent unrest . The men around him—controllers of industry, insurance, and money—actively determine who in Harlem gets... (full context)

Carney puts Rusty and Marie on paid leave, pretending to be worried about further rioting. Munson visits and Carney rides with the detective on his route to collect payments from... (full context)

Thanks to the riots, Munson is behind on collecting his protection payments. Had he known other officers were questioning... (full context)

...low at the Eagleton. The night after the robbery, Freddie gets swept up in the riots, as he already told Carney. He and Linus agree they need to wait before trying... (full context)

...He tells Pepper everything about Freddie’s botched heist and Linus’s death. Pepper brings up the riots as a good cover for crime, while Carney insists the protesters had a good reason.... (full context)

...has a protest flyer in his pocket. His reads “COOL IT BABY,” implying that the riots have delivered a message. Pepper feels no one is listening to the Black population’s complaints.... (full context)

...night, when Pepper explains his actions were a matter of principle. Though he thinks the riots were ultimately pointless, because the police officer went unpunished, in the Park Avenue building Pepper... (full context)

...Fontaine, which brings back memories of the summer James Powell was killed. In retrospect, the riots seem less meaningful, as the lieutenant who killed Powell was cleared by a grand jury.... (full context)

Harlem Shuffle

Colson Whitehead

Harlem Riots Symbol Analysis

Harlem Riots Quotes in Harlem Shuffle

Harlem Riots Symbol Timeline in Harlem Shuffle