Who Watches the “Watchman”?

(A friend of mine wonders on social media: "I haven't read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' in many years. With the release of 'Go Set a Watchman', should I really be surprised if Atticus Finch is portrayed as a racist? After all, in 'To Kill a Mockingbird', he could have been defending Tom Robinson out of a sincere love for the Law, yet still have possessed a belief in White Supremacy...")

My response:

I last re-read "Mockingbird" about a year ago; I have probably read it over a hundred times. There's nothing in it I can recall which hints that Atticus is for the kind of "White Supremacy" we're thinking of. Perhaps it's off the point, but the book says (I paraphrase) "They tried to start a Klan in Maycomb, but the Jewish fellow whose house they were parading in front of came out to laugh at them for having bought their sheets at his department store, and they all went home. Nothing was heard of the Klan in Maycomb after that..."

So there's no official hate group to be part of, and if there was, can we see the Atticus of 'Mockingbird' having anything to do with it? Remember, this is the guy for whom every Black person in town stood up to honour as he left the courtroom; the one who was willing to put his FAMILY AT RISK to do the right thing. I can see being a "secret racist" and still defending Tom Robinson for the sake of the Law Itself, if you had no children to be hurt by doing so. But to do so knowing it might get your kids harmed--you'd have to be pretty darn into this whole "all people, regardless of race or creed, are real, have feelings, and are not 'lesser' than me" thing to do that.

Of course, the new charge (by Liberals, sad to say) against "Mockingbird" is that it "reinforces Paternalism". I would say instead that it pretty clearly delineates what the "Paternal" force SHOULD be like. Atticus realizes that his parental authority, for instance, is not simply based on being bigger than Scout and Jem; he says (again I paraphrase, 'cause the book is not at hand): "If I didn't do this [defend Tom Robinson], then I wouldn't be able to tell you and Jem what to do, or hold my head up in town." Atticus realises that his moral authority as a Father would be an utter joke if he failed to do what he knew was right. Pretty progressive for Southern Alabama in the early 40s--he could have just told 'em: "Shut up or I'll whip your ass!"

Atticus also tells his children: "Remember that doing wrong to a colored person is a million times worse than doing the same to a white one." Implicit in this is the knowledge that in his society, Black folks are institutionally repressed, oppressed, and unfairly treated as a matter of course. 80 years before the attitude became popularised, Atticus is already aware of his "White Privilege". Yet, what more can he realistically do than what he is shown to do in the book and film? At home, he flat out tells Scout and Jem: "I don't ever want you to use that word [n*****r]; it's COMMON." Scout replies: "But everybody says it!" Atticus retorts: "Now it'll be everybody less one." If it was just about the Law, Atticus wouldn't care what words he or his children used outside a courtroom.

But NOW, I must gird my loins and prepare to meet the unreconstructed racist, the younger Atticus Finch, in "Go Set a Watchman". I wish I could speak to "Miz Nell" (H. Lee) and find out if she actually approves the publication of this book, the circumstances of which seem a little shady, but there's no question that I WILL read "Go Set A Watchman", if only to satisfy myself that it's "authentic". Though it's tough to think of Atticus as EVER having been a racist, it shouldn't be surprising; like me, he grew up in a racist society, and was tainted with its skewed world view. But, again like me, his attitude obviously changed. Talk about a huge character arc!