The Mind-Bogglingly Racist Ignatius J. Reilly

 "In a sense I have always felt something of a kinship with the colored race because its position is the same as mine: we both exist outside the inner realm of American society." (Pg 122).

This quote, written directly by Ignatius himself, genuinely made me do a double take as I read the second quarter of A Confederacy of Dunces. This is for a few reasons: first, it hits disturbingly close to home with racist arguments I've personally heard from white people. Secondly, it suddenly clicked, giving me a idea of the nature of A Confederacy of Dunces's racial commentary. Thirdly, it's one of far too many lines written by Ignatius that makes me want to grimace and laugh simultaneously at his appalling lack of awareness. Chapters 4-7 of this novel were an absolute joy in that regard.

The main plot points I'd like to touch on today are both related to race in A Confederacy of Dunces, the first of which being completely unrelated to Ignatius himself. At the start of chapter 6, the novel takes a moment to focus on Jones and a conversation he has with an innkeeper, discussing his work at the Night of Joy bar. Here, he says something that made the author's attitude toward him quite clear: "Hey! I'm workin in modren slavery. If I quit, I get report for bein vagran. If I stay, I'm gainfully employ on a salary ain even startin to be a minimal wage." (Pg 131). This quote importantly characterizes Jones as a smart individual with a nuanced understanding of his current situation, recognizing that, as a black man, he's being forced to choose between subjecting himself to unfair labor and going to prison, which are slavery-like conditions. This ultimately connects to something I'm beginning to realize is a main point of the book, but first, I'd like to talk about Ignatius's egregious writings in these few chapters.

At this point in the book, while "working" (I'm using the term "working" loosely, as Ignatius basically gets nothing done besides decorating the office) at Levy Pants, Ignatius has been writing "The Journal of a Working Boy," a sort of memoir of his experiences at work. It is in this journal that the quote I mentioned at the beginning resides, the one in which he directly compares himself to black people (and further goes on to say he sometimes wishes he was born black, and he also seems to believe in basic stereotypes such as black people loving watermelon.) It's quotes like these that are very important to Ignatius's character, revealing his tendencies as a pseudo-intellectual to make very surface-level observations about things without actually understanding them at all. While musing about if he had been born black, Ignatius writes, "I suspect that I would have been a rather large and terrifying one, continually pressing my ample thigh against the withered thighs of old white ladies in public conveyances a great deal and eliciting more than one shriek of panic." (Pg 123). The blatant racism here is obvious, Ignatius sees large black men as nothing more than terrifying people who harass helpless white women. However, his racism is limited not only to his written words--it shines through in his actions. 

In chapter 6, Ignatius attempts to get the Levy Pants factory workers (pretty much all of whom are black) to riot, wanting them to enter the office of Mr. Gonzales and to attack him (all so he can make a film and also dispose of his manager.) However, long story short, it all falls apart, his camera breaking and the factory workers ultimately not bothering to actually harm Mr. Gonzales, simply entering his office and enjoying themselves singing a song. Here, we see two things: one, the direct consequences of Ignatius's foolish beliefs of kinship with black people, and two, elaboration on one of the major themes of the book, one that was also related to Jones. In this section, one bit stood out to me: ""Stop that at once," Ignatius bellowed at a man who was apathetically making a vertical slash in the DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH AND REFERENCE--I. REILLY, COSTODIAN sign with a penknife. "What do you people think you're doing?" "'Hey, you say, 'Attagg,'" several voices answered." (Pg 142). In this casual assault on the office that was nothing like what Ignatius wanted, even his own name was being destroyed. This ultimately shows that, while Ignatius believes he is in the same boat as black people, he's just another racist white man, he is part of the problem. Immediately after, we see this clearly: to the people singing, he says "Stop that awful song [...] never has such egregious blasphemy fallen upon my ears." (Pg 143). Ignatius not only believes racist stereotypes as shown before, he's intolerant of their culture. Ignatius is part of the problem--this problem being a large confederacy of dunces, otherwise known as racists. Jones, the factory workers, all black people--they're all shown as kind and generally intelligent, yet, as the quote at the very start of this novel states, when intelligent people exist, dunces will form a confederacy against them.