Devil in a Blue Dress

¶ … Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley [...] roles race and racism play in Rollins' efforts to resolve the problems he faces in the novel. This is a very unusual book because it represents Black crime fiction, and not too many authors write in this genre. As such, it openly deals with race and racism, and how the protagonist, Ezekiel, "Easy" Rawlins resolves these issues as he solved complicated crimes. Prejudice and racism are not just relegated to the white characters in this novel.

Easy grew up in Houston, so he appreciates the prejudice southern Blacks faced in the 1940s and beyond. Throughout his life, he learned how to survive in the white man's world, as well. In a sense, he is a blend of white and Black as he attempts to live and work in both cultures. Because he can change to fit each culture, some of his friends believe he has become too "white," and of course, he is Black in a white culture, and nothing will change that.

His friend Mouse tells him, "You learn stuff and you be thinkin' like white men be thinkin'. You be thinkin' that what's right fo' them is right fo' you" (Mosley 205). In fact, because of his intellect and quick responses, he is always highly aware of how people in both cultures perceive him.

When he considers this first job that made him a detective, he realizes, "Nobody knew what I was up to, and that made me sort of invisible; people thought that they saw me but what they really saw was an illusion of me, something that wasn't real" (Mosley 128). Thus, his race plays a part in how he is perceived, but also in his ability to complete his assignments effectively. Because he is black, many people ignore him, and so, he can complete investigations where others might have difficulty.

Because Easy understands both cultures he must blend between, he also understands how to communicate in each culture, and even in some gray areas in between. He tells a stranger to call him Ezekiel "because I didn't want her so familiar as to use my nickname" (Mosley 53), while he informs his former plant manager, "My name is Mr. Rawlins" (Mosley 66). Easy is well educated and informed, but he can just as quickly use Black vernacular when it is necessary.

He uses white, "proper" English when he interacts with whites, and notes he understands just what he is doing. He says, "I always tried to speak formal English in my life.. But I found over the years that I could only truly express myself in the natural, 'uneducated' dialect of my upbringing" (Mosley 10). Thus, because he faces racism every day, he has even learned how to communicate in two different vernaculars, just so he can fit in each culture when it is necessary.

Sleazy DeWitt Albright is the man who hires Easy to find a missing Frenchwoman, and his attitude is common for whites at the time. He hires Easy, and because of that, he "owns" him. He tells Easy, "You take my money and you belong to me... We all owe out something, Easy. When you owe out then you're in debt and when you're in debt then you can't be your own man. That's capitalism" (Mosley 101).

Albright reverts to southern slave terms quite easily, and because he needs the work, Easy must put up with it. This is a lesson, and Easy learns many lessons throughout the novel, including, as he runs into more and more corruption and racial hatred, how "many Jews.. understood the American Negro; in Europe the Jew had been a Negro for more than a thousand years" (Mosley 138). Comparing Jews and Negroes is another aspect of the book that indicates how deep racial tensions were at the time.

In order to solve his mystery, Easy must overcome these racial tensions, and because he is bright and motivated, he does, but it is not always easy. Mosley brings Southern California in the 1940s vividly to life, and racial relations and prejudice are alive and well even in Los Angeles. He continues, California was like heaven for the southern Negro. People told stories of how you could eat fruit right off the trees and enough work to retire one day.

The stories were true for the most part but the truth wasn't like the dream. Life was still hard in L.A. And if you worked every day you still found yourself on the bottom (Mosley 27). California may have been a "heaven" but Blacks still faced discrimination there, and that is part of the "bottom" Easy is talking about. Blacks in Southern California still face that today, so what Easy experienced is not so different now.

Blacks still live in the ghettos of Compton and Watts, face police brutality, and live in poverty. Violence is prevalent, and one of the problems Blacks faced was lack of interest from the police. When Easy is arrested, he notes how distant the police are from Black troubles. He says, "You never could tell when it came to the cops and a colored neighborhood. The police don't care about crime among Negroes" (Mosley 171).

Thus, Easy is essentially working on his own as a private detective, and he, and other Blacks, cannot depend on the police for help or survival.