The Pinch Massacre

Enter Lenny, his protégé who, according to the book, will take over the bookstore and get The Pinch published. It appears that Lenny has gotten by through life by making very little effort and is working in the bookstore to bide his time until he is drafted. He is practically a squatter, and deals drugs on the side; otherwise he would have no social life to mention. Lenny appears throughout the book at the wrong place at the wrong time. He manages to find himself, during an errand, in the middle of a sanitation union strike. He is among the crowd when glass begins to break, heads crack and tear gas rolls. He is also compelled to join a civil rights march, very impromptu, when a reverend stops by the bookstore on the way to the march. It seems …show more content…
In the case of African Americans, they are dehumanized. As a slave, Asbestos is blinded for witnessing a white man’s offenses. At first rewarded for what he reported, but upon his escape and capture, his eyes are gorged out. To add to the travesty, the accused is reinstated, and Asbestos is whipped and crippled. His life eventually ends in the loop of a Ku Klux Klan noose which signals the end of the mystical Pinch. The Mayor refuses to negotiate during the garbage strike, the sanitation workers are black. In the 1960s, the police are really present for the protection of their own, the businesses and the status quo. They would beat a black man, Elder, just for walking down the street with a white girl. (Stern 76) During the march, the police do not hesitate to use force and tear gas against crowds, including women and the …show more content…
The Jews stayed consistently friendly with the whites. During the arrival of the Ku Klux Klan, the Jews are remaking on the robes and who sold them their materials, reinstating the Jewish role as businessmen. They are able to recognize several folks, and know them by name. The community appears cautious, but the Rabbi turns the encounter into a chance to showcase his abilities, reinstating the role the Jew as a holy man. Membership in the Jewish community appeared to include abilities and cooperation. In the tribe of outcasts, it appeared as if initiation into the group not only included breaking bread, but sharing the same women. In the circus, you were family if you shared in the same mindset of equal acceptance. In the case of the shretele performers, it looked like if you relished the same things, even though it was sadistically at the expense of others, you could be included in the inhumane group. This was a fiction full of