Harlem Shuffle

“A landlord who leased to Negro families.”

In times of trouble, Ray wanders the city and imagines himself living in New York’s most lavish apartments. However, the subtle implication of his wildest fantasies is that he remains a member of the tenant class. Ray cannot envision a world in which he is a property owner or a landlord, as he has internalized the racism of the world. In Ray’s experience, African American people must rely on benevolent white people who allow non-whites into their building. Even in his wildest fantasies and most outlandish moments of escapism, racism is as virulent and as prevalent as in the real world.

“Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked, in practice and ambition.”

Ray’s self-identity is fraught with self-delusion. He is keen to see himself as an honest, upstanding citizen, but he is well-aware that he commits crimes. Ray assures himself that he is only “slightly bent” (34), but he is convinced that his crimes are only a small and easy-to-ignore part of his identity. He views himself as a good citizen who happens to be involved with several criminal enterprises, rather than a criminal who deludes himself into believing that he is honest. This delusion is vital to Ray’s character, as it allows him to preserve his identity as a self-made and honest man, unlike his father or the other people in his neighborhood.

“In Baby’s Best, Miami Joe might mention it and affirm him.”

Freddie craves the validation of others, from gangsters like Miami Joe to family members like his mother or Ray. With an absent father and a lack of direction in his life, Freddie wants to be told that he is doing well. This need for validation affects all his actions, forcing him to draw closer to dangerous men in the hope that they will give him their seal of approval.

“T.M. honed and buffed your cutlery, humming an unrecognizable hymn, then wrapped it in pages from The Crisis and handed it back solemnly before resuming his route.”

T.M. is a seemingly innocent knife sharpener who happens to be related to a gangster. Ray remembers T.M. but never connected the knife sharpener to any kind of crime. As such, the presence of T.M. hints at the perpetual ambient nature of crime. Criminality and vice are everywhere in Ray’s world; if he only peels back the surface a little, even seemingly innocent things take on a whole new dimension.

“He told the stories without self-consciousness; why should he be ashamed to have lived for so long on his own?”

Ray is proud of the way he navigated his difficult childhood, building these experiences into the myth he believes about himself. He views himself as an honest, self-made man, but other people do not necessarily share this view. They cannot remove the reputation of his criminal father from their idea of Ray. Ray does not want to feel ashamed of his past, but he resents the way others do not buy into the mythos of success that he created for himself.

“Pepper had a different kind of brain.” 

Ray teaches himself about the world as a way to succeed. He becomes a furniture salesman and begins to see everything and everyone through the lens of furniture. Pepper’s mind functions in the same way, but he uses a different lens. Pepper is an uncomplicated and unrepentant criminal. Crime is to Pepper as furniture is to Ray: an expertise which colors one’s experience of the world and a lens through which to examine society. Pepper’s brain may be different, but he shares many similarities with Ray in the way he views the world through a lens of his own experiences.

“A fence, and also a thief. He had stolen her daughter, after all.”

In the back of Ray’s mind is a small amount of doubt. He resents the way the world views him as his father’s son and burdens him with the reputation of Big Mike Carney. The subtle reference to him having stolen Elizabeth from her parents hints at the class differences between them. Her parents will always view Ray in light of his father’s criminality, and even Ray’s internal thoughts cast himself in this role.

“You’re Mike Carney’s son. You’ll figure it out.”

Ray bristles at Pepper’s suggestion that he will know where to dump a body because he is the son of a renowned criminal. Ray strives to escape his father’s reputation and build a reputation of his own, but there is some truth to Pepper’s suggestion. Over the course of the book, Ray shows that he has never truly abandoned his father’s lifestyle. He inherits his father’s ability to hold a grudge and to meticulously plan revenge against anyone who robbed him. Ray bristles at Pepper’s comment, but Pepper is correct: Ray does know where to dump a body. He inherited this from his father, remaining his father’s son, even if he has spent his life trying to escape this reputation.

“Crooked world, straight world, same rules—everybody had a hand out for the envelope.”

The more Ray learns about the society he inhabits, the more he is bemused by his own naiveté. Everyone, he learns, is invested in some element of criminal behavior. His furniture store, the police on the street, the community representatives, the politicians, and everyone else engages in a complicated network of bribes and hustles. Even seemingly innocent characters like Elizabeth are tainted by their connection to people like Ray. In an unequal, imperfect society, everyone is nevertheless bound together by their own self-interest and greed.

“He’s out there trying to run a hustle the same as you.”

While Ray compartmentalizes everything, he cannot do this with Freddie, as Freddie is both an accomplice and a family member. As such, Freddie is in a unique position to point out Ray’s hypocrisy. Freddie can throw light on Ray’s self-delusion and occasionally remind his cousin that he is not exactly the honest, self-made man that he presents to the world.

“What protection was plate glass against the Big One?”

The brief air raid rehearsal in New York is an example of pompous theater and empty spectacle. Like everyone else, Ray goes through the motions of seeking cover and waiting for the warning sirens to end. He knows that the cover would be useless in the event of a nuclear bomb strike on the city, but he follows everyone else anyway. Ray and the rest of society are lying to themselves, rehearsing empty gestures to put themselves at ease. The air raid rehearsal is a metaphor for the society, which is fraught with greed and dishonesty while convincing itself that it is the greatest society in the world.

“The first sleep was a subway train that dropped him off in different neighborhoods of crooked behavior and the second sleep returned him to normal life with a rumble.”

Here, Ray formalizes his compartmentalization. Using the metaphor of Dorvay, Ray divides his day into two sections: the legitimate and the criminal. The night is reserved for his criminal, illicit activities, including his revenge plot. Ray’s turn toward a “Jekyll-and-Hyde” lifestyle is a more pronounced, more formalized version of his regular routine. As he becomes more successful and more involved in criminal enterprises, he needs to increase his self-delusion. He wants to keep telling himself that he is an honest, self-made man. The formality of this arrangement is a demonstration of Ray’s need to preserve his self-delusion, to the point where he takes on a whole new sleeping arrangement to keep his self-delusion alive.

“Every day Duke hustled, doing his own handoffs in restaurants and club rooms, pushing that inside dope: influence, information, power.”

Wilfred Duke runs a scam, just like Freddie, Pepper, or Chink Montague. The only difference is that Duke is rich enough that he does not need to use a knife or a gun. He has elevated himself beyond the petty criminality of the streets and deals with corruption at a higher level. Despite Duke’s pretensions, however, his actions are built on the same foundations of criminality and deceit. As much as Duke insists that he is different, he is fundamentally the same as those he judges to be beneath him.

“The little man was the white system hidden behind a black mask.”

Ray’s plot against Duke is months in the making and requires a huge amount of time, effort, and money. Although Ray’s motivation is revenge against the man who humiliated him, he tells himself that he is motivated by something more important. During the second part of the novel, Ray attempts to frame his actions in several ways. He tries to convince himself that he is acting for his community or challenging race relations in the city. These are further examples of Ray’s need for self-delusion. By the third part of the novel, Ray accepts that he was motivated by revenge and little else.

“Even a half-assed audit would reveal his sins.”

After separating his business and his criminal worlds for so long, they are beginning to blend in Ray’s mind. His use of business language to judge the character of a criminal is an example of this, as he assesses the morality of a person as though they were a tax audit. The criminality is so barely concealed that even a half-hearted attempt to discern reality would reveal all the immorality and crimes with ease. Ray’s assessment also hints at a second question: If the audit were this easy to perform, why is it not being done? Ray knows that the society has no interest in revealing “sins” (187), as so many people are guilty.

“How long do you keep trying to save something that has been lost?”

The window broken during the riots is replaced every day and then destroyed again the next night. Ray uses the window as a metaphor for his cousin’s behavior. Every time he tries to repair Freddie, Freddie is inevitably broken again. Ray does not know how long he can continue helping his cousin before he finally becomes too frustrated. That said, Ray never refuses to help Freddie.

“Gigantic diamond rings bulged on his fingers like warts.”

Chink Montague is so corrosively criminal and immoral that he can corrupt any beautiful thing. On his fingers, the most lavish diamonds seem like warts. The diamond rings are subtle metaphors which hint at the destructive effect which gangsters like Montague have on society, as they can corrupt and pollute for their own benefit at the expense of others.

“At Carney’s request, the cops displayed their badges with petulant resignation.”

The police arrive during an important meeting and nearly ruin a fantastic professional opportunity for Ray. In this situation, he has little to no power. He is forcibly reminded that the White officers and the institution they represent can dominate African American men such as himself. He asks to see their badges, attempting to assert whatever authority he can in the situation, but the officers only do so with “petulant resignation” (216). Carney’s request reminds him how little power he has in comparison to the White police officers.

“The doorways were entrances into different cities—no, different entrances into one vast, secret city.”

While riding around the city with Munson, Ray is given an insight into the depth and breadth of the criminality in his society. Every stop on the journey is a reminder that even seemingly innocent storefronts can mask illicit activity in the back. Ray is shocked at first, then slightly embarrassed, as his store operates in the same way. The journey with Munson reminds Ray that he is not unique and that many other people live dual lives on the boundaries of legitimacy.

“At no point did Ambrose Van Wyck acknowledge Freddie’s presence.”

When Linus and Freddie break into the Van Wyck family home, they are caught by Linus’s father, Ambrose. While Ambrose addresses his son, the idea of Freddie is so abhorrent to him that he mentally erases Freddie from the room. The presence of an African American man helping Linus steal from the family home is poisonous to Ambrose, so he prefers to simply pretend that Freddie does not exist. He deludes himself to preserve his mental well-being, as his racism wrestles with his fury at his son’s actions.

“Carney normally leaned back in his spot on the Argent sofa but he

didn’t want to appear too casual in front of their guest, who might judge his

middle-class indulgences.”

Ray is self-conscious about his roots. Thus far, he has compartmentalized his life so that his role as an upstanding community businessman and a petty criminal are kept apart. However, Elizabeth invites Pepper to dinner and brings these two worlds into conflict. Although Ray is worried about Elizabeth learning about his criminality, he also wants to preserve his image in front of Pepper. He may not want to be his father’s son, but Ray still wants to assure Pepper that he is not a weak, helpless member of the middle class.

“Maybe it was the Carney job, because he wanted to prove that he could move a big rock like that, stick it to the rich bastards again.”

Whenever Ray does something, he wants to do it well. When he becomes a furniture salesman, he learns everything he can about furniture. When he becomes a fence for stolen goods, he learns all about jewels and gems. When Freddie steals a valuable necklace, he wants to prove that he is the best fence in the city by selling it when no one else can. Ray views himself as an ultra-competent, hardworking person who strives to be better than anyone else. He frames the sale of the necklace as the “Carney job” because it allows him to feed into the mythology he creates for himself.

“The table and chairs were from Templeton Office’s new fall line of business furniture. Not even out yet, as far as Carney knew.”

As a furniture salesman, Ray assesses people through the furniture in their homes or offices. He knows the intricate details of every piece and believes that the selection of certain pieces provides insight into character. When he arrives in the Van Wyck offices, he is reminded of the family’s wealth and importance. Their furniture which not even available to the public. They use this furniture for offices and criminal deals which stay out of the sight of the public; the furniture that the Van Wyck family can afford to keep hidden is more expensive and more exclusive than all the furniture in Ray’s store. Simply by looking at the tables and chairs, Ray is reminded of his comparative weakness when facing off against the Van Wyck family.