White Folks is a dude that Slim met in jail. Slim writes
this story as told to him by Folks while he served 10 days in jail. They were cell mates.
“Trick Baby” is the story of a black man who is as pale as
his white father. He is the product of
a black woman and white man.
John Patrick O’Brien Junior aka White Folks is alone in the
world when his mother is put in a sanitarium.
He tells his story to Slim of how he became a confidence man. He also talks about the problems he faced as
a black man who looks like a white man.
He was teased and taunted by kids in school and they told him that their
parents forbid them to play with him because he looked white and because his
father was white. The rumor in the
neighborhood was that his father was a trick (a john) and his mother was a
prostitute. I liked how his mother told
him that the children were not to blame for how they treated him, but their
parents were because they poisoned the children’s minds about people who have
different skin color.
Robert Beck knows how to tell a story. His writing is pure and raw and
sincere. He knows how to bring depth to
his characters.
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