Dalton
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The autobiographical conditions that spurred Dalton Conleys thoroughly original memoir, HONKY, resemble some strange “what-if?” scenario. But if the events recorded herein suggest a made-for-TV-movie premise too incredible to be believed, they are nonetheless recorded in an objective, candid manner that reveals the voice of a writer far more concerned with social analysis than mere sensationalism. HONKY tells the story of a boy who must come to terms with his conspicuous whiteness in an African-American/Latino ghetto. Although being “white” usually ensures certain privileges in American culture, Conleys skin proves an increasingly difficult fact he must face in New York Citys racially tense climate of the 70s and 80s.
In the opening chapter of HONKY, Dalton admits that as a young child he was quite ignorant of his ethnic difference. “…[I]n the projects people seemed to come in all colors, shapes, and sizes, and I was yet unaware which were the important ones that divided up the world.” His coming-of-age, however, is marked by an increased awareness of his unique cultural problem: Conley was too poor to be fully accepted into white middle-class circles and too white to be a member of the gangs that populated his neighborhood.
The early sections of HONKY dramatize problems he and his Irish-Jewish family encountered in attempts at assimilation. Conley learns, for example, that he is the only member of his class who does not receive corporal punishment because it would be unthinkable for a black teacher to hit a white child. At the same time, black parents are eager to have their children disciplined in the schools — a value difference Conleys mother is not willing to adopt. After transferring to an elementary school across town in the Village, Conley experiences what it means to be among white students for the first time:
“I would learn that the most popular kids tended to be those whose parents were the richest or most powerful or held the most prestigious jobs. In my old school there had been no such hierarchy of which I was aware — probably because no ones parents were rich, powerful, or prestigious in any sense of the word. There, each kid invented his own place in the social network…by brute force.”
Conleys understanding of this complex social hierarchy only makes him more self-conscious. His position throughout the book is that of marginal participant/perpetual observer. Always slightly outside the boundaries of either the white group or the