Honky is the autobiographical story of a Dalton, a young Jewish white boy growing up in the ghetto of Manhattan in the 70s. His parents are counterculture artists that chose to live in a rundown apartment building as part of their eccentric lifestyle. The tale of Dalton Conley is one of a white child growing up as a minority among primarily brown faces. The adult author that writes about his childhood is a sociologist that wrote the book as a comment on race, class, choice and privilege.
The story is mostly about how as a white family there were many choices that a non-white family would not have. The family made a choice to live in a multicultural neighborhood, but the other non-white families were living in the tenement because it was all they could afford. Dalton’s family was able to use their connections and artist network to claim a false address near a better public school that allowed Dalton to attend a magnet school while his neighborhood friends continued on in the poorest of the public schools.
Dalton comments on race throughout the book. He feels he is treated differently, and usually better than the brown kids in school, in neighborhood stores, and in the eyes of his friend’s families. In his first school, the non-white kids receive corporal punishment for misbehaving, but Dalton is never hit for the same infractions and Dalton is not watched for shoplifting like his friends.
Dalton struggles later in adolescence as he busses to a more affluent school outside his neighborhood. Dalton is poor, but is white and is able to fake his social class, like his friends of color never could to fit in with the rich kids. He becomes acutely aware of how the privilege of class leads to many choices that his friends in the complex where is lives will never enjoy. One clear example is that he and a rich friend start a fire in his friend loft apartment while playing a game with matches. The friend’s family is very wealthy and socially connected and when the police arrive, the fire department rule the fire an accident so the boys are not punished and the insurance will pay for the damage. Dalton feels that if his friends in the ghetto had been caught in the same situation, they would have been arrested for arson.
At the end, Dalton chooses to go to attend Berkley on the opposite coast. He arrives to a sea of white faces for the first time in his life. Dalton was able to test into a prestigious magnate high school his senior year. He attributes his excellent high school education to his ability to move out of the worst school district by using his family’s connections. Most of his friends from the neighborhood never left the poor school district and ended up in a gang, or working blue collar jobs and living in similar housing as when they were kids.
Overall this book is a tale of the benefits of being white, as remembered by the only white child in a multicultural community. Dalton is often preachy in the lessons he doles out about exactly how fortunate those who are not born brown are, and how much class and skin color are taken for granted by those who are white. He also skims over some salient variables in this controversial discussion about race and privilege such as the fact that he came from highly educated parents, that he lived in a two parent household and that education was a priority in his family and Dalton was expected to excel. All of these factors seem to contribute to a person’s chance at success, yet Dalton tries to base his success solely on his skin color.
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