This is one of those times where the movie is better than the book. I'm more than halfway through, and I'll finish it, but son, I am disappoint.

Peter Benchley is racist, to boot. Right at the beginning we hear about a black man raping rich, white women. Later a black man and his son are talking about how the shark won't eat them. "Don't sharks eat black people?" asks the son.

I suppose it doesn't help that I have seen the movie so many times before reading the book, since I can only picture the actors in those roles. I just can't picture Richard Dreyfus getting it on with Lorraine Gary. Yeah, it goes there.

I'm glad it's a library book, I would hate to have wasted money on this.

Later a black man and his son are talking about how the shark won't eat them. "Don't sharks eat black people?" asks the son.

The obvious answer to this question is, "No, son; sharks mistake us for whale shit." ...
... I mean, c'mon; common sense here!

Yeah I read it about the time they made it into a movie. I didnt think it was racist though. Of course i was a 15-year-old kid living in the south most of my life so I didnt think anything was very racist.

Maybe I just think the need to say "black man" when just "man" will do is a bit much.

At least he didn't say "darky".

Or ape, or boogie, or burhead, or goliwog, or mosshead, or sambo, or a sootie ...
Any of those mentioned in the book?

Not yet, but there's still time.

Ahh Socialism and Socialists... and their need to make everything purple...

Ahh Socialism and Socialists... and their need to make everything purple...

What.

I don't want to turn this into a discussion of what does and does not constitute racism to the world at large.

That having been said:

It was published in 1974. That was a long time ago and a lot of attitudes have changed since then and many more are changing now. Consider it for the time it was. Do you have a problem with Mark Twain too?

Further, people with a reasonable view of the world don't consider black people pointing out that they are, in fact, black people, out of the norm. I've heard black people tell me they do things a certain way "because they are black". They say they drive like black people, walk like black people, laugh like black people and live on "black time". Because they are black. My black friends (yes, I do in fact have black friends) call me the honorary brotha because I eat chicken (specifically wings) like a black man (I put the entire wingette in my mouth and manipulate all the meat off the bone and what is left wouldn't satisfy an anthill. It's a talent). Also I eat collards, pig feet, short ribs, and many other foods that are stereotypically eaten by black people. Sadly it's more a result of growing up dirt poor in the South (you know, just like black people did 100 years ago). My black friends and I occasionally swap the latest joke at each others' expense. Does that make me a racist? No it means my friends and I are comfortable with each other and the disparities in our pigments. Perhaps African-Canadians do things differently. I don't know, I don't live there and I don't know any. But we let our black people call each other the N-word and if they aren't tolerant of the use of that particular word, we let them follow their own moral compass and police themselves. I don't use it out of respect. I call my black friends "My Ninjas". They're cool like that. Am I a racist? They don't think so.

I mean shit, I'm white (actually I'm Irish, Dutch and Ashkenazi so I'm practically transparent) and I don't care if people call me Whitey. Call me Whitey Ford, I sing the blues.  Ask anyone.

Also consider the fact that black people (like Asians and Aboriginal peoples and Indians and Arabs and every other demographic) WANT to be recognized in the arts, in the media, and yes, in literature. How do we do this if we don't identify them as black (etc etc et al)?

Or we could just call each other Ninjas.

Isn't Jaws a James Bond character?  Are you talking about black people because you think they all have grills?

It's probably nothing then. I just find it odd. It really wasn't written that long ago.

I haven't read Mark Twain, but I have read To Kill a Mockingbird and Gone with the Wind, which really glossed over slavery and got people to believe that mammies existed. Maybe I should read Tom Sawyer next.

I am Canadian and I'm still weirded out when I visit South Carolina. The US south is still living in the past when it comes to race.

The book still sucks.

It wasn't so much a glossing over as a matter of perspective. Racism is stupid. You can't convince the stupid that they are wrong. They tell their story as they see it.

And for the record, not all slaves hated their masters or revolted. Much like the conservative white trash of the Tea Party, it's fairly simple to convince the ignorant that the benefits of slavery far outweigh the disadvantages particularly when you have a scapegoat to deflect their ills upon.

Read Harriet Beecher Stowe and try to remember that perspective is everything and evolution is ongoing.

I'm not that worried about it, it was just a thought.

It's not like I'm going to protest in the streets or anything.

Let OCCUPY DIXIE! be your battlecry...

I guess it was more a comment on the crappy writing style, saying "black man" seems superfluous without a proper description.

OK now you're just making me giggle. Seriously?

Giggle on, my friend. This author sucks, and I won't likely read him again.

I didn't like the movie either.

JAWS Family guy

Benchley wrote the final screenplay so it's no wonder.

If you think the racism in Jaws is awful, you should read "Re-animator" by H.P. Lovecraft. I've never read a description so vile and blatant about another racial group. I mean he goes much further than just describing the Negroid race as a subhuman racial group. But for the early twentieth century, that view point wasn't that uncommon.

Twain was pretty mild with the racist language. You should try Faulkner if you are wanting that "good ole boy" viewpoint of southern black folk.

As of right now I'm rereading Blood Meridian by McCarthy. He spares no detail about the racism expressed in the pre-bellum South.

I also think that the book, Fight Club, never lived up to the movie.

I haven't seen neither the book, nor the movie, Fight Club ...