'Sideshow' toys with cultures

The Multicultiboho Sideshow

Bard

Three Stars

One Native American, one Asian, one Hispanic, one white girl, one black girl and one black man. Put them together, and you've got your mulitcultiboho tribe. While diverse in background, these five artists are in pursuit of one goal: The grand prize of half a million dollars, doled out by the generous Mr. Dewitt. The reason for the donation is to allow one politically disadvantaged artist to succeed. Initially friends, the lust for money turns this talented five into a hot-wired clan, culminating in fights, ridicule and ultimately death. Such is the case in Alexis D. Pate's murder mystery, "The Multicultiboho Sideshow," a novel about one black man's quest to become anything but the sideshow, moving aside the white man, who is seated luxuriously on center-stage.

Narrating most of the story is the "token black man," Ichabod Word. His friends call him "Icky," but when dealing with white men he prefers the name "Ichabod." He feels that it forces the white man to see him in a dignified, rather than inferior, light. That's the problem with society. Regardless of what one may say, the multicultis are always being pushed aside for the white man. But as Icky makes apparent at the onset of the novel, things are about to change. He will be heard.

This listener, however, is not quite the willing type one may imagine. He is the officer Lieutenant Bloom, lured into Icky's home to be gagged, tied and held at gun-point while Icky spends the rest of the novel explaining the dead body in the center of the room. The dialogue conveys Bloom's racism in that he doubts Icky simply because he is not "white." He is ignorant of Icky's message and of his drive to change our racially hierarchical society into something more reminiscent of true equality.

Pate's efforts to uplift the status of the black man is a problem analogous to struggles by most races and ethnicities today; his success, however, lies in the power of words. Much like Icky throughout the mystery, he abstains from any violence, instead employing his art in persuasion to be heard. Pate brings out the stereotypes of each culture in an honest attempt to alleviate those preconceived notions.

The Asian girl, Jenny, is a quiet young women who uses her sexuality to make a few extra dollars. The black girl, Marci, is jealous of the attention given to those white girls lacking the "butt" that black women are endowed with. The Native American, Herm, is an earth-loving, yet intimidating man. The white girl, April, is trying to be compassionate, but lacks the skin color to understand the way many need to be understood. And lastly, Icky, the black man who abandoned his son, concurs with the image black men have for their fatherless black families.

Yet together they band; together they resolve that they will make a difference. They were going to tear down those stereotypes that so conveniently form a ceiling just below the floor of the white upper-middle class. Pate, as Icky, eloquently states in the novel, "we all hoped there was a reason to have hope." They were to transform the present society to one that stood for true equality.

While Pate's novel clearly has many strengths, it is somewhat flawed in length. Throughout the 241 pages, Icky prolongs the climax of the story until almost the very end. While this usually serves the purpose of added suspense, the story does tend to run on. However, if Pate's true character is portrayed through the fictional Icky, he provides his own self-criticism on this very point in the novel.

Regardless of this flaw, Alexis D. Pate succeeds in providing a symbolic novel about American society today. Embracing honesty, irony, and humor, Pate's satire, "The Multicultiboho Sideshow," sends a message aiding many cultures facing the struggle for equality in society. Working together as one multicultiboho tribe, the one goal, justice, can hopefully be accomplished.

- Nicole Dabbous

11-11-99