Song of Solomon Lesson Plan

What does Guitar mean by his statement, "Everybody wants the life of a black man"?

This is Guitar's way of summing up the unique struggle of Black men. As he explains, white men want them "dead or quiet," since they want to assert total power over them. White women want this as well, with the additional element of fetishizing them sexually. Finally, Black women "want your whole self." Guitar spends a long time explaining this dynamic, saying that Black women are desperate for the utter and complete devotion of Black men, to the extent that they want Black men to die for them. In Guitar's worldview, the only group that doesn't want to kill Black men is other Black men....