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• 1 2019-10-23T18:16:20-04:00 Holy Days: A Drug Dealer's Departure From Capitalism 26 image_header 2020-03-17T21:23:22-04:00

  James E. Hinton’s short film, Holy Days (1974), begins watching a local Harlem man stumbling down the street. In the background, there is a man’s voice on the radio who is advocating for Black Power and critiquing junkies and those providing the junkies with drugs. The voice exclaims, “You know what’s killing you? You know what’s killing your children? The dope pushers. The junk that is about to be brought in from the outside is killing them.” As the voice grows louder, shouting and repeating this sentence four times: “We must act and help ourselves!” the Harlem man sees his old friend, Barney Jones, in the street. 

  Though it is not known at this time, Barney Jones is known in the community as “the organization’s main man in Harlem for dope, prostitution, [and] numbers.” His girlfriend, Aisha, is not aware of Jones’ profession and believes that he is in real estate; however, she soon finds out that he is a drug dealer and kicks Jones out. Before Jones is forced to leave Aisha, he begins to really see how the drugs that he is responsible for distributing are harming and killing men, women, and children in the Black community. This realization and Aisha leaving him lead Jones to having an epiphany. When Barney attempts to explain to his partner, Short Man, that they have to “clean up,” Short Man responds, “What we’re doing, we ain’t got no part of that. We’re just business men that’s it.” Short Man also refuses to feel guilty about the effects of heroin and other drugs on people, saying, “All I know is profit and loss, Barney, just like you taught.” 

  The journey of Barney Jones and Short Man’s character highlight one large theme in Black radicalist texts: the dangers of capitalism. Initially, Jones is consumed by capitalism because he is the one who benefits from it. Despite its obvious harm towards the Black community, he and Short Man are willing to see those around them suffer and die in order to gain a profit. In No Name In The Street, the essence of Jones and Short Man is described by James Baldwin perfectly. He writes, “There is no pressure on the landlord to be responsible for the upkeep of his property: the only pressure on him is to collect his rent; that is, to bleed the ghetto. There is no pressure on the butcher to be honest: if he can sell bad meat at a profit, why should he not do so?” (Baldwin 162). Capitalism makes all businessmen and womxn indifferent to the well being of those who are buying their products. This type of individualism is what George Jackson condemns because it is “too tightly tied into decadent capitalist culture” (145). As long as the one who is selling the product is benefitting, it does not matter what the effects are.

  At the end of Holy Days, Jones realizes the dangers that come with capitalism and ends up sacrificing profit and peace with his white boss in order to salvage the health of the Black community. Without this change of heart, Jones and Short Man’s love for capitalism would have led them to kill and hurt more members of their community. This “profit and loss” mindset is one that is condemned by Black radicals in the 20th century for this very reason. Whether it is white capitalism or Black capitalism, this economic system leads to greed and the abuse of the poor.