 In the same debate with William F. Buckley Jr., in fact, Baldwin claims that "[t]he white South African or Mississippi sharecropper or Alabama sheriff has at bottom a system of reality which compels them really to believe when they face the Negro that this woman, this man, this child must be insane to attack the system to which he owes his entire identity".We can see this notion operative in Jesse's inability to understand why black folks would want to upset the social order, as well as in his outright hostility towards any challenge to white male dominance.In this respect, despite the horrible things he does, Jesse can be interpreted as a tragic figure—a victim of the very racist ideology he perpetuates.