The Mythology of the Black Man in ‘American Gods’

In this week’s episode of American Gods, Starz’s new TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel of the same name, the show opened with a scene so riveting, so well-acted and so uncomfortably relevant that it’s hard to forget, even once the episode is over. We’re on an African slave ship in 1697, where one slave says a prayer to the African trickster god Anansi, offering him silk and jewels in exchange for some help. In an invocation somewhere between a spoken plea and a song of praise, the slave calls for the spider god with a mix of desperation and hope; he’s lost, separated from his family and chained on a crowded boat — but he still has his gods. But when Orlando Jones’s Mr. Nancy/Anansi appears, he has no salvation to offer. In an entrance any actor would envy, Jones sashays down to the lower deck of the boat wearing a plaid suit vibrant enough to stop traffic.

What Mr. Nancy offers, in place of salvation or comfort, is an ominous truth about American history and how race relations in this country continue even until today: “Let me tell you a story,” he begins with a sadistic playfulness, his accent changing throughout his speech, “Once upon a time, a man got fucked. Now how is that for a story? Because that’s the story of black people in America. Shit, you all don’t know you black yet. You think you just people. Let me be the first to tell that you are all black. The moment these Dutch motherfuckers set foot here and decided they white and you get to be black — and that’s t…