Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

by John Berendt

“Blacks drink better whiskey than whites do. Dewar’s, Johnnie Walker, Seagram’s, Hennessy. All the high-priced brands. I have a theory about why that is.” The man cupped the elbow of his pipe-holding arm and rocked back on his heels, glancing to his right and left to satisfy himself that the people standing in his immediate vicinity were paying sufficient attention. He then delivered himself of a peculiarly home spun theory: “Remember when the black athletes at the Mexico City Olympics won a lot of medals and raised their fists in the black-power salute? Well, that’s when blacks in Savannah started drinking Dewar’s scotch, Seagram’s gin, and Smirnoff vodka. If you look at those bottles, you’ll notice that all the labels have medals on them. Blacks had suddenly begun to identify with medals because of the Olympics, and that’s why they bought those brands. At about the same time, they also started drinking Hennessy cognac. The Hennessy label has a picture of a hand holding a mace—something like the black-power salute. Johnnie Walker scotch has a man with riding breeches and a top hat, which represents the ‘good life.’ It all has to do with the symbol on the label. The best example of that was when school integration was taking place. That’s when blacks started drinking Teacher’s scotch, which has a label showing a professor wearing a mortarboard. They go for the symbol, y’see. At least that’s the way I figure it.”