Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Black No More, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism and Oppression
Race, Class, and Power
Ignorance
Identity and Deception
Leadership and Hypocrisy
Summary
Analysis
On New Year’s Eve, 1933, Max Disher stands outside the Honky Tonk Club in New York City, watching crowds of people enter the cabaret. Max is tall, with coffee-brown skin and dapper clothes. Despite the evening’s cheer, he’s quite sad—he and his girl Minnie quarreled earlier that day and broke up. He thinks that it’s probably for the best—she was “stuck on her color” because she was light-skinned and always wanted him to spend a lot of money on her.
Black No More’s opening passage hints at some of the key conflicts in the novel. Max is steeped in a world defined by racial prejudice—to the extent that not only are white people viewed as inherently superior to Black people, but even those with closer proximity to whiteness (for example, Minnie, because she is light-skinned) feel a degree of that same superiority.
Themes
Just then, Max’s friend Bunny—a short, plump Black man in a fedora and a camel coat—greets Max. Max tells Bunny that Minnie broke up with him, and he’s particularly frustrated because he spent so much money on two tickets for the Honky Tonk for that evening. Bunny suggests that they go in together, positing that they could get into some party afterward to find another girl for Max.
Max illustrates some of the ramifications of Minnie’s expectations as a light-skinned person, in that he felt he had to spend a lot of money on her in order to keep her happy. Otherwise, she could easily find someone else because her light skin makes her seem more valuable to people. This establishes how even shades of skin color have a great impact on how people move through the world and expect to be treated.
Themes
Max and Bunny enter the smoky Honky Tonk Club and weave through its maze of tables. The pair have been friends since the war, when they served together in France. Max now works in insurance, while Bunny is a bank teller. Both have a critical weakness: they prefer “yellow” women, who are often so sought after that they get flighty and fickle. As they find a table, Max proclaims that he’s going to only date Black women from then on—he tells Bunny that you can trust a Black girl. Or he could get with a white woman, whom he says are generally less trouble.
Again, the book emphasizes how much race factors into people’s relationships. It illustrates how “yellow” women (meaning light-skinned women) are sought after because of their skin. And even though Max talks about finding a white woman to be with, this comment is likely sarcastic. At the time the book is set (the 1930s and 40s), segregation was still in place in the U.S., and interracial marriages were illegal.
Themes
Just then, a party of white people enter the club in their evening dress. One of them is a blonde girl who looks like a model. Max and Bunny stare at her covertly; they comment quietly on the woman’s beauty but lament that they could never get with her because she sounds Southern. Still, Max can’t help but be drawn to her.
As Max comments on the blonde girl’s accent, the book sets up an association between Southern, rural white people and ignorance. Here, it’s implied that the girl is likely more ignorant and prejudiced because she is from the South, where people are even more divided based on race.
Themes
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Suddenly, one of the white men in the same party comes over to Max and Bunny’s table. They tense as he approaches, but he asks where he can buy some decent liquor. Max says there’s a store down the street, but Bunny notes that the store clerks would probably think the man was a prohibition officer, so the man asks if they would mind buying him some. Max agrees quickly, hoping that the people might then invite him to their table. But when Max returns to the Club with the liquor, the man simply gives Max the change for his trouble, and Max returns to Bunny.
This exchange illustrates several dynamics that exist between the men because of their racial disparity. First, Max and Bunny are aware that at any point, they could be the victims of violence by white men simply because they’re Black, implied by the fact that they tense up when this man approaches. The man also treats Max like a servant, asking him to get their liquor and treating him poorly by giving him change as payment rather than treating him as an equal by inviting him to their table. These are subtle but impactful undertones that highlight the inequality between them.
Themes
Soon after, the floor show starts in the club. The act includes a black-faced comedian, a man singing “mammy songs,” three Black soft-shoe dancers and a group of practically nude chorus girls. The New Year arrives, and after the celebration, many of the patrons get up to dance as the blues play. The beautiful blonde girl, however, remains sitting with another girl. Max decides to get up and ask her to dance, but Bunny warns him that this is a bad idea—the other men might beat him up.
These acts reflect the popular vaudeville songs and dances of the 1930s. It is notable, however, that at this time, entertainment was transitioning from minstrel shows (which featured racist depictions of Black Americans) to vaudeville. These acts reflect some of the remnants of the older forms of skits and music—such as the comedian wearing blackface or the man singing “mammy songs” (a stereotype of a Southern Black woman enslaved by a white family). Thus, even in entertainment at a primarily Black club, racist stereotypes are used as entertainment to make money.
Themes
Ignoring Bunny, Max saunters over to the table and approaches the blonde girl for a dance. She says icily that she would never dance with him, calling him a racial slur, and Max returns to Bunny, crushed. Just then, a waiter Max knows passes by, and Max asks about the girl. The waiter says that she’s been there every night—she’s a rich girl up from Atlanta for the holidays. Max is amazed that she’s from his hometown, and he thinks it’s no wonder she turned him down. Still, it’s funny to him that she wanted to come to a Black club.
This is another example of some of the discrimination and ignorance that Black people like Max face, as the blonde girl doesn’t want to dance with Max simply because he’s Black. He also recognizes the irony and the hypocrisy in wanting to enjoy Black culture (coming to the Honky Tonk club) but not actually appreciating or treating Black people equally.
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At 3 a.m., Max hails a cab back to his apartment in Harlem. At home, he dreams about the blonde woman—of dancing and dining with her, but also of sitting on a throne while millions of white slaves bow before him. Then he has a nightmare of gray men with shotguns, dogs, a bonfire, and a screeching mob. He wakes up in a sweat in the late morning as the phone rings.
Max’s dream has a great deal of foreshadowing. First, it depicts the threat of racist oppression and racially motivated violence in the images of him being chased and almost lynched by a screeching mob. But it also foreshadows his desire to profit off of the white masses in the image of a million white slaves bowing before him.
Themes
On the phone, Bunny tells Max of an interesting story in the Times: Dr. Junius Crookman—a medical student they used to know—has just announced that he found a way to turn Black people white. Bunny says that Crookman is going to open a sanitarium in Harlem, and this is Max’s chance to get with the blonde girl from the previous night. Max dismisses the idea, but after he gets off the phone, he gets excited about the prospect.
The book portrays Dr. Crookman’s treatment as a way for people to overcome oppression based on race. Bunny’s suggestion even provides an example of how this treatment could benefit Max: he’ll no longer face discrimination from women like the blonde girl.
Themes
Reading in the newspaper that Crookman is staying at the Phyllis Wheatley Hotel, Max decides to go and ask Crookman if he could be the first person to try out the treatment. He realizes that if he were white, he wouldn’t have to deal with Jim Crow, insults, or discrimination. He would be “a free man at last”—and he could also meet the blonde girl from Atlanta.
Max’s declaration that he would be a “free man at last” in becoming white suggests that in the United States, oppression and racism didn’t simply end when slavery was abolished in the mid-19th century. Jim Crow laws—a series of racist segregationist laws enacted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—still confined Black Americans politically, economically, and socially.
Themes
Max hurries over to Crookman’s hotel and finds Crookman’s room. There, reporters of all races are crammed into the sitting room while Crookman, tall and polished, with ebony skin, is speaking. Crookman discusses the development process for his treatment, explaining that some Black people suffer from a disease called vitiligo, which removes skin pigment and makes white patches appear on the skin. He thought that if someone could discover a means of artificially inducing this disease, it might be a way to solve the “race problem” in the U.S.—and that’s what he has done.
Dr. Crookman suggests here that the only thing that truly distinguishes white and Black people are skin color and a few other physical features—a radical idea at the time. Suggesting that changing these features would solve the race problem in the U.S. illustrates that race is completely socially constructed. In some ways, his assessment assumes that getting rid of racial differences would get rid of racism in the U.S. because there would be no basis for racial oppression.
Themes
Crookman explains that people’s hair and features are also changed in the process—in three days, a Black man would become white to all appearances. He does note that this does not affect the person’s genes and that their offspring would be Black. However, he states that he has found a way to transform babies as well. He introduces a man who looks like he’s from Norway named Sandor, but Crookman says that the man is actually Senegalese, showing remarkable before and after pictures. The reporters are awed.
Sandor’s case here illustrates that Crookman’s treatment has been effective at making Black people indistinguishable from white people (at least until they have children), illustrating that race is malleable and is therefore is, in some ways, a completely fake construct. The idea that children will even be treated shows just how fixated people are on race—so much so that innocent infants are viewed as a problem that has to be fixed simply because they’re born mixed-race.
Themes
After a few more questions and photographs, Max Disher reintroduces himself to Crookman. He offers himself up as a volunteer, and Crookman assures him that once their sanitarium is up and running, Crookman can help Max out. At that moment, one of Crookman’s business partners, Charles Foster, warns that there will be problems when mixed-race babies start appearing. But another partner, Hank Johnson, says that they’ll cross that bridge when they get there.
The fact that the treatment does not affect people’s children is a key idea, because it still makes people distinguishable from one another based on race. Thus, as much as Crookman wants to use his treatment to get rid of race (and therefore racism), Foster foreshadows that the treatment’s limits will become pitfalls in doing so.
Themes
The next day, the newspapers all run stories about Crookman’s enterprise (he refuses to share his process), and Max keeps up with all the sanitarium’s developments over the following weeks. He wants to be the first to get the treatment and then go to Atlanta; he’s head over heels in love with the blonde girl.
While Dr. Crookman’s motivations seem pure as he works to help fellow Black Americans, the doctor’s very name implies that he is a crook. Moreover, the fact that he is protective of his treatment suggests that his motivations may not be so pure, and that he wants to make money from eradicating racism.
Themes
When the sanitarium is ready for business, throngs of people wait out in front of the building, curious about what’s happening inside. Inside, Foster asks Crookman what he’ll do about changing people’s dialects, but Crookman assures the man that Black people speak just the same as their white neighbors: there are no color dialects, only regional dialects. Moreover, when considering Black people’s features, there are many white people who have lips as thick and noses as broad as many Black people. He also notes that there can’t be too much difference between Black and white people in the U.S., because many Black people have some white ancestry.
Dr. Crookman again underscores how races are socially constructed. Even though people believe that Black people have different dialects or features, in reality, these beliefs are simply based on stereotypes. Dialects have more to do with region and class, while people’s features can’t be too different because most Black people have white ancestry. This also introduces the idea that identity isn’t fully stable—even though people have one image of their identity, in reality, people rarely have a full picture of their bloodline or genes.
Themes
Just then, Max enters the building, ready for the procedure—he’s the first on the list. Crookman instructs him to sign the register and get into a bathrobe, and Max heads into the receiving room. When Johnson looks out at the people lining up for an appointment, he notes that they’ll be rich in no time.
Here, Johnson suggests that the treatment is going to make him, Crookman, and Foster rich because of the high demand. Although they want to help overcome racism, they are also profiting off of it and fellow Black Americans in order to make their money.
Themes
As Max undresses, he starts to grow nervous, wondering whether something could go wrong. He also thinks about the many wonderful evenings at different Black cultural mainstays in the city and hesitates, wondering whether to go through with the procedure. But when he envisions his future as a white man, he resolves to continue. In the treatment chamber, he sees what looks like a dentist’s chair crossed with an electric chair, around which are lots of instruments and bottles of colorful fluids. He gasps in fear, but the two attendants strip off his robe and bind him in the chair. There’s no retreat—it is “the beginning or the end.”
Max acknowledges the beauty and joy in his life as a Black man, but his thoughts illustrate that the racial discrimination he faces overshadow the valuable and enjoyable aspects of being Black. Moreover, the fact that Max acknowledges that the treatment is “the beginning or the end” suggests that he is going into this treatment completely blind, not knowing exactly what his life might look like afterward. The ominous wording hints that there is some danger in taking the treatment without fully understanding the ramifications, because he and other Black people taking the treatment don’t know how society might change based on their actions.
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