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
Matthew Fisher (Max Disher’s new alias) arrives in Georgia. For three months, he searches for the blonde girl who shunned him at the Honky Tonk, his desire for her growing stronger and stronger. In that time, he does not find life as a white man to be what he expected. He is largely bored, finding white people to be a lot like Black people, except less courteous and interesting.
The fact that Max (now Matthew) is able to seamlessly blend into white society again reinforces the idea that race is simply a construct, and yet people fixate on it heavily. In addition, the book begins to play on identity, showing how unstable it is given the fact that Max can simply adopt a new name and, as a result, make a new life for himself.
Themes
Sometimes, when Matthew misses other Black folks, he goes down to Auburn Avenue, but the people there all regard him with suspicion. He also grows frustrated with white people’s ignorance concerning the “inferior mentality and morality” of Black Americans. Having experienced both societies, Matthew can firmly say that this is not the case—that white society is largely a let-down.
The book’s irony lies in the fact that Matthew has lived as both a Black man and white man and actually prefers Black society. This suggests that white and Black society are fundamentally equal, and that Black society may, in fact, be better in some ways. And so, when people like this man claim that Black Americans have “inferior mentality and morality,” it only shows the man’s own ignorance and bigoted ideology, the sole purpose of which is to make himself feel superior.
Themes
Matthew also realizes that he has to find a job, but work is scarce even for white people—being white does not guarantee him employment. Additionally, he sees how the newspapers are fanning white people’s racism, particularly in their opposition to Dr. Crookman’s efforts. He realizes that Black-No-More treatment threatens white businesses that have long used cheap, unorganized Black labor to make greater profits.
In this passage, Matthew starts to recognize how institutions like the media or businesses fan the flames of racism. Dividing the work force as these institutions do prevents workers from unionizing, not only to the detriment of the Black workers who could use protections from racial pay gaps, but also to the detriment of white workers who lose power in not banding together with those workers. In this way, the book suggests that forcing the working classes to focus on race rather than class prevents them from attaining the benefits they deserve.
Themes
Recognizing this problem, Matthew wonders how he can capitalize on it and avoid working too hard. He then sees an advertisement in the paper for the “Knights of Nordica,” a group fighting for white race integrity. There is an “Imperial Konklave” that night to organize against Crookman’s treatments, led by Rev. Henry Givens, the Imperial Grand Wizard. Matthew thinks this is just his opportunity.
The description of the Knights of Nordica directly calls back to the real-life Ku Klux Klan, which had members often referred to as “knights,” used words that would replace c’s with k’s, and whose leader was a “grand wizard.” The formation of this group in response to Black-No-More demonstrates that even when the country is given an opportunity to overcome racism and discrimination, society (particularly white people) still focuses on differences between the races and simply frames the problem in a new way.
Themes
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That night, Matthew attends the meeting. Before going into the building, he stops by a soda fountain and asks the young man working there about Givens. The young man explains that he used to be in the Ku Klux Klan before it died out, and now he’s starting the Knights of Nordica to take up a similar mantle.
The book ties the Knights of Nordica and the KKK even more closely here. To take up the same mantle as the KKK implies that it would carry the same mission of vigilante violence in the name of white supremacy. In this way, the Knights of Nordica represents the dangers of ignorance and bigotry in the same way that the KKK does.
Themes
When Matthew walks into the building, he tells the stenographer there that he’s from the New York Anthropological Society and wants to chat with Rev. Givens about his newest venture. Impressed, the woman goes into Givens’s office and leads Matthew in shortly after.
Matthew again reinforces the idea that identities in the world of the novel are unstable, as he is easily able to lie about who he is and convince the woman that he is an anthropologist from New York.
Themes
Givens is a short, almost bald, ignorant ex-evangelist who came originally from a rural town north of Atlanta. He worked with the Ku Klux Klan following the Great War and worked hard to withdraw as much money from its treasury as possible to retire once the Klan declined. But then, when Black-No-More started up, he founded the Knights of Nordica in the hopes of regaining a full treasury.
Givens becomes another example of a person using racial bias in order to make himself wealthy. While he does actually believe in white supremacy (ignorantly, as the book explicitly points out), he is also profiting off the white working classes by stoking that racial resentment.
Themes
Givens asks how he can help Matthew, but Matthew turns the question around and asks how he can aid Givens’s organization. Matthew says he doesn’t want white people’s blood to be “polluted with that of inferior breeds,” which he read in a newspaper at one point and was the extent of his knowledge of anthropology. Matthew describes how thousands of Black people have already joined the white race and now they are opening more sanitariums in other cities. He says that this is a menace and that these places must be closed. The Reverend nods, listening to Matthew and thinking that he will be a valuable asset.
Matthew’s argument is not based in any kind of fact—he is making up his own identity and simply repeating ignorant ideologies that are designed to get him into Givens’s good graces and make Givens feel superior. In referencing “inferior breeds,” he is playing off of a falsely constructed ideology—but one that is pernicious, that society is reluctant to let go of, and that continues to fuel racism.
Themes
Givens invites Matthew to join them at the meeting tonight and tell the audience what he has relayed, and Matthew agrees. Though Matthew despises and fears the white masses, he plans to use them as a stepladder to gain money. When Matthew leaves, Givens congratulates himself on attracting such talent to the organization so early in its founding.
Here, Matthew illustrates his deep hypocrisy: he knows that he doesn’t actually believe in what he’s saying, but he also wants to profit off of the white working class by fueling racist beliefs.
Themes
Meanwhile, Matthew is elated when he returns to the hotel. He asks others in the hotel about Givens, and one man—a native Atlantan—tells Matthew that Givens is ignorant, and that other white people will fall for anything, particularly now that the Klan is gone. At Givens’s house, meanwhile, the reverend brags to Mrs. Givens about talking to a famous anthropologist.
Here, the book sharply critiques Givens and the other white people who will fall for anything. Givens’s lack of education means that he has no idea he isn’t actually talking to an anthropologist, though he and the rest of the Knights of Nordica likely wouldn’t care if they knew this. They simply want someone to validate their racist beliefs and to make them feel superior.
Themes
Mrs. Givens, for her part, doesn’t like what’s happening with the young people like her daughter Helen, who’s away at school. She thinks they are all getting away from God. Mrs. Givens is a Christian—though she often lies and takes God’s name in vain, she hates Black people, she may not have been a virgin on her wedding night, and she stole money as head of the ladies’ auxiliary of the Klan.
The book indicts Christianity as a perpetuator of ignorance, portraying it as an ideology that easily manipulates people by making them feel morally superior. This, in turn, enables people to act however they want because they are so firm in their belief that being Christian automatically means that they’re virtuous.
Themes
Meanwhile, Helen is 20, beautiful, and civilized—and she considers herself to be unlike her parents. She knows how to wear clothes, but any form of mental effort makes her head ache, so she never uses her brain. When she was 16 her parents sent her to a finishing school. This gave her knowledge about how to dress and act in exclusive society, which enabled her to get into the best circles.
The book portrays Helen as very ignorant, much like her mother. While she is unwilling to exert any mental effort, at the same time she is automatically granted entry into the best circles. This illustrates the systemic inequality in U.S. society, since Helen is successful and privileged simply because she comes from a wealthy white family.
Themes
Helen at first refuses to go to the Knights of Nordica meeting, saying that common people are crude and uninformed. But Givens points out that without common people, they would never have afforded their home and could never have sent her off to school. Mrs. Givens tells Helen that she should go to meet the anthropologist from New York. Intrigued by her mother’s description of the brilliant young man, Helen agrees to go.
Givens explicitly states that telling people to focus on race is what facilitates his wealth. As an added benefit, the working classes (whom Helen labels “crude” and “uninformed”) then focus on race rather than fixing wealth inequality, ensuring the upper class’s continued fortune and power because the working classes aren’t organizing for better wages or benefits.
Themes
At the meeting that night, many white working-class people arrive in their cheap finery. Givens opens the meeting with a prayer and several spirited songs from a choir. Matthew views the spectacle with some amazement—the meeting is very similar to the religious meetings in Black churches. He quickly realizes that the people will believe anything that’s shouted at them loudly and convincingly enough.
In comparing this meeting to religious meetings in Black churches, the book again critiques Christianity as a perpetrator of ignorance. It suggests that this kind of ignorance (of believing anything said convincingly enough) isn’t limited to white Americans but can also be true Black Americans.
Themes
For an hour, Matthew tells the people what they already believe: that white skin indicates superior intelligence and morality, that God intended the United States as a white man’s country, and that he wants to keep it that way. He also tells them that their children might unknowingly marry Black people if Black-No-More is allowed to continue. The audience enthusiastically applauds him.
Here, Matthew illustrates how ignorance is dangerous: by simply telling people the things that they want to hear, he is able to arouse massive support and money while also stirring up deep hatred.
Themes
As Matthew finishes, he notices for the first time the beautiful blonde girl sitting in the front row—the girl who spurned him so long ago. Matthew asks Givens if he knows who the girl is, and Givens says that it’s his daughter, Helen. Givens asks if Matthew would like to meet Helen, and Matthew gives an enthusiastic yes.
This episode demonstrates how much advantage Matthew has gained in becoming white: he is able to garner great support and also win over a woman like Helen, who rejected him so cruelly when he was Black. In this way, the book shows how Black people are discriminated against and the added difficulties they face, because Matthew would not have been able to do this when he was still Max.
Themes
