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 Easter Sunday, 1934, two important events take place. The first is a huge mass meeting for the Knights of Nordica celebrating its one-year anniversary and its newly acquired one millionth member. The second is the wedding between Matthew Fisher (Grand Exalted Giraw) and Helen Givens. Rev. Givens is thrilled with Fisher’s work—membership has grown exponentially, and the treasury is bursting with money, despite Givens’s corruption.
Having critiqued the Black leaders in the novel and how they are taking advantage of working-class Black Americans in the previous chapter, the book now focuses on critiquing the leaders of white supremacist groups, who do the same thing with working-class white people.
Themes
As the money flowed in, Matthew’s reputation as an organizer spread throughout the South, and he suddenly became a very eligible bachelor. Beautiful women threw themselves at him, but he had eyes only for Helen. Helen, meanwhile, was always taken with his intelligence, but she waited until the Knights of Nordica’s treasury grew to accept his marriage proposal. And so, when they wed, both were happy—though Helen was annoyed that Matthew associated with low-brows, and Matthew disliked her ignorance.
Again, Matthew shows his hypocrisy. He aims to take advantage of the white working-class people whom he believes are ignorant, but he does so in order to marry an ignorant person and to gain wealth. Moreover, he does so while stoking the very fear that harms people like him, who have become white.
Themes
During his and Helen’s courtship, Matthew also started raising money through the leading businessmen in Georgia. He told them about the Knights of Nordica and how it was in direct opposition to the Bolshevik-funded Black-No-More and its Communist interests. He then asked them for a small contribution, which they readily gave. Every time contributions slowed, he printed Communist tracts and distributed them around the mills and factories, which would immediately increase contributions.
Matthew exhibits how, even though he purports to be working in the interests of average people, he is actually aligning himself with businessmen, in opposition to Black-No-More. He suggests that Black-No-More is “Communist” and spurs people to unionization. He uses these words as critiques, which shows that he is intent on making people race-conscious rather than class-conscious in order to bolster his own wealth and power.
Themes
At the same time, the great mass of white workers was afraid to organize and fight for more pay because of the fear that Black people would take their jobs and work for less money. When they first heard about Black-No-More, they were relieved—but when they heard of its menace, they forgot their economic troubles and railed against Dr. Crookman. Now there were many formerly Black people taking their jobs and undermining the American standard of living—even though none of them had ever attained that standard of living.
Here, the book demonstrates the effect of Matthew’s work on the white working class. Because groups like the Knights of Nordica make white workers much more concerned about Black people infiltrating their ranks, they don’t realize the power that they could have in unifying as one working class and gaining the benefits they deserve. Instead, they blame the Black working class for earning lower pay even though this could be remedied by banding together.
Themes
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Despite his increasing wealth, Matthew maintained close contacts with the merchants and manufacturers, showing how his work saved them from the white working class’s discontent by making them race-conscious instead of class-conscious. He then asked for large sums of money to continue that work, which they would give.
Matthew benefits from dividing people based on race, thereby ensuring that they do not organize based on class. Even though he purports to work for the Knights of Nordica’s interests, in reality, he gains lots of money by taking advantage of its members.
Themes
Matthew’s success threatened the Reverend Givens, however, as many people said that Matthew should be the Grand Wizard, and Givens was suspicious of any man more educated than he was. However, he was thrilled when Matthew asked him for Helen’s hand—this meant the Knights of Nordica was safe in the family.
Again, the book reinforces both Givens’s ignorance (in that he is skeptical of anyone more educated than him) and also the idea that he is mostly motivated by a desire for wealth. Above all, he wants to make sure that the money he earns from the Knights of Nordica will remain in his family.
Themes
One morning a few weeks after his wedding, Matthew receives a visit from a B. Brown. A short, plump man enters and greets him, saying, “Don’t recognize me, do you Max?” Shocked, Matthew learns quickly that the man is Bunny Brown. He asks why Bunny didn’t come to Atlanta earlier—Bunny explains that he was in jail for sleeping with a white man’s wife. When the man discovered them, Bunny attacked him. Matthew says it was lucky that Bunny wasn’t Black when that happened.
Bunny’s arrival not only reinforces how easy deception and manipulating one’s identity is, but it also reminds readers of the danger that Matthew and Bunny face if someone were to find out that they used to be Black. Bunny’s story also illustrates the advantages they have as white men: whereas here he goes to jail for a short time for attacking a white man and sleeping with his wife, if he were Black, he could have experienced much worse.
Themes
Matthew offers Bunny a job as his right-hand man for $5,000, which Bunny gladly accepts. Matthew tells Bunny about his time with the Knights and his marriage to Helen—the same girl who turned him down that night in the Honky Tonk. Matthew also cautions Bunny never to call him Max and warns that no one can find them out.
Here, Matthew emphasizes how even in their new personas, Matthew and Bunny cannot be fully secure, reinforcing how identity is mutable. Defining it purely by race or bloodline is difficult, because in the world of the novel, a person’s race and external appearance can change. But at the same time, there’s a chance that people will continue to judge Matthew and Bunny for who they used to be.
Themes
Matthew then gives Bunny his first task. A few months earlier, he hired Santop Licorice to fight Beard and the N.S.E.L., and he asks Bunny to see if paying Licorice is still worthwhile. Bunny asks why he’s opposed to Black-No-More and also paying Licorice to fight other people opposed to Black-No-more. Matthew simply says that it’s strategy—the longer they can draw out the fights between the groups, the longer the money rolls in.
Matthew’s reasoning here reinforces that he doesn’t actually care about social progress one way or the other. What he really cares about is simply being able to continue making money off of racial resentment by getting more and more people to join the Knights of Nordica.
Themes
Two days later, Bunny heads up to New York to ask after Santop Licorice while also approaching Beard and the other Black leaders to ask them to speak to white audiences for the Knights of Nordica. The N.S.E.L. is in a precarious situation, Matthew knows, because both the Black masses and the white philanthropists have deserted them, and he feels that they can speak to Knights of Nordica audiences—their racial integrity talks would click with the white people.
The book continues to illustrate the Black leaders’ hypocrisy both in suggesting that Santop Licorice (standing in for Marcus Garvey) is working with a white supremacist group and that leaders like Beard might do the same thing because they are so desperate for money.
Themes
As Bunny travels, he picks up a paper whose headline reads, “Wealthy White Girl Has Negro Baby.” From then on, there are frequent reports of this happening. Though some of the women involved have recently become white, the blame for this problem usually falls on the fathers. The entire nation becomes alarmed, and hundreds of thousands of people flock to Knights of Nordica meetings. For the first time since 1905, chastity becomes a true virtue, and men and women are much more suspicious of meeting and marrying.
This news causes a renewed focus on racial bias, as white people grow concerned about having Black children. This is in spite of the fact that Dr. Crookman’s treatment has shown that there are no discernable differences between the races outside of superficial features. This illustrates how Americans’ fixation on race is inescapable, even when those superficial racial differences are eliminated.
Themes
Black-No-More, meanwhile, seizes on this opportunity to drum up more business, establishing lying-in hospitals where mothers can have their babies and then give them a 24-hour treatment to make them white. As a result, the country breathes easier.
The fact that babies can receive the treatment only emphasizes how changeable (and thus insubstantial) race is. But it also shows how this obsession with race and racial difference has corrupted innocent children, as people judge them based on their outer appearance and want to “treat” them. In addition, it again shows that Dr. Crookman wants to make as much money as possible and take further advantage of racial bias by establishing the lying-in hospitals and using his treatment on babies.
Themes
In two weeks, Bunny Brown returns, explaining that Licorice isn’t doing anything to help Matthew, and the Black leaders are nowhere to be found. None of the Black newspapers are running, and the only people who live in Harlem now are becoming white—soon, Licorice will be the only Black man left.
Bunny hints at the irony in the Black leaders’ actions: most of them have decided to become white, again showing their hypocrisy in preaching racial solidarity.
Themes
