In the book, babies symbolize how racism in America corrupts innocence. While children are traditionally associated with innocence, in this novel they become a political tool. Because the “Black-No-More” treatment doesn’t translate to genetics, Black people who have become white still give birth to Black or mixed-race babies. This alarms white society, so much so that they actively target the birth centers that Dr. Crookman has set up to immediately treat these babies after birth. White hate groups set one of the hospitals on fire, killing 12 newborn babies. This incident illustrates how racism corrupts and ultimately kills pure, innocent children for no reason whatsoever.
This becomes evident when Helen is pregnant as well, and Max’s fear of what she will say when the baby is born with dark skin makes him consider murdering his own child. Racism not only corrupts those who hold racist beliefs, but also corrupts those who fear what might happen if their own deception is found out—all to the detriment of innocent children.
Ironically, at the end of the book, when people start to want to have darker skin to prove they are more “white,” it is paradoxically Matthew Fisher Jr. who is the least out of place in society because he is mixed-race. It shows once again how racism is a corrupting force that contrasts with the idea that children should be allowed to be themselves—that innocence should be preserved. However, because Matthew and his family have to leave the country in order to find this ease, it suggests cynically that racism’s corruptive force is unavoidable in the United States.
Babies Quotes in Black No More
The great mass of white workers, however, was afraid to organize and fight for more pay because of a deepset fear that the Negroes would take their jobs. They had heard of black labor taking the work of white labor under the guns of white militia, and they were afraid to risk it. They had first read of the activities of Black-No-More, Incorporated, with a secret feeling akin to relief but after the orators of the Knights of Nordica and the editorials of The Warning began to portray the menace confronting them, they forgot about their economic ills and began to yell for the blood of Dr. Crookman and his associates. Why, they began to argue, one couldn’t tell who was who! Herein lay the fundamental cause of all their ills. Times were hard, they reasoned, because there were so many white Negroes in their midst taking their jobs and undermining their American standard of living. None of them had ever attained an American standard of living to be sure, but that fact never occurred to any of them. So they flocked to the meetings of the Knights of Nordica and night after night sat spellbound while Rev. Givens, who had finished the eighth grade in a one-room country school, explained the laws of heredity and spoke eloquently of the growing danger of black babies.
“What’s got my goat is my wife being in the family way.” Matthew stopped bantering a moment, a sincere look of pain erasing his usual ironic expression.
“Congratulations!” burbled Bunny.
“Don’t rub it in,” Matthew replied. “You know how the kid will look.”
“That’s right,” agreed his pal. “You know, sometimes I forget who we are.”
“Well, I don’t. I know I’m a darky and I’m always on the alert.”
Other Northern newspapers assumed an even more friendly attitude, but the press generally followed the crowd, or led it, and in slightly veiled language urged the opponents of Black-No-More to take the law into their hands.
Finally, emboldened and inflamed by fiery editorials, radio addresses, pamphlets, posters and platform speeches, a mob seeking to protect white womanhood in Cincinnati attacked a Crookman hospital, drove several women into the streets and set fire to the building. A dozen babies were burned to death and others, hastily removed by their mothers, were recognized as mulattoes. The newspapers published names and addresses. Many of the women were very prominent socially either in their own right or because of their husbands.
The nation was shocked as never before. Republican sentiment began to dwindle.
Must he go on forever in this way? Helen was young and fecund. Surely one couldn’t go on murdering one’s children, especially when one loved and wanted children. Wouldn’t it be better to settle the matter once and for all? Or should he let the doctor murder the boy and then hope for a better situation the next time? An angel of frankness beckoned him to be done with this life of pretense; to take his wife and son and flee far away from everything, but a devil of ambition whispered seductively about wealth, power and prestige.
Babies Symbol Timeline in Black No More
