Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dear Martin, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Privilege, Entitlement, and Implicit Bias
Appearances and Assumptions
Support, Acceptance, and Belonging
Opportunity and Upward Mobility
The Media and Public Discourse
Summary
Analysis
It’s Halloween, and Justyce is at Manny’s house getting ready for a party with Jared, Kyle, Tyler, and Blake. Jared has convinced them all to dress as various stereotypes for the party, claiming it will be a “massive political statement about racial equality and broken barriers and shit.” Although he was hesitant to join in on this idea, Justyce allowed Manny to convince him, which is why he now finds himself dressed as a “thug.” Manny, for his part, is dressed as “the Token Black Guy,” wearing “khakis, loafers, and polo with a cable-knit sweater.” Jared is a “Yuppie/Politician,” Tyler is a “Surfer Dude,” and Kyle is a “Redneck” in a trucker hat with a Confederate flag on it. Worst of all, though, is Blake’s costume—he has chosen to dress as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and his outfit is disconcertingly authentic.
Once again, Manny’s white friends trivialize the idea of inequality by acting like they can do whatever they want. Believing that racism no longer exists, they think they can make a parody of bigotry and prejudice. In reality, costumes like Blake’s play on a history of violence and hatred, but he ignores these implications. Of course, he’s only able to ignore such problematic ideas in the first place because he himself has never experienced discrimination and, thus, feels entitled to treat it as nonexistent. Meanwhile, his behavior makes Justyce and Manny uncomfortable.
Themes
Even Jared seems uncomfortable about Blake’s costume. He and Manny go into a different room to discuss it, leaving Justyce with Blake. After a moment, Jared comes out and tells Justyce that Manny wants to talk to him. As he walks to the other room, all of the white boys follow him with their eyes. Once inside, he asks Manny what he wants to talk about, and Manny says, “So Blake’s costume is…Well, you saw it.” He then gives Justyce a chance to back out of the idea, but Justyce tells him they should just go through with the plan. This is because he’s recently read that Martin Luther King, Jr. defined integration as “intergroup and interpersonal living.” Wanting to adopt this mindset, he decides not to say anything to Blake about the costume.
That Justyce decides not to say anything about Blake’s costume illustrates why Blake’s actions are so insensitive and unfair. Acting like racism is a thing of the past, he goes ahead and perpetuates a rather extreme form of racism, making it difficult for Manny and Justyce to speak out against his decision, since he would only claim that inequality no longer exists. In this moment, then, readers see that ignoring the existence of inequality actually enables people to continue to be racist.
Themes
When the group of friends gets into Manny’s car, Blake puts on his hood and does a Nazi salute. Suddenly, Justyce knows this plan isn’t going to end well. His prediction is correct—Blake gets punched in the face five minutes after they get to the party. At that moment, Justyce’s group is surrounded by a number of “genuinely thugged-out black dudes.” As Justyce looks at them, he realizes he knows each and every person bearing down on his prep school friends. These young men belong to the same gang that Quan—Manny’s cousin—belongs to, a group named the Black Jihad, which is run by a “crazy older dude,” Martel Montgomery. “That’s a real funny costume, Justyce,” a guy named Trey says. He then asks why Justyce and Manny are hanging out with people like Blake. “Just gon’ letcha boy disrespect our people like that?” he asks.
Justyce finds himself torn between two groups when he gets to the party: his prep school friends and the people he’s known all his life. This is yet another illustration of why he doesn’t feel like he “fits” in, since he has chosen to associate with people like Blake but obviously doesn’t truly feel a kinship with them. At the same time, he doesn’t want to associate with members of the Black Jihad, either, which leaves him feeling socially isolated.
Themes
Jared jumps into the conversation with the Black Jihad members, insisting that he and his friends don’t mean any “disrespect.” Manny cuts him off, telling him to be quiet, and Trey advises him to follow Manny’s advice. “Trey, he didn’t mean anything by it, dawg,” Justyce says. “We were doing this satire thing with stereotypes, and it went too far.” Trey disparages Justyce for being so intellectual about everything, and then he addresses both him and Manny, saying, “Don’t get it twisted, my dawgs. These white boys might be standing here next to y’all, but y’all still ain’t nothin’ but niggas to them, ya heard me? Ain’t no amount of money nor intelligence can change that shit.” Jared begins to protest this, but his friends tell him to be quiet.
What Trey says to Justyce and Manny about how their white friends see them is especially troubling because it challenges Justyce’s sense of belonging, which is already rather fraught. Readers are aware that Justyce feels out of place at Braselton Prep, so it’s easy to see that Trey’s comments in this moment would cut to his core, unsettling him and exacerbating what he already feels about social isolation and acceptance.
Themes
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Jared insists that Trey can’t tell him and his friends to leave the party, at which point one of the gang members pulls up his shirt to reveal a gun in his waistband. As Jared, Justyce, and the others begin to retreat, the guy with the gun tells Manny and Justyce that they’re welcome to stay, but Trey sarcastically says that the two boys don’t want to hang out with Black Jihad members because they’re “goin places.” “Gotta stay connected to the white man for the ride to the top…,” he says as Justyce and the rest of the boys file out of the party.
Justyce doesn’t feel a sense of belonging amongst his white peers at Braselton Prep, but in this moment it becomes clear that he would also have a very hard time feeling connected to Trey and his crew. After all, Justyce isn’t the type of teenager who wants to associate with people who carry pistols around and threaten others at parties. In turn, readers see that he’s caught between two unappealing poles—the Black Jihad is criticizing him for associating with insensitive white boys, but they don’t offer an attractive alternative.
Themes
