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
At Manny’s house one day, Manny asks Justyce if he and SJ are together. Justyce avoids answering the question for as long as possible, but then insists that he and SJ are only friends. Manny dislikes this response, urging Justyce to date SJ, since she’s perfect for him. However, Justyce tells him that his mother wouldn’t approve, and though Manny understands that this is the case, he suggests that Justyce should date SJ anyway.
The fact that Justyce’s mother wouldn’t approve of him dating SJ illustrates the extent to which he has trouble making his current life at Braselton Prep compatible with his upbringing. In the same way that people like Jared don’t mesh well with the people Justyce grew up with, his affinity for SJ is at odds with his mother’s expectations, since she only wants him to date black women. Once again, then, he’s torn between his two communities.
Themes
Manny admits that he has “the opposite problem” as Justyce, saying that he’s “afraid” of black girls because he rarely has the chance to interact with other people of color. “You’re my only black friend, dawg. I’m supposed to go from this all-white world to an all-black one overnight?” he says, worrying about the fact that he’ll soon be going to Morehouse College, a historically black school. Returning to the topic of SJ, Manny says he thinks it’s stupid for Justyce to deprive himself of happiness just to please his mother. “If you’re doing this Be Like Martin thing, do it for real,” he says. “Refusing to date a girl because she’s white is probably not the Kingly way, bruh.”
Manny’s anxiety about interacting with black girls provides an interesting contrast to Justyce’s hesitancy to date a white person. Unlike Justyce, Manny has spent his entire life in the wealthy world of people like Jared, which is why he doesn’t necessarily feel the same kind of social isolation as Justyce at Braselton Prep. As a result, the idea of going to a historically black college is intimidating to him, since suddenly existing in a predominantly black context would be the first time he might feel out of place (though he most likely wouldn’t have to put up with as much casual and entrenched racism, which he has apparently become accustomed to in his current environment).
Themes
