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
“Dear Martin,” Justyce writes, explaining that he’s just gotten off the phone with SJ, whom he talked to for hours. He rehashes what they said to each other, telling Dr. King that he filled SJ in on what happened at the party. At a certain point in the conversation, she admits that she spent the night thinking about Justyce, and this infuses the conversation with a certain awkwardness, though they quickly get over this. Justyce then tells SJ that he feels slightly bad about having left the party. “Either way it went,” he says, “I was sayin somethin’, you know? Staying woulda been a statement of solidarity with these guys I grew up with—and who look like me. Leaving was a different statement, and the fact that I chose to do it with a white guy who was dressed as a Klansman…well…”
When Justyce speaks on the phone to SJ, he reveals his discomfort regarding the fact that he chose to continue associating with people like Blake even after Trey and the others called him out on it. It makes sense that he would feel guilty in this moment, as if he has betrayed the people he grew up with just to save face with his apathetic and insensitive white friends. This unfortunate dilemma once again reminds readers that Justyce is forced to navigate complex social dynamics as a result of being one of the only people of color in his immediate community.
Themes
Justyce admits to SJ that his encounter with the Black Jihad at the party made him have an “ugly thought”—namely, that it’s “assholes like Trey and his boys that have cops thinking all black dudes are up to no good.” At the same time, he feels like Trey made some good points at the party. “He said me and Manny were chillin’ with Jared and them because we ‘need the white man for the ride to the top,’” Justyce explains. “And while I could debate that till I’m blue in the face, didn’t we prove it by leaving with Jared and them?” He then wonders if Trey is correct when he says that white people will only ever see him as “an ‘n-word,’” no matter what he does. Going on, he points out that there’s no denying that he does on some level need white people to “get ahead.”
In this conversation, Justyce grapples with the troubling idea that he needs to associate with problematic and insensitive white people in order to attain upward mobility. This bothers him, since he’d like to condemn the behavior of people like Jared and Blake, but can’t because doing so would ostracize him in the very community (Braselton Prep) that will give him a chance to work his way toward success. Most frustrating of all, though, is the idea that even his extreme patience and tolerance might never protect him from bigotry. No matter how much work he puts in, he fears, people like Jared will continue to mistreat him.
Themes
When Justyce realizes how long he’s been talking to SJ, he quickly says he has to go, surprised at how easy it is to relate to her. Just before they hang up, she apologizes for speaking on his behalf in class when Jared was voicing racist sentiments. “Hearing her apologize after Blake didn’t?” Justyce writes in his diary. “It got me, Martin. Now I can’t get her out of my head.” This, he says, makes him somewhat uncomfortable, because although he thinks SJ is “great” and attractive, he knows that his mother would be incensed if he dated a white girl.
When SJ apologizes for speaking on Justyce’s behalf in class, she demonstrates an understanding of the complex nature of discussing race. Rather than saying anything she wants with unearned confidence (like Jared does), she’s carefully attuned to the nuances of such conversations, never wanting to overstep. In this way, she is a helpful and positive white ally, someone who can advocate for Justyce and use her own privilege to help other white people challenge their biases and assumptions. By apologizing to Justyce for speaking on his behalf, she shows him that she doesn’t value her viewpoint or voice over his, making it clear that she wants to do what she can to support him without making him uncomfortable.
Themes
