Having read Black No More alongside Lauren in our Afrofuturism class I have much to say in response to her post. Black No More was one of the more interesting novels we read in that class because of it's satirical approach to our perception of race. Schuyler had a talent for creating stereotypical characters and satirizing them to the point where they are unidentifiable characters.
The shifting color line is an apparent theme in Black No More and one that I wrote on in my final paper for that course. The way Schuyler critiques our perception of a distinct color line is brilliant. Schuyler is speaking to our determination in creation a color line, rather then what a color line really is. As blacks become white, white's search for a way to make themselves distinct. Black No More is a novel that critiques hierarchy by flipping it's idea on itself. The ending demands this reading by revealing that the "true" whites can be identified because the "false" whites are "too" white, causing society to embrace blackness because it it now distinct and acceptable. Schuyler is brilliant is in his attempt to make us see how useless a color line is and how easily the color line can shift.
The blatant contradinctions are important in this text, because they further the misconception of a "pure race". The racist white leader, in fact, has a black background in his family. Max is adopted into this racist group because of his smarts, although if they knew he was black they would say he is beneath them and unintelligent. Dr. Crookman wants to save society by making the color line dissapear, yet his wife is extremely light skinned, a woman, and I quote, that could "pass for white anyday".
Black No More is a wonderful piece of afrofuturistic work because it uses humor as a way to explore the shifting color line. It explores how we define the color line and what we think is important in racial identity.
No comments:
Post a Comment