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Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Black No More, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism and Oppression
Race, Class, and Power
Ignorance
Identity and Deception
Leadership and Hypocrisy
Summary
Analysis
Dr. Crookman consults with Hank Johnson, wondering how they’re going to keep up with all the demand for his treatment. They’ve already bought more buildings and equipment, but Foster also worries about the reaction in the press. White newspapers, particularly in the South, are already condemning their work—and they’ve only been running for two weeks. Foster worries that they’ll outlaw Crookman’s practices, but Johnson says that he can get to the legislature first, now that their success has made them money.
While overcoming racism may have been Dr. Crookman’s initial aim, the book illustrates how the treatment has given Crookman, Johnson, and Foster a great deal of wealth and political power. The book also demonstrates how this creates a perpetual cycle of even more advantages. This cycle is made possible only by taking advantage of the Black working class, showing how elites use racism to make and then grow their wealth and power.
Themes
Reading the papers, Dr. Crookman rattles off a few lines of one editorial, in which the author suggests that maintaining the purity of the white race must take precedence over the law and people should “not permit the challenge of Crookmanism to go unanswered, even though these black scoundrels may be within the law.” Another editorial raises the alarm on the fact that “your daughter,” having married a white man, may find herself with a Black baby—calling Crookman’s work devilish.
These editorials illustrate a paradox: racism doesn’t end even when people all look the same. The second editorial is clearly directed at white men, as it refers to “your daughter” marrying a Black man. Together, they perpetuate racism and oppression based on any difference that they can find between white and Black people. In addition, the book sets up a tie between ignorance and violence, as the first editorial suggests that the best way to deal with Black-No-More is through this kind of vigilante violence, while also implying that the doctor is a criminal.
Themes
Johnson tells Crookman to ignore the papers’ alarmism—particularly as they already made $70,000 dollars in just two weeks ($50 per treatment). Johnson thinks about how he was on a chain gang only 10 years before—two full years of being abused and poorly fed—and now he is one of the leading Black businessmen. They’ll be richer than Rockefeller within the year.
Creating Black-No-More has allowed people like Johnson and Crookman to overcome some of the discrimination and obstacles that they (as well as their fellow Black Americans) have faced. But even if Crookman’s motivations for creating Black-No-More were pure, the book still highlights how they are making enormous amounts of money by profiting off of racism.
Themes
Chuck Foster also thinks about how he built his career: becoming a real estate agent in New York on the tide of the Great Migration, working his way up through Harlem society and subsidizing Crookman’s work. But despite the success, he is nervous about their future and worried about all the publicity.
Even the history that Foster cites shows how he has already profited off of the social and economic changes that result from racism. Becoming a real estate agent in New York during the Great Migration—when Black Americans began to migrate from the South to the North and the West in order to avoid discrimination—allowed him to essentially profit off of the Jim Crow (segregation) laws that caused the migration in the first place.
Themes
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Crookman, meanwhile, is exhausted, having overseen so many transformations and fended off so many questions from the newspapers. He never had so hectic a life—he was born and raised in Harlem to poor parents, though they were proud of belonging to Black society. He worked his way through college and wanted to solve the “most annoying problem in American life.” Without the race problem, he thought, Americans could concentrate on something more productive.
Again, Crookman emphasizes that he hopes Black-No-More will help equalize society, remove obstacles for Black Americans, and overcome racism. He acknowledges that race is just a construct—but at the same time, his description of it as the “most annoying problem in American life” suggests that he understands how heavily people fixate on race.
Themes
Crookman is surprised at the opposition to his work from some Black people. He prides himself on being a great lover of his race—having studied its history, struggles, and achievements—and he simply wanted to remove all obstacles for his fellow people.
Even though Crookman is trying to remove obstacles and discrimination, his treatment still suggests that white is the ideal race. By convincing everyone to become white, Black Americans’ historical and cultural identity will largely be lost as people try to integrate themselves into white society. This suggests that taking the treatment is hypocritical and paradoxical, since it aims to solve racism by affirming that white people are superior to Black people.
Themes
Interrupting Crookman’s reverie, Johnson tells the doctor to go home and get some sleep—there’s a car waiting for him out back to avoid the mob. Just then, Crookman’s wife, who passes as white, arrives to accompany him home, and Johnson and Foster are amazed at how white she looks. Foster replies that everything that looks white isn’t necessarily so.
The detail of Crookman’s wife being white-passing (meaning that she’s Black but light-skinned enough to look white) could perhaps be read as a critique of Crookman for marrying someone who looks white despite his pride in his race (a criticism that recurs throughout the book). Author George Schuyler married a white woman, so Crookman’s white-passing wife could be a nod to the complicated feelings that Schuyler may have had about his own interracial marriage in relation to his advocacy for Black Americans.
Themes
Meanwhile, there is a lot of commotion at Harlem’s financial institutions, as many people are trying to withdraw funds in order to afford Dr. Crookman’s treatment and then transferring their accounts to a white bank. Accounts are closing at the post office, too, and “For Rent” signs pop up all over Harlem.
Again, even though Dr. Crookman is purportedly trying to make people’s lives better, at the same time, his treatment causes Black society to descend into chaos while he profits off of it.
Themes
People are simply abandoning apartments, leaving behind “ostracism, segregation, and discrimination” even if it means giving up their security deposits. Black people were already paying exorbitant rentals because the demand for housing exceeded the supply—they often paid more than white tenants in other parts of the city for smaller and worse apartments. Now, there are more white people in Harlem than ever before, and Black Americans from all over the country are arriving in New York City to wait their turn at Crookman’s.
Even the chaos in Harlem, however, has its benefits, as the book explicitly states that Black Americans are leaving behind “ostracism, segregation, and discrimination” when turning white. Discrimination in housing is just one example of the kind of systemic oppression that Black people at this time faced as a result of their race.
Themes
Mrs. Blandish, however, is less than joyful—no one is coming into her beauty parlor anymore. She had been doing well for years and was acclaimed in the community. Because she was successful at making Black people appear as much like white people as possible, she was recently elected for the fourth time as a Vice President of the American Race Pride League. But now, she is losing clients and friends.
Again, the book pointedly critiques figures like Madam C. J. Walker, who marketed a similar set of hair care products and treatments as Mrs. Blandish. The book points out the hypocrisy in pretending to have pride in one’s race and simultaneously marketing products that make Black people as much like white people as possible—similar to Dr. Crookman’s Black-No-More treatment.
Themes
At that moment, a young woman named Miss Simpson passes, and Mrs. Blandish calls over to her asking to say hello. Miss Simpson tells her that her husband, Charlie, left her after getting the procedure, and she’s saving up to do the same thing. Mrs. Blandish is dismayed as the woman leaves. When Mrs. Blandish was young, she wanted to be white, but now she likes her business and her social position in Harlem—as a white woman, she would have to start all over again. She doesn’t want to be an elderly white woman scrubbing floors and toilets. But she also concedes that she doesn’t want to be the butt of prejudice anymore. She is in a quandary—one that is shaking all of Harlem’s people and businesses.
Mrs. Blandish’s thoughts provide an alternate perspective on the idea of becoming white. Even though she recognizes the value of avoiding prejudice and discrimination, she also understands that she wouldn’t be avoiding all misery in becoming white, and that white people often face classism (prejudice based on social class) as well. This introduces the idea that both white and Black working-class people are taken advantage of, and that they should work together to get the conditions they deserve.
Themes
