Noughts and Crosses: Chapter 30 Summary & Analysis

In history class, Mr. Jason announces that today, he’s going to show the class that all famous people are people, just like the students in class. He says it’s easy to think of great explorers or inventors as beings above and beyond normal people, but anyone can “aspire to greatness.” Staring right at Callum, Mr. Jason says that anyone can be whatever they want to if they work hard enough. Callum doesn’t understand why Mr. Jason hates him so much. If it’s because Callum is white, then that’s silly—Mr. Jason isn’t even that dark. By that logic, Mrs. Paxton should be the one to treat Callum so terribly because her skin is very dark.

Mr. Jason asks the class for the names of the people who invented traffic signals, pioneered blood banks, and perform open heart surgery. Callum is the only one who can list the inventors—and for that, Mr. Jason suggests Callum teach the lesson. More hands go up when Mr. Jason asks what all those men have in common. Students have many suggestions, but they’re missing the obvious one. Callum puts his hand up and says all those men were Crosses. This is the right answer, and Mr. Jason says that from the time Crosses’ ancestors sailed from Cafrique, they’ve been leading backward civilizations into the future.

Callum won’t stand for this. He puts his hand up and says that noughts have contributed to progress too. For example, the Cross Matthew Henson went to the North Pole with a nought, Robert Peary—they’re joint discoverers of the North Pole. Mr. Jason has never heard of Peary, and Callum says that’s because Crosses write the books and leave noughts out. At this, Mr. Jason gets even angrier and insists Callum is lying. He sends Callum to “go and stand outside the headmaster’s room” until he’s ready to behave.

Callum knocks over his chair, glares at Sephy, and storms out. Crosses might have learned to make guns that made them powerful, but that doesn’t make their methods right. Slavery has been over for 50 years, but it doesn’t seem like much has changed—and it’s so unfair. Maybe Mum and Jude are right, and Heathcroft is a waste of time. At Mr. Corsa’s office, Callum figures that Mr. Jason probably wants Callum to stand outside Mr. Corsa’s door, where he’s most likely to get in trouble. 

As Callum approaches the door, he hears angry voices coming from inside the office. Mrs. Paxton and Mr. Corsa are arguing—Mrs. Paxton wants to crack down on the bullying the noughts are experiencing, and Mr. Corsa wants to let the “blankers” decide Heathcroft is too hard so they leave. Mrs. Paxton points out that she and many other teachers wanted the noughts here, and it’s their responsibility to make school safe for the noughts. But Mr. Corsa insists the government only let noughts in to please the Pangaean Economic Community. Callum doesn’t want to listen anymore.

A minute later, Mrs. Paxton comes out of the office. Callum tells her why he’s not in Mr. Jason’s class right now, and when she suggests he learn when to keep quiet, he says he can’t just not speak up—noughts won’t ever get the recognition they deserve if they stay quiet. He says too that Mr. Jason hates him. Mrs. Paxton says that Mr. Jason in just trying to toughen Callum up, and that none of the teachers want the noughts to fail. Callum scoffs, but Mrs. Paxton tells him a secret: Mr. Jason isn’t against the noughts because his mother was a nought.