Previous
Chapter 9
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Hate Race, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racial Discrimination in Australia
Racism, Childhood, and Loss of Innocence
Race and Beauty Standards
Injustice and Complicity
The Power of Words
Summary
Analysis
At age eight, Maxine outgrows her first bike, which she frequently rides around the neighborhood, at the same time that her brother Bronson does. Bordeaux, a talented amateur engineer, builds them new bikes, which they adore. They take the bikes to the local BMX track, accompanied by their friends Jennifer and Nathan McGuire. For a while, the two pairs of siblings enjoy riding their bikes around, but a group of boys begin to taunt Maxine and Bronson and call them slurs. Jennifer and Nathan want to leave, but Maxine and Bronson attempt to stand their ground. The boys retaliate by pushing the Clarke children off their bikes, and the McGuires run away. Maxine is more hurt by her friend’s abandonment than the bullying, and she never feels as close to Jennifer again.
Maxine’s encounter with the boys at the BMX track reveals an especially painful part of experiencing racism: not just the initial harassment, but the complicity of those who witness the harassment and do nothing. Although the McGuire children care for their friends, they do not have the emotional maturity or moral fortitude to stand up for them, which would’ve provided Maxine and Bronson with comfort even if their friends had ultimately failed in their efforts. With this in mind, it is unsurprising that Maxine struggles to feel close to Jennifer after this incident.
Themes
In the fifth grade, Maxine faces bullying from a boy named Derek, who frequently calls her “blackie” and throws spitballs into her hair. She goes to tell her teacher, Mrs. Hird, who tells her that she can always retaliate by calling Derek “whitey.” Maxine says that this is racist, a word that she learned from Bordeaux when he used it to describe the white prison guards that guarded Nelson Mandela. Mrs. Hird is outraged that Maxine would say “racist” in her classroom and orders her to sit down. Maxine does not tell her parents about the incident, as she does not want Mrs. Hird to know that Maxine told on her. As time goes on, Maxine begins to retaliate against her bullies, which causes her to more frequently be disciplined at school.
As with the incident at the BMX track, Maxine’s attempts to get Derek’s bullying taken seriously show how complicity is a particularly insidious and venomous form of racism, with Maxine’s teacher refusing to directly address the harassment. Notably, Mrs. Hird gets angrier at Maxine calling her racist than Derek calling Maxine a slur. Racism is acceptable to her, but calling out racism—and thus implicitly questioning the status quo—is a bridge too far.
Themes
