Black No More Research Paper

The Question of Race in Black No More

A Black person learns very early that his color is a disadvantage in the world of white folk. This being an unalterable circumstance, one also learn very early to make the best of it.

George S. Schuyler, Black and Conservative

George S. Schuyler, author of Black No More was born, according to Mark Gauvreau Judge was born in Rhode Island in 1885 and died in New York in 1977. Schuyler’s mother eventually remarried after the death of her first husband; the family moved to Syracuse, New York where Schuyler is taught the “protestant work ethic” of working hard for whatever he wanted to achieve (Rac(e)ing to the Right, xv). Those teachings, along with learning from his mother to read at an early age, in all

likelihood, were the catalyst to his becoming one of the most well-known “Aframerican” journalists in the United States and one of America’s first black conservatives, Judge continued. Having grown up in the Post-Reconstruction, era made Schuyler painfully sensitive to the condition of Blacks in America. Reconstruction never accomplished its objectives; African Americans were negatively affected by legislation designed to negate the privileges gained through the “Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments” (Rac(e)ing to the Right xv). The government upheld “racial segregation” with the Plessy v. Ferguson opinion (separate but equal) (Rac(e)ing to the Right, xvi). Schuyler is affected as well by the racism Schuyler experiences in Syracuse and the US Army (Judge). Troy Kickler writes that the racism Schuyler lived through in the army affected Schuyler so that he deserted the army and served nine months in prison (Kickler).
After returning to civilian life, Schuyler learned about Socialism, joined the Socialist Party and began his journalism career in 1923, writing the column, “Shafts and Darts: A Page Of Calumny and Satire,” for the Message, a Socialist paper, satire being the main feature of his writing (Judge). Subsequently, as Schuyler’s views took a turn to the far right, Schuyler was named as one of the few Black conservatives of his time. The Pittsburg Currier is where Schuyler was a columnist for forty years losing his position after he posted a scathing protest against Dr. Martin Luther King’s nomination to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Additionally, Schuyler used his satirical style against the racist Ku Klux Klan, the highbrow W.E.D. Dubois and the celebrated writers and artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance (Kickler). Black No More, one of the first Science Fiction stories by a Black author, is Schuyler’s solution to the racial problem in the United States, exploring what would happen if black people could become white (Black No More, 7).
Schuyler writes in the preface of Black No More about a product named Kink No More that was advertised as being able to straighten (take the kinks) out of black hair (Black No More,v).

As a matter of fact, Schuyler’s main character, Max Disher used kink no more – like product. After Max is no longer black he is thankful that he does not have to use hair straightening supplies again (Black No More, 14). It is probable that the name of Schuyler’s book is based on the name of that hair straightener. It is easy to draw the similarities between the two processes. Kink No More is an outward change only (hair) as is the Black No More Treatment (skin and hair). However the difference is that that black people who receive Dr. Crookman’s treatment retain white skin and straight hair; on the other hand, the users of Kink No More must reapply the treatment every two weeks (Black No More, v). Similarly, the children born to parents that use the Black No More method would retain their parent’s DNA (which was never changed) and be black (Black No More,9). Schuyler states as well, that companies down through the years have tried to capitalize on the condition of the “downtrodden” Negro in America by offering products that would temporarily straighten hair or lighten skin (Black No More, v). The idea is expanded in Black No More to make the skin and hair color change permanent, thus relieving the Negro of the hardship that comes along with their dark complexion (Black No More, v).

Furthermore, Schuyler recounts the statements of a Japanese doctor (Dr. Yusaburo) and an American engineer (Mr. Bela Gati) who each said that they had a process to change a Negro into a white man (Black No More, v). In fact, reports Dr. Yusaburo Noguchi as saying he could transform the Japanese race into “tall blue-eyed blonds” (Black No More v). Mr. Gati claimed he tried to find an answer for himself, a darker white man, who was mistaken for a Negro many times (Black No More, vi). Gati was sure his procedure could remove the “excess pigment” for a minimal fee (Black No More, vi). Schuyler’s Dr. Crookman, the inventor of the Black No More process, charges fifty dollars, which Negroes are happy to pay not to be black anymore (Black No More, 12). According to Dr. Crookman’s sociology teacher, the dilemma of the Negro could be “solved” either of three “ways”: “To either get out, get white, or get along.” It was Dr. Crookman’s aim to “get them white” (Black No More, 8). Black people were desperate to escape the conditions under which they are living (Rac(e)ing to the Right, xvii). Undergoing a “scientific” treatment to turn them white seems to be the answer to their problem (Black No More, 12).
Black No More tells the story of Max Disher, a “crack” insurance agent at the Aframerican Fire Insurance Company, whose “high yallah” girlfriend just broke with him on New Year’s Eve. A Negro man’s life, Disher and his friend Bunny Brown agrees, is not complete unless he has a light-skinned Negro woman on his arm. Without his girlfriend to go with him into the Honky Tonk nightclub, Max takes Bunny instead. Upon entering, Max becomes obsessed with a beautiful blonde women; a real white women definitely beats out his stuck up girlfriend. Max is determined to dance with her; her answer, “I never dance with “niggers” crushes him so that he leaves the nightclub to go back to him apartment, but not before he finds out that she is from his hometown, Atlanta, GA. Bunny calls Max with the solution to his problem. A Negro doctor named Junious Crookman has perfected a process that will turn black people white. At first, Max didn’t want to believe Bunny. However, after reading the story in the paper, Max remembers he that met Dr. Crookman before and volunteers to be a test subject. Just as Dr. Crookman promised, in three days, black Max Disher is the white Michael Fisher on his way to Atlanta.
Max Disher is a black man with a problem; he is not satisfied with the black women. His women have to be as close to white as possible. Schuyler proves that point by describing Disher’s girlfriend as “high yallah”, meaning she is a light-skinned black woman (Black No More, 1). It seems his friend Bunny Brown feels the same way (Black No More, 2). Schuyler uses Max and Bunny to serve as an example of the way black men of this time are thinking. When Max sees the blonde woman named Helen, he is totally enamored with her; a white women is who he truly wants (Black No More, 3). Max claims he can tell she is white by her complexion and the way she speaks (Black No More, 3). It’s what’s on the outside that counts. Race is in the eye of the beholder. She rebuffs his advances; he is dejected and a prime candidate for the Black No More process (Black No More, 7). His objective is not just to escape the pitfalls of being black, or fighting white oppression, he wants Helen, so he becomes white Matthew Fisher (Black No More, 19, 20). The first thing Matthew finds out is that being white is not all that great. In fact, to him, it is boring; he misses the excitement of being out with his black friends (Black No More, 34). Secondly, Matthew dislikes hearing disparaging remarks about black people and not be able to do anything about it. (Black No More, 35). Thirdly, being white is a magical state of being that opened every door that Matthew thought it was. He could not find a job in the banking or insurance industry, jobs for which he was qualified (Black No More, 35). Fourthly, he learns that racist white people aren’t not that smart. He hears white businessmen railing against Dr. Crookman and black No More and wonders they would not be happy with the elimination of black people. (Black No More, 35) In The White African American Body, Dr. Charles D. Martin states that American society needs the racial divide between blacks and whites. Their dominance is threatened in Schuyler’s Black No More at the thought of everyone being the same race (The White African American Body, 148). Michael obtains more evidence of the white man’s ignorance when Michael meets Rev. Henry Givens and convinces the Imperial Grand wizard, leader, of The Knights of Nordica (a racist group based on the Klu Klux Klan) that he (Michael) is an anthropologist, without having any training in or degree in anthropology (Black No More, 38 & 39). Michael speaks the language of racism, which is enough to get him accepted. In addition, Michael is disappointed in Helen, Rev. Givens daughter, whom he finally marries and finds out that she is all beauty and no brains. Schuyler is saying that the claims of white superiority are false ones; whites are no different than anyone else. Furthermore they think they have the truth, instead they are easily led astray, blinded by racism (Black No More, 35).
Schuyler through Michael exploits the white man’s fear of miscegenation or the danger of white race being tainted by the Negro (Black No More, 35).

As an anthropologist, he knew that there was nothing more vital than keeping the white race pure (Black No More, 38). Dr. Crookman had admitted to the press that his process did not pass down to the children of the white-looking Negroes and that their children born black would have to undergo the process (Black No More, 8 & 9). This is the fear of the white man, according to Schuyler; their children might marry one these supposed to be white people and give birth to black children, hence white blood being polluted with black blood. Their hatred for Dr. Crookman and Black No More is justified (Black No More, 35). However, Schuyler has no such regard for the fears of racists; like the character, Matthew, in Black No More, Schuyler married a white woman from the south and fathered an interracial child, additional evidence that racial purity is an impossibility in the United States. (Rac(e)ing to the Right, xxv ). From miscegenation, Schuyler believed would come a new race “neither black nor white,” solving the race problem in America (Rac(e)ing to the Right

xxix).