Unhappiness with the Status Quo
One of the interesting themes that pervades most of the works we have read in class is a profound unhappiness with the status quo of the author's society. This is clear in Schuyler's Black No More from the incessant satire of Black and White culture of the early 1930s. However, the most telling moment in the entire novel comes in the epilogue. While turning oneself white was the "thing-to-do" for the black community at the start of the novel, one everyone is white it is no longer so highly regarded. With a grass is always greener on the other side of the fence mentality, it becomes popular to have mulato children, and use creams to turn one's skin dark.
A few interesting points are raised by this scene. First, people will always change what they can physically to get ahead in the world. Early on the blacks feel discriminated against for impure blood. One everyone is found to have some non-white ancestor; everyone is placed on equal footing. Now, only by making oneself darker can one be separated from the mass of humanity. Secondly, necessity is the mother of invention. The machines and creams used to change physical appearance exist because of a significant demand for them within a certain community. These products never seem to offer a solution to the problem, only a shifting of the current paradigm. Nothing prevents the situation from reversing especially if the "cure" is carried too far. When black women are rare (at the end of the novel) they are highly desired.
Overall, I think the theme of a pervasive unhappiness with one's current situation pervades any literature concerning experimentation and change. However, the experiments merely change the situation but do not cure the underlying social structures that lead to the dissatisfaction to begin with
posted by judge at 4:11 PM
5 Comments:
It's really interesting that you point this out becasue it is still prevalent today. Humans just don't seem to find happiness in what they are given. Fair skin people want to be darker so they go tanning and people with curly hair straighten it. I think Black No More, though really exaggerated, was just pointing out the absurdity of a real situation.
When I got to the end of Black No More and after reading this post, I couldn’t help being reminded of the book Animal Farm. Through out this book, animals on a farm are working tirelessly to over throw their inhuman owners who control their lives. The animals think that they are doing the right thing, but when this they finally succeeded, a small sect of the animals just pick up the same bad role as their previous owners. George Orwell and Schuyler both seem to believe that our own worst enemy can be found within our selves. Tirelessly we work to solve problems, but in the end the cycle just continues as our solutions just create more problems.
Caleb--I like your point about the problem with experiments that change the "situation" while leaving problematic social structures intact.
Caleb--I like your point about the problem with experiments that change the "situation" while leaving problematic social structures intact.
Change...what is change? An interesting philosophical question deals with this notion of defining change. The Ship of Theseus, as it is best known, refers to the idea that if all of something’s components are changed, is the object still fundamentally the same. While most of the philosophical conversation has been regarding physical items, for example a pair of holey socks, we can ask this same question about the people in Black No More. When you change the skin color of a human, is that person still the same? Have they really changed? I think that most people would say no. That person just altered their physical appearance, but still are the same at heart. Because of this, people have no problem changing their image to meet the standards of society. What if the machine in Black No More had changed people’s thoughts, beliefs, abilities, etc to that of a random white person? What if that device had erased all memory of someone being black, leaving them thinking they have been white forever? Would people still have used it?
I think that a few, more gullible, people would have gone to get “whitened”, but once people saw the effects, people would rather be black and have their ideals and beliefs, rather than brainwashed and white.
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