Savannah Laurent

Mrs. Percival

Period 4B

2 May, 2018

Black No More through Marxist Lens

Black No More by George Schuyler is a good book. The plot of the story is about

how there is a treatment that can turn black people into white people. The main chapter Max

Disher was one of the people got the treatment done and he later became Matthew Fisher. It has

to do with how that even though black people are switching skin colors people are still not happy

about it and are turning on each other because they do not know who to trust. The idea of

marxism is supporting of the political and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

It is shown that way in every chapter of the book and sometimes there are more than one

example of it in a chapter. There are a lot of different quotes that can be used and they can be a

about different things. The quotes do not all have the be about the same thing in order for it to be

looked through a marxist lens. As long as it is supporting the political and economic theories Of

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels then it is counted as marxist. There are three quotes from the

start, middle, and the end of the book that support the idea of how that marixt can be seen

throughout the whole book.

The first reason as to why the book is looked through a marxist lens is because of

how there are many examples in the first section of the book. Each couple has a lot of different

examples and they are all very good. The first quote is “No more discrimination; no more

obstacles in his path. He was free!” (p.g. 14) shows the marxist lens because of how that it tells
us in that time since he is a white man now that he is free and has more rights than he did when

he was still black. The quote is shown through a marxist lens because of the way that it is

connected to racism and the story is being taken place around when there was a lot of racism

going on in the book. There was a lot of racism going on due to the time period that the book was

based in and how that since he is now white he still have to be treated the way he was getting

treated when he used to be black. Another example of this quote would be on page 2 how that it

says “Well argued his partner, it might change my luck. You can trust a black gal; she’ll stick to

you”. The quote is talking about how that white women are not trustworthy at all and that only

black women are trustworthy. It is marxist because of the fact that the quote is racist since it is

saying that white women are not loyal and trustworthy and it is saying that only black women are

the loyal ones . Lastly another quote to support how that the beginning of the book can be looked

through the lens of the marxist. It how that on page “In three days the Negro becomes to all

appearances a Caucasian”. P.g 8 This quote is saying how that the treatment can help make the

black people turn into white people. It is connected to marixt because of how that it has to do

with political views since that back then black people were not viewed as the same as white

people. Black people were not equal to while people even after they were no longer slaves. They

had to go into different buildings than while people and had to be separated from white people.

The next couple of chapters are also looked through the marxist lens because of The

second quote that is “It's a good thing you weren't black too” Pge 69 explains the marxist lens

because of how that if he was black than he would be treated a different way because of racism

than the way he is being treated now since that he is now white. This quote also shows the

marxist lens side of the book because of how that this quote is also connected to racism. Another

quote would be “The workers are protesting because Blickdoff and Hortzenboff aren’t paying
them enough and their hours are to long.” PG. 76 This quote explains the way the book is shown

through the marxist lens because is it shown that the people aren’t getting paid enough because

of the way that the class system is being shown in the book. The last quote that would be “I

think that there Knights of Nordica ought to do something about it.” P.g. 48. This quote has to do

with marxist lens because of how that it has to do with the fact that the Knights of Nordica are a

political group in the book. It shows how that the Knights Of nordica agrees with the political

part of the theory.

The end of the book is also looked through the marxist lens because of many different

quotes that support this theory. One of them is “that it was illegal in most of the states for pure

whites and persons of Negro ancestry to intermarry but that it was difficult to detect fraud

because of collusion.” (pg 99) It is related to marxist because of how that it is talking about how

that black people and white people could not have the same dna. Since the book as taken place in

the 1940’s so that black people had very little rights and had to deal with a lot of racism Another

one of the quotes is “We’re about cleaned up the Negro problem in this country. Next week

we’re closing all expect five of our sanitariums.” Page 104 It is related to marxist because of the

fact that it has to do with how that the economy statues for the black no more treat was so good

both money wise and human wise that they had decided to shut down the treatments centers.

They only wanted to keep five of them open just in case that more people would need the black

no more treatment also. The last quote that supports this theory of how that marixt can be read in

perspective in the book would be on page 145. “We’re really white men. You can’t do this.” This

quote is a good example of maxis because of how that the people were not trusting the men

because of how that even though the black people had got the treatment done. They were still not
going to be treated the same just because they were now white skinned. They were still going to

be valued as if they were still black people.

The way that the book is portrayed is through the marxist lens and there are many

different quotes throughout the whole book that can support that idea. It is not just shown in one

charpet. It is shown in every chapter once or sometimes more than once. There are many

examples of it. Marxist is an important to know about because many other books are written in

that way. If you can understand what maxist is then it will help you look at other books you read

in a different way than you have been reading before. Marxist is agreeing with the views of

political and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.Marxist is also important

thing to know how to understand since that many other ideas are built on or around that theory.

The whole black no more is built on that idea because of the way that there are many different

examples. It’s page after page. Chapter after chapter of examples and quotes of marxist.