Black And White

Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the source text’s depiction of racism and racial discrimination.

As it lends itself to the novel’s title, the motif “black and white” recurs frequently and is laced with varying and sometimes contradictory meanings. Its most apparent interpretation is in reference to race: Marcus and Eddie are referred to as “Black and White” by their peers because of the color of their skin. Their friendship is significant because it is an anomaly in their environment, a neighborhood in which relations between Black people and white people range from tense and suspicious to outright hostile. Their nicknames, and the phrase “Black and White” more broadly, symbolize a surpassing of racial boundaries and a hope for unity between Black and white people.

However, as the young men find themselves tangled in criminal activity and subsequent legal trouble, the phrase takes on a new and less hopeful meaning. In common usage, black and white, as opposite shades, often symbolize contrast and opposition. In the novel, “Black and White” comes to describe not unity, but the sharp contrast between Marcus and Eddie—in their lives, their experiences of the legal system and subsequent reactions, and their fundamental traits as characters. Whereas before it was thought that their friendship had surpassed “all that racial crap” (2), their legal conflict makes the racial difference between them clearer than it has ever been. Their nicknames, tied to their respective races, show that the racial divide clings to them. It is always apparent, and perhaps always has been.

The phrase “Black and white” appears with greater frequency in visual descriptions toward the end of the novel; Volponi draws attention to referees in their black-and-white shirts and refers to the police cars during the Senior Night riot as “black and whites” (145). This illustrates that the divide and contrast between black and white—and, by extension, between Marcus and Eddie—has become much clearer.