What was New York like in the 1930s regarding race relations? How was this similar or dissimilar to the race relations in the South? In what ways does the novel serve as a commentary on race relations in the United States?
Black No More takes place in 1931 during the Harlem Renaissance. Its depiction of race illuminates the desire of African Americans to receive the same opporunities and treatment of their white counterparts. A major twist in what we expect from the story comes when we learn that it is believes the problem of race realtions and inequality can be ended by turning black people white. Rather than working toward complete equality (think Civil Rights), the blacks assimilate themselves by giving up their identity and move towards a raceless world by recreation.
During this peiod blacks found far more opportunity in the North than its southern counterpart. Race relations in the South had made very little progress. None-the-less, by the depiction of blacks in this novel, we'd have to question why progress in the North was abandoned by blacks.
In my opinion, this novel does not accurately portray race relations because of its futuristic premise. The majority of blacks I know would never give up their color or identity to conform to white standards of acceptance.
