White Privilege
Among the most prominent themes in The Last White Man is white privilege. Defined as the often-unconscious social advantage afforded to white people within a majority-white society, the theme of white privilege arises when Anders changes skin color. Having suddenly lost the privileges associated with whiteness, Anders feels a vague sense of loss and rage as he realizes that something hitherto invisible to him has been taken away. In his excursion outside the house as a brown man, Anders is paranoid that people are scrutinizing him; he wishes he could someone communicate to other white people that he is white himself. As violence escalates within his town, Anders moves through the world worried about attracting notice or provoking racist militants, concealing himself under a hoodie, sunglasses, and gloves. It is only once most people within the country change color that white privilege ceases to matter. Now in the minority, the few remaining white people on the streets are like lost ghosts. By the end of the book, the social advantages afforded to white people are almost completely forgotten, remembered only by people like Oona's mother, who clings to the supposed glory of the past despite it being irrelevant.
Grief
Grief—deep sorrow caused by someone's death or a great loss—is another dominant theme in The Last White Man. Hamid introduces the theme of grief when Anders changes color and reacts as though he is grieving the loss of his white identity. Going about his "changed" life with a glum resignation, Anders is the first of many people within the country who move through their new society quietly mourning the loss of their white identities. Hamid also explores grief in more explicit terms with the deaths of Oona's father and brother, which are so destabilizing that Oona's mother seeks reassurance and distraction in conspiracy theories. Hamid further develops the theme of grief through the slow death of Anders's father. At Anders's father's funeral, Hamid intertwines the threads of personal mourning and racial mourning as the last white man in the town is put in the ground, marking the end not just of Anders's father's life but of the entire era of whiteness.
Race as a Social Construct
The extent to which race is a social construct is another major theme in The Last White Man. To shed light on the absurdity of the concept that humans can be categorized into discrete biological races, Hamid presents the premise of an entire society changing race over the course of several months. Although the change is superficial, people are perceived and treated completely differently. For Anders, his new identity as a dark-skinned man provokes hostility from racists, recognition from other brown people, and, from Oona, an oscillation between attraction and aversion. Soon the entire society falls into anarchy as people struggle to comprehend the surface-level changes at play. Ultimately, it takes the white supremacists changing race themselves to understand that there is no meaningful difference between a white and a brown person. In this new reality, senseless hostilities evaporate as a bittersweet peace emerges.
Mortality
Defined as the state of being subject to death, mortality is an important theme in The Last White Man. Hamid introduces the theme with the narrator's comments about how the sudden death of Oona's father and the slow death of Oona's brother took a severe emotional toll on Oona's mother, displacing any optimism about life and plunging her into a state of paranoia. As people in society change color, Anders pays close attention to the rise in deaths as people either commit suicide or are killed by racist militants. Once he has his father's rifle at his side, Anders questions how invested in living he is, wondering what he will do to defend his life. During the winter lockdown, Anders's father's house becomes permeated with the atmosphere of his father's imminent death, which is so all-encompassing that Hamid likens it to a fish becoming aware of the wetness of the water it swims through. Despite their anxieties, at the end of the novel Anders and Oona develop the regular weekend habit of visiting a graveyard to pay homage to Anders's deceased parents. Having come to terms with the impermanence of life, they accept the inevitability of mortality, living alongside death rather than trying to put it out of mind.
Racial Prejudice
Racial prejudice is a major theme in The Last White Man. Defined as hostility toward other races because of preconceived opinions not based on reason, racial prejudice first enters the narrative when Anders changes color and goes to look at his own reflection. Seeing his dark skin in the mirror, Anders feels a "murderous rage" and smashes his fist into the glass. With this reaction, Hamid hints at the dormant racism within Anders, now activated by his own image. As he ventures out in public, Anders assumes white people will act with hostility toward him; however, he is mostly left alone, only noticing that people give him more space on sidewalks. But as increasingly more people in society change color, racist hostilities reach a fever pitch. Soon white militant gangs emerge to kill dark people or eject them from their communities. People like Oona's mother come to believe in a racist conspiracy theory that there is a sinister plot to replace white people, and thereby justify violence against dark people. In this way, Hamid shows how the racist aggressors portray themselves as the victims to excuse their own prejudice and violence. Ultimately, racial prejudice doesn't disappear from Anders's society until every white person has changed color and racial difference becomes only a memory.
Societal Collapse
Another key theme in The Last White Man is societal collapse. In response to the confusion caused by so many people spontaneously changing skin color, society falls into anarchy with rampant suicides, one-on-one fights, riots, and aggressive paramilitary gangs roaming the streets. Most businesses close, leaving Anders and Oona to spend the winter looking after their elderly parents and learning about the world through the news networks that haven't gone off the air. As Anders and Oona venture out again, they see the impact of the anarchy lingering in the physical landscape, with burn marks on buildings yet to be repaired. Ultimately, though, enough people change that society emerges from the civil war–like destruction and begins rebuilding.
Social Harmony
Social harmony is another prominent theme in The Last White Man. As a juxtaposition to the social upheaval that dominates the events of the novel, Hamid dedicates the end of the story to depicting a society that has attained a far-reaching sense of social harmony. Members of Oona's mother's online community, formerly concerned with propagating racist theories and justifying violence against dark people, start posting photos of their changed selves and sharing approval for others who do the same. No longer absorbed by fears of racial prejudice or thoughts of mortality and grief, Anders and Oona embrace their new identities and start a family together, signifying a renewed sense of optimism. In this post-race reality, Oona's mother's nostalgia for the family's white roots has no meaning for Oona's and Anders's daughter. In a symbolic embrace of the socially harmonious present, Oona's and Anders's daughter politely stops her grandmother from talking about the past, showing her elders the way forward.