Race Relations (Irony)
In both the content and tone of the story, it seems that Charles W. Chesnutt finds it ironic that black people would want to be like white people—the same white people who were responsible for slavery, oppression, and discrimination. The members of the Blue Veins, and especially Mr. Ryder, value the markers and institutions of white society, and, most egregiously, value lighter-colored skin tones. By doing so, they marginalize their own people and forget that white people consider anyone with even a drop of black blood inferior.
Outsiders and the Blue Veins (Verbal Irony)
The narrator evinces a bit of verbal irony when he states that outsiders are wont to critique the Society as “a glaring example of the very prejudice from which the colored race had suffered most” but when they got inside they were full of zealous encomiums and support. These people don't care about their race, Chesnutt suggests, if they're so willing to throw them under the bus when given an opportunity to advance themselves.
