Black No More by George S. Schuyler
**Concept Overview: Black No More by George S. Schuyler**
"Black No More" is a satirical novel by George S. Schuyler that explores themes of race, identity, and societal norms through the lens of speculative fiction. The story begins with Max Disher, an African American World War I veteran, who, facing racial prejudice, undergoes a transformation to become white after learning about a scientific treatment developed by Dr. Junius Crookman. As Max adopts a new identity as Matthew Fisher, he navigates the complexities of both white and black communities, interacting with various characters that represent broader societal archetypes. The novel critiques the absurdities of racism and the obsession with race, depicting how societal views shift when the concept of whiteness is challenged.
Schuyler employs a cynical tone to illustrate the motivations of characters from both racial backgrounds, often depicting them as self-serving and manipulative. The narrative scrutinizes the scientific community, particularly eugenics, questioning the integrity of those who claim to improve human welfare while often pursuing personal or political gain. As the plot unfolds, it reveals the paradox of racial identity and the potential for new forms of discrimination, ultimately suggesting that true human nature is often driven by power rather than the ideals of equality. "Black No More" remains a provocative commentary on race relations and the socio-political climate of its time, resonating with contemporary discussions about race and identity.
Black No More by George S. Schuyler
First published: 1931
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Satire; science fiction
Time of work: Mid-1930’s
Locale: United States
Principal Characters:
Max Disher , an African American veteran who becomes the white Matthew FisherBunny Brown , Max’s friend and fellow veteranHelen Givens , Max’s white love interestDr. Junius Crookman , a scientist who invents a device that turns black people into white peopleSantorp Licorice , a Black Nationalist modeled after Marcus GarveyHenry Givens , Helen’s father, who is a racist minister and politician
The Novel
In George S. Schuyler’s Black No More, Max Disher and his friend, Bunny Brown, are African American World War I veterans out at a Harlem nightclub, when two high-class white couples enter the club. Max is immediately transfixed by one of the women, Helen Givens. He asks her to dance but is shocked when she tells him she does not dance with “niggers.” The next morning, Bunny tells him that the local newspaper is featuring a story about a black scientist, Dr. Junius Crookman, who has found a way to turn black people white. Max gets the treatment, sells his story to a newspaper for traveling money, changes his name to Matthew Fisher, and returns to his hometown, Atlanta, Georgia.
In Atlanta, “Matthew Fisher” attends a meeting of the Knights of Nordica, an organization of white laborers led by the Reverend Henry Givens. Passing himself off as an anthropologist, Matthew works his way into the organization. Meanwhile, Crookman’s invention, Black-No-More, has become so successful that it not only threatens the livelihoods of white racists and the black businesses of Harlem but also affects the National Social Equality League and black cultural nationalist Santorp Licorice. Santorp forms a temporary alliance with the Knights of Nordica.
Matthew works for the Knights as a publicist, hires his old friend Bunny to spy on Santorp (who is on the Nordica payroll), and marries Helen Givens. Matthew and Bunny are then hired by a South Carolina plant manager to help his company avert a workers’ strike. Matthew gives a speech to the workers supporting their labor initiatives and then hires operatives to spread rumors that Swanson, the labor leader, is really African American.
When Helen becomes pregnant and insists on having the baby at home, Matthew’s worst fear, that the baby will be black, drives him to extreme measures. He hires Bunny to burn down the Givens house, forcing Helen to go to the hospital. There, Santorp induces a miscarriage. Meanwhile, public anger at Crookman and his Black-No-More formula is threatening the Republican administration in which Senator Givens—who has traded in his pulpit for a political career—is a major player. Givens approaches his son-in-law for help, and Matthew dutifully develops a plan to appease white public anger: Givens will denounce Crookman, call upon the Republican administration to close all of Crookman’s laboratories, and insist on deportation of all the “new whites.” At the same time, Matthew plants a story in The Warning, a Knights of Nordica publication, claiming that the Republicans are in league with the Pope, Catholics, and Jews. Meanwhile, a Dr. Samuel Buggerie, at the behest of Dr. Shakespeare Agamemnon Beard, is conducting a large-scale study of the genealogy of Americans to separate Nordics from non-Nordics.
Matthew convinces the Democrats to nominate the Knights of Nordica’s Henry Givens as their presidential candidate and the Anglo-Saxon Association’s Arthur Snobbcraft as his running mate. The Republicans form an alliance with Dr. Buggerie and Dr. Shakespeare Agamemnon Beard, who uncover some damaging genealogical evidence: The vast majority of the white population has mixed blood going back at least five generations. Helen becomes pregnant again and expects to give birth before the elections. Matthew knows he cannot “arrange” another miscarriage, so he begins making plans to leave the country. Helen’s baby turns out to be mulatto, but she assumes this to be the result of the Givens bloodline and begs Matthew’s forgiveness.
Bunny bursts in with a newspaper: The Democrats’ bloodlines have been exposed as being mixed. Matthew tells Helen the truth. She does not care, however, and they fly off to Mexico, where they learn the white populace has turned against the Democrats. Snobbcraft and Buggerie flee on a private plane, but it does not have enough gas to reach Mexico. The pilot puts them down in Mississippi. Thinking it is better to be black than white in the state, they blacken their faces with shoe polish. However, they wind up in Happy Hills, Mississippi, where a church minister, Alex McPhule, asks God to send him “a nigger to lynch” as a sign. Snobbcraft and Buggerie are castrated, lynched, and burned at the stake.
The novel concludes with Crookman’s discovery that “new” whites are actually “whiter” than “natural” whites, which leads to a new type of racism against the former who, being “too” white, are seen as savages. Since being “too” white becomes a sign of inferiority, “real” whites begin using skin products that will turn them slightly darker.
The Characters
Given Schuyler’s cynical representation of human nature in Black No More, it is not surprising that the characters Schuyler himself appears to favor are those con men and hucksters who, unlike almost everyone else, know exactly who they are. Max Disher never forgets that being Matthew Fisher is, like all his exploits, a scam. The same can be said for the unregenerate racist Henry Givens, who at least believes what he says, and cosmetologist Madam Sisseretta Blandish, who is never tempted to turn white herself. Because this is satire, all the other characters are essentially stock figures. It is interesting, though, that the black ones are caricatures of specific real people (for example, Dr. Shakespeare Agamemnon Beard represents W. E. B. Du Bois and Santorp Licorice represents Marcus Garvey), while the white ones are often composites of various demagogues, politicians, and race theorists of the time—or, like Helen Givens, serve as allegories of mythological figures (Helen of Troy).
Critical Context
Schuyler composed Black No More when he was still a socialist, though evidence of the conservatism he would fully embrace in the early 1960’s is already evident in the cynicism permeating the narrative and, especially, in the role that science plays in the novel. The novel was written during an age of rising eminence for the scientific method, objectivity, and statistical knowledge, which would come to displace religion and revelation as the sphere of “truth.” However, Black No More turns on a distinction that Schuyler draws between science per se and scientists. For Schuyler, the American obsession with wealth and power trumps all endeavors, including the scientific one.
If he wanted evidence of the corruptibility of scientists, Schuyler could find ample proof in the rise and popularity of eugenics in the early twentieth century. For Schuyler, eugenics is a perfect example of scientific methodology and rigor yoked to questionable sociological ends: For example, Margaret Gander, the founder of Planned Parenthood, originally dedicated herself to “cleansing” the Anglo-Saxon race by discouraging miscegenation not only between African Americans and Caucasians but also between Caucasians and Asians, Jews, Catholics, and Eastern Europeans, among others. In the novel, Dr. Crookman and Dr. Buggerie function as the scientists who are driven by both a thirst for knowledge and a thirst for money and power. Schuyler sees both socialism and eugenics as predicated on a belief in the improvement of human welfare. His point is that, while both may be theoretically possible, human nature, in its ugliest forms, always bends the search for truth to the search for power.
Bibliography
Ferguson, Jeffrey B. The Sage of Sugar Hill: George S. Schuyler and the Harlem Renaissance. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2005. First full biography of Schuyler; covers his life and career, concluding that Schuyler was a paradox.
Guesser, John C. “Review: George Schuyler, Samuel L. Brooks, and Max Disher.” African American Review 27, no. 4 (Winter, 1993): 679-686. Ostensibly a review of the posthumous publication of Schuyler’s dystopian science fiction novel, Black Empire, but Guesser widens his discussion to critique Schuyler’s critical reception, arguing that Schuyler was a complicated man and writer.
Haslam, Jason. “’The Open Sesame of a Pork-Colored Skin’: Whiteness and Privilege in Black No More.” American Literature, Spring, 2002, 15-30. Haslam analyzes Black No More from a “white studies” perspective, demonstrating how the racial and class dynamics of the work reinforce one another, even when “pure” racial or economic concerns dominate character motivation and the plot.
Kuenz, Jane. “American Racial Discourse, 1900-1930: Schuyler’s Black No More.” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 30, no. 2 (Winter, 1997): 170-192. Reviews the cultural context in which Black No More was written, demonstrating that Schuyler was consciously reacting to the rise of an American obsession with race purity on both sides of the color line and that he consequently set out to attack both black and white promulgators of racial ideology.
Rayson, Ann. “George Schuyler: Paradox Among ’Assimilationist’ Writers.” Black American Literature Forum 12, no. 3 (Autumn, 1978): 102-106. Focusing largely on Schuyler’s 1966 autobiography, Black and Conservative, Rayson argues that the text does not fit the prototypical African American autobiography, even as other aspects of his career as a journalist and writer, as well as his personal life, do fit, however awkwardly, the model of the assimilated writer.