Applying Gunner Kaufman's Creation Of Alternative Paths To Justice

Paul Beatty’s The White Boy Shuffle complicates the binary of the nonviolent and violent approaches to justice and instead suggests the creation of alternative paths to seek justice. The text engages with personal and social forms of justice. We can analyze the main character, Gunner Kaufman, to better understand how the text advocates for these alternatives. Although Gunner initiates violence in a dream sequence and in a truck driver scene, he does not cause harm to the victims, which complicates the previous binary of violence and nonviolence. Gunner advocates for gun use to seek justice for his fallen friend, while his gang uses alternative weapons, which endorses the creation of nontraditional avenues to justice. Gunner’s speech at a rally

For example, Gunner dreams of chasing a boy who previously wronged him and “[shoots] him twice in the chest” (Beatty 103). Gunner takes a forceful approach by shooting him, which symbolizes violence as an answer to justice. Here, he takes the initiative to enact violence, which characterizes him as a violent and aggressive figure. Despite the action’s violence, Gunner approaches the body and realizes that “there [are] no bullet wounds, no blood” (Beatty 103). Here, Gunner’s inability to kill the boy does not produce the intended violence, which suggests the violence’s failure to achieve justice. Instead, Gunner performs an act of violence that produces a nonviolent action, which crafts an alternative outcome to his path to justice. The text criticizes the violent approach towards seeking justice and advocates for the creation of alternative approaches by utilizing Gunner’s failure to kill the

For example, Gunner summons images of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he “[stands] at the mountaintop” in “Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza” (Beatty 196). Here, the text attempts to align Gunner with Dr. King by not only referencing one of King’s speeches but also by the fact that the rally occurs in a place named after him. The text utilizes this imagery to elevate Gunner’s role as a Black leader to the point that he could exist in the same literal and metaphorical space as Dr. King. In doing so, the text advocates for the creation of leaders to diversify the models for Black leadership. As an extension of this idea, Gunner “[spits] on the ground, [mouths] an obvious ‘Fuck you,’” when a previous speaker mentions the importance of unity when he looks at Gunner” (Beatty 197). Here, Gunner rejects the traditional idea of unity and solidarity between people, which suggests a deviation from a type of leadership rhetoric. Gunner’s rejection prevents him from comparison to traditional figures, like Dr. King, and allows for him to exist in his own category of leadership. Additionally, Gunner completes this rhetoric when he openly criticizes other Black leaders. He mentions that “today’s Black leadership isn’t worth shit...what we need is some new leaders...who won’t apostatize like cowards” (Beatty 200). Here, Gunner openly criticizes