Inequality In George S. Schuyler's Black No More

The novel Black No More by George S. Schuyler took place in the 1930s. This time period was also now known as the Harlem Renaissance. The time period fits the book because it deals with the topic of race. In this novel there is a main character named Max Disher who is a African American man. Max goes through a transformation to turn himself into a white man and become Matthew Fisher because at this point whites are more superior to blacks which Max experiences throughout the novel. With whites being superior it makes rights unequal between the two races. Since white supremacy was the main idea in the time period of the story, the characters face some issues of inequalities between the two races. One issue that is faced in the story is housing between blacks and whites. The main

He realizes that blacks were paying more for their homes than whites as he says, “As a general rule the Negroes were paying one hundred per cent more than white tenants in other part of the city for a smaller number of rooms and worse service” (Schuyler 38). The author added this in the novel to make the issue of inequalities between the two races obvious. It also shows why most blacks are wanting to go through the transformation into white as Max did so they didn’t have to pay so much for so little. In an interview with Melvin Oliver he states, “So you had this great opportunity. But it was a color-coded opportunity. How? In order for homes to receive financing, they would have to be certified by home appraisers. The appraisers were given written criteria that assigned colors to different types of homes” (Oliver). As he had said, blacks weren’t allowed to be given the homes in good neighborhoods with white