convinced, rather, that it has everything to do with
the overhaul of American society. He also is con-
vinced that with his process “it would be possible to
do what agitation, education and legislation had
failed to do.” He does not anticipate the over-
whelming impact that the process will have on
African-American culture, businesses, organiza-
tions, or families, however. Almost overnight, the
churches lose their congregations; donations to
anti-lynching campaigns cease; and political groups
who have benefited financially from donations
meant to finance protests of mob law, disenfran-
chisement, and segregation now find themselves
bankrupt and without any justified campaigns.
Disher survives a number of wild escapades in-
cluding adventures that involve his infiltration of
and membership in the Knights of Nordica, a KU
KLUX KLAN–like organization. He eventually
merges his northern experience with his southern
plan when he collaborates with the Reverend
Givens, the Imperial Grand Wizard of the white
supremacist group. Givens, who is a “short, wiz-
ened, almost-bald, bull-voiced, ignorant ex-evan-
gelist,” agrees on a scheme that will use the Black
No More process to detect and guard against the
infiltration of the group and larger Southern soci-
ety by nonwhite “whites.” It is serendipitous, of
course, that Givens’s daughter, who attends the
Knights of Nordica meetings, is the same woman
whom Disher saw first in Harlem and has gone
south to find.
Disher marries Helen, but he is leery of their
ability to have children. She bears their first child,
despite his efforts to organize trips and exercise
routines for her that he hopes will bring on a mis-
carriage and prevent the threat of any startling
racial revelations. The child is born and, as Disher
suspected, his newborn son does not have pure,
white skin but is in fact a “chubby, ball of brown-
ness.” Max confesses to Helen, the woman he
loves so intensely despite her “prejudices and
queer notions,” that he has some Negro ancestry.
Although she reacts favorably, happy that she has
“money and a beautiful, brown baby,” Disher’s do-
mestic situation and that of the nation as a whole
begin to unravel wildly. Since it is now impossible
to determine who is or is not an authentic white
person, social chaos and political upheaval prevail.
Once it is revealed that “authentic” whites are in
fact duskier than the individuals who have used
the Black No More process, individuals begin to
seek ways to stain their skins, rather than whiten
them, in order to prove their true identities. “It be-
came the fashion for [the upper class] to spend
hours at the seashore basking naked in the sun-
shine and then... lord it over their paler, and thus
less fortunate, associates,” comments the narrator.
Ultimately, Disher, also known as Fisher, escapes
with his family to Mexico. He leaves behind a
country that is in the throes of reversing its racial
makeup and on the verge of reinstating the same
hierarchies and prejudices that Dr. Crookman as-
pired to dissolve.
Black No Moreand Schuyler’s other writings
about racial anxieties, such as “NEGRO-ART
HOKUM,” have suggested to some critics that the
author was promoting a theory of assimilation. Yet,
as scholar Harry McKinley insists persuasively,
Schuyler was much more intent on critiquing the
“destructiveness and foolishness of America’s obses-
sion with skin color,” and the novel “underscored
Schuyler’s conviction that simply ‘getting white’ as
do virtually all the Negroes in the novel, would not
solve the race’s problems” (McKinley, 187).Bibliography
McKinley, Harry. When Black Is Right: The Life and Writ-
ings of George S. Schuyler.1988; reprint, Ann Arbor,
Mich.: University Microfilms International, 1990.
Peplow, Michael. George S. Schuyler.Boston: Twayne
Publishers, 1980.Black Opals
A PHILADELPHIA-based literary magazine established
in the spring of 1927 and produced by a close-knit
group of the city’s African-American intellectual and
professional elite. Despite its apparent literary and
cultural value, there were only three issues pro-
duced, and the magazine lasted for just one year. De-
scribed by W. E. B. DUBOISas a “little brochure,” the
magazine stressed its desire to publish aspiring young,
school-age African Americans. It also fostered the
talents of adult writers, many of whom were active
participants in the PIRANEANCLUBand the Beaux
Arts Club, two well-organized African-American lit-
erary societies in the city. Among them were BESSIE
BIRD,MAECOWDERY,NELLIERATHBORNEBRIGHT,Black Opals 45