The Black And White Review

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Marcus Brown and Eddie Russo are best friends who found the strength to break through the racial barrier. Marcus is black and Eddie is white. Stars of their school basketball team, they are true leaders who look past the stereotypes and come out on top. They are inseparable, watching each other’s backs, both on and off the basketball court. The only terrible thing they do is that they are robbing innocent people. Senior Night is around the corner and they need money to buy some nice clothes for the big evening. Marcus and Eddie continue to rob people and they see that they earn a lot of money from it. One night, they wait for someone easy to rob in the parking lot across the park. They get the sight of a man walking out of the hardware store. They didn’t know the man was black until they walked up to him and Eddie told him it was a stickup.

The black man turns out to be the bus driver to the basketball team. Unfortunately, he recognizes Marcus from taking the bus earlier. Marcus and Eddie agree that they will stick together and get through it as Black and White always does. This proves immediately to be totally impossible.

Eddie comes from a middle class, nuclear family. Eddie has a mother and a father, and they both work. If Eddie ever needed money for something, he could put his hands out and probably get it. His parents have so much money that Eddie can come out of it with a good lawyer. Marcus comes from a lower middle class single parent family that does not have much money to spend. Graduation is near and Eddie’s father takes the opportunity to tell Eddie what he wants him to do after graduation. Eddie’s father wants his son to pick a school where he is going to learn something and not just play basketball. He wants him to study and get a diploma, so he could always be somebody no matter what happens. Marcus, in contrast to Eddie, does not have a father who gives him support and advices about the future. The fact that Eddie begins to think more about his future, makes Marcus’s and Eddie’s friendship slip slightly apart from each other. Eddie’s father knows the whole truth about the incident, but for consideration to Eddie’s future, he decides to keep his mouth shut. Marcus’s mother also knows the whole truth, but she wants her son to take responsibility and accept the punishment he receives. Eddie is still determined that he will start at St. John’s. You can say that Eddie is facing a major choice. Should he continue to play innocent so he does not ruin his career, or should he admit everything and concentrate on his friendship with Marcus? He chooses the first alternative.

When Marcus tells Eddie that he had accepted the plea, Eddie feels that Marcus has given up. All Eddie wants to know from Marcus is how clean Marcus can keep Eddie. The fact that Eddie fails on Marcus that way, makes Marcus search after someone else to talk to. He soon finds chemistry with Eddie's sister, Rose, and they keep meeting each other in secret. They gradually develop feelings for each other and eventually fall in love. Marcus and Rose have fallen in love and they are nervous about telling Eddie about their relationship. That good one-on-one feeling Marcus and Eddie always had, was gone. Marcus did not want to put one more mountain between them.

Marcus is removed from the basketball team because he pleaded guilty. Marcus and his family went to Senior Night, where the school would like to thank the basketball players for all the effort they have spent in representing Long Island City High School. Ms. Randolph, the principal, says that Marcus is not welcome because of the plea. Could it have a racist meaning? Yes, I think it had a little racist meaning. It also proves that when you admit that you are guilty, people begin to see you differently.

Marcus is the one that is accepting the punishment, and can walk through this and say that he was at least honest. He is the loyal friend in this story. He is the one that have been brave and accepted the punishment without telling the cops about Eddie. Eddie, however, has a more uncertain future ahead of him.

In the end we get to know that the things that were most important to Marcus had changed. It used to be playing basketball with Eddie, now it was his family and his girlfriend Rose. "Black and White" is a story about friendship and how a little misjudgment can change your life in so many ways. Marcus and Eddie thought they had found the way out of the racial barrier, but the misjudgment showed them that it will always be a small distinction between black and white people. Through this text, we get to know how the justice system treats you when it comes to your skin colour. We get to see what being arrested means to someone who is black, poor and have a bad lawyer versus someone who is white, has money and can pay for a good lawyer.

Sources:

- Black and White, Paul Volponi, Cappelen Damm, 2005 (Vaskeseddelen på baksiden )

- Black and White: Reading log