Pride
I found it interesting that so far in the novel there has not been a group of African Americans protesting the procedure it has only been whites and a few people in Harlem who do not want to lose power. I would have expected a racial pride group to show up by now and argue for remaining black as a way to show that they do not have to change themselves to be just as good as anyone else. Maybe part of the reason why this has not happened is because the so called sure was developed by a black man so it is not viewed as the whites trying to force something onto them. If it had been developed by white people the cure would have been seen as stripping them of their identity rather than making a choice to change their lives. It reminds me of the argument the X-Men always have about being cured and whether it is the right thing to do. There are always different groups arguing different points like there is nothing wrong with them or they can be normal finally and I suppose I was expecting a similar argument to develop within the novel. Instead so far there has been very little resistance from the black community and it seems odd that no one would be against turning white except those who already have benefits like Dr. Crookman. I also see this as odd considering the history of the author himself and having learned about all the different movements he was in.
Schuyler, George. Black No More. New York: Random House, 1999. Print.
I like the point you make about how if white people had developed the “cure” then it would be seen as a loss of identity as opposed to a choice. I think that is a very good analysis of the situation in the novel. It is seen as a choice, one of their own is offering a way out of oppression and poverty so they don’t question the consequences. They are too blinded by the prospect of getting what they think what they perceive as the “normal” American life that they don’t think about the loss of identity. Max has some regrets and finds that being white isn’t nearly as wonderful as he thought. I think that happens a lot when we think something we don’t have is better, yet when we get it we find that it isn’t nearly as great as we thought.
I’ve also been thinking a lot about the Cure in X-Men, and I also expected there to be some kind of uprising of racial pride. I bet, though, that if the Black No More treatment was developed by a white man, there would still have been some black men and women who would use it, just as there are mutants who want the Mutant Cure (Rogue, for example, who desperately wants nothing but to have physical human connection without hurting those dearest to her). I do think that if a white man had developed the Black No More treatment, though, there would be a black pride uprising as a sort of retaliation against white oppression.