Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the source text’s depiction of racism and racial discrimination.

As it lends itself to the novel’s title, the motif “black and white” recurs frequently and is laced with varying and sometimes contradictory meanings. Its most apparent interpretation is in reference to race: Marcus and Eddie are referred to as “Black and White” by their peers because of the color of their skin. Their friendship is significant because it is an anomaly in their environment, a neighborhood in which relations between Black people and white people range from tense and suspicious to outright hostile. Their nicknames, and the phrase “Black and White” more broadly, symbolize a surpassing of racial boundaries and a hope for unity between Black and white people.

However, as the young men find themselves tangled in criminal activity and subsequent legal trouble, the phrase takes on a new and less hopeful meaning. In common usage, black and white, as opposite shades, often symbolize contrast and opposition. In the novel, “Black and White” comes to describe not unity, but the sharp contrast between Marcus and Eddie—in their lives, their experiences of the legal system and subsequent reactions, and their fundamental traits as characters.