Black And White

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

Although Eddie is the instigator behind the crimes and possesses the gun, he avoids legal trouble while Marcus is sentenced to 19 months in jail. Through the young men’s vastly different experiences of the legal system, Black and White explores inequities in this system, how Black and white people are treated differently, and the factors that drive the system and its effect on urban communities.

The novel shows how, in the United States, people of color are disproportionately affected by poverty. For example, Marcus notes the fact that Eddie’s family has more money than his as early as the opening chapter. Black and White highlights how socioeconomic inequality is a driving factor behind the racial disparity in the justice system. The novel critiques the cash bail system, which it acknowledges as unfair and unjust. When Marcus is arrested and his bail set at 20 thousand, he is sent to Rikers Island when his mother cannot immediately pay. By contrast, Eddie is held in jail only briefly and his family almost immediately bails him out. This, as both Eddie and Marcus note in their own observations of jail, is most often the case—Black inmates frequently cannot make bail and are held longer, thus making up a larger proportion of the jail and prison population, while white inmates tend to have the money and support to afford their bail.