Black and White

Paul Volponi’s novel Black and White addresses a variety of multicultural issues, such as the the desire to posses material goods, friendship, and cultural bias in the criminal justice system.

Volponi was successful in addressing these issues by using an inner-city setting and vividly describing a cross-cultural relationship between two young boys who face a challenge between personal loyalty and criminal justice.

The novel can easily maintain the reader’s interest because it was written in a captivating, and suspenseful way. Every other chapter was written from each boy’s perspective and unveiled their personal account of the challenges, predicaments and decisions each one encountered.

My favorite character was Marcus (a.k.a. “Black”), because of his uncompromising loyalty to his friend Eddie (a.k.a. “White”). Despite being indicted for the crimes for several armed robberies and attempted murder, he never revealed who his accomplice was to the police. Black’s decision to forgo his potential basketball career and serve his jail sentence is a true testament to Black’s character and his unyielding loyalty to the “code of the street” which is the key to survival in many inner-city cultures.

The novel provides opportunity to young adult readers to become more sensitive to the issues of the workings of the criminal justice system. Even though the police knew that White was the accomplice and “trigger” man in the crimes, the evidence against him was sketchy. White’s family was able to hire an attorney to defend him and he will most likely walk. However, Black’s family was not able to afford an attorney and his appointed district attorney convinced him to plea bargain because of an eyewitness identification. Therefore, young readers can see how the U.S. justice system is based on reasonable doubt and how socio-economics can play a large role in obtaining adequate legal representation.

In the end, the novel leaves the reader predicting how each boy’s future will unfold. Therefore, story leaves a lot of room for discussion on the several themes touched upon in the book and allows students to create their own imaginary outcome for each boy’s future. I would highly recommend this book for students in upper middle school and high school. The novel can be used to introduce and support units that focus on multiculturalism, urban studies, legal studies, morals and conflict resolution.