85 pages • 2 hours read
Jewell Parker RhodesBlack Brother, Black Brother
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Strategy and Tactics
Donte comes to see fencing as more than simply a game. It is not entirely physical. It is also made up of strategy, which he learns while watching two members of the Middlefield Prep team spar. He thinks that “[f]encing isn’t just motion, it’s tactics. Mind games” (111). When he faces Alan, he uses the pain in his wrist to make Alan think that he is weak and an easy target. When Alan falls for his trap, Donte works it to his advantage and scores.
Eventually, Donte learns that skills from fencing can be used in everyday life. As he enters his hearing, Donte doesn’t understand why Coach tells him: “Heads up. Another strip. Another field. See everything. On guard, Donte. On guard” (137). However, it soon clicks. He sees the situation strategically and challenges the stereotypes the judge has about him as a Black teenage boy: “I see now…it’s a match. Like Coach said. The courtroom, another field” (141). Being able to analyze the situation allows Donte to respond decisively; he draws on his brother, father, and Coach to show that he is not likely to cause trouble.
Seeing
One of the earliest lessons that Coach teaches Donte is to “[s]ee everything” (96). The act of seeing comes to mean Donte’s ability to understand the nuances of every situation, both within fencing bouts and his everyday life. He sees the subtext that exists beneath the surface in others’ language, the racist implications of their statements and questions. He frequently mentions being able to see what is happening below the surface, speaking of this specifically within his hearing.
Donte also wants others to truly see him, to understand that he is more than a racist stereotype. After defeating Alan, he forces Alan to look at him, thinking: “He can even dislike me if he wants. But now he has to see ME” (228). Donte wants Alan (and everyone) to understand that he is much, much more than what others think of him, that he is a complex individual with many different nuances. Alan may continue to hate him, but he will have to understand that Donte is unafraid of him now.
Donte learns to see and to look below the surface. He and Trey encourage their classmates to do the same, to recognize that both boys are Black and nuanced individuals.
Passing
To pass is to avoid racism and stigmatization. In Black Brother, Black Brother, Trey is able to pass for white because his skin is much lighter than Donte’s. However, like Donte, he also identifies as Black, even if it is not apparent from his skin color. Trey’s passing gives him privilege and popularity at Middlefield Prep. He is usually taken more seriously, and others assume less often that Trey is getting into trouble.
Due to his skin privilege, Trey is able to manipulate in ways that Donte can’t, such as when goading the fencing coach into proving the basketball coach wrong. Donte thinks: “Everyone thinks he’s perfect. Obedient. The ‘better brother.’ Makes it easier for him to manipulate, strategize, get special favors. None of that works for me” (103).
Trey is very conscious of the privilege that he has and feels guilty for having it when Donte does not. At the final fencing tournament, Trey is passed a note that likely uses a racial slur to refer to Trey’s teammates from the Boys and Girls Club, though Parker Rhodes does not say so explicitly. Trey is visibly upset, mad that, though he shares an identity with Zion, Zarra, and Donte, he is seen as separate.
The t-shirts that Dante and Trey wear at the end of the novel are intended to demonstrate that race is nuanced.
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