Black v. White (2)

After the narrator gets a job at the Liberty Paints plant and spends some time mixing a black substance into the "Optic White" paint, he is transferred to another job helping Lucius Brockway manage the pressure gauges on the boilers and machines that make the paint. At this point, he has gone beyond the surface of the company into the "machines inside the machine"(217).  Brockway informs the narrator that "our white is so white you can paint a chunka coal and you'd have to crack it open with a sledge hammer to prove it wasn't white clear through!"(217)  Ellison uses the white paint to symbolize the assimilation of the black population in a white society. Charcoal is often used to draw or make black marks on a medium, marks that are now hidden by the white paint.  The Optic White paint is so popular because it is able to cover up blackness so well.  It represents the prejudicial struggle in America between the blacks and whites.  The narrator’s previous job of mixing the black substance into the white paint before dispatch also symbolizes the disappearance of black influence in the white society. Although he puts 10 drops of the substance into a bucket of paint, it still appears white. After a while, the paint samples begin to look like they have a grayish tint, representing the desire for the narrator to be influential in the society. When Mr. Kimbro overlooks the grayish tint, it is obvious that just as the paint must pass a “white inspection” in order to be sent out, blacks in the society are blindly driven by their hope of success to blend with the white society.