THE LAST WHITE MAN by Mohsin Hamid

This slim novel is a parable that is a cross between Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Saramago’s Blindness.  It also brings to mind John Howard Griffin’s memoir, Black Like Me.  Here we have a young white man named Anders who wakes up one day and discovers that he is now Black.  Furthermore, he does not look like his former self, but he has the same memories, preferences, aptitudes, body type, habits, etc., that he had before.  His father is wary of this Black man in his midst, but Anders’s friend Oona takes his new look in stride.  Then more and more people have the same experience of becoming Black and having to adapt to being treated differently, and not just by white people.  This is empathy on a whole new level and literally walking in the shoes of an oppressed ethnicity.  At first there is some unrest, but then that tapers off, and nothing much happens.  At some point during this transformation process for all white people, distinguishing between who used to be white and who has always been Black becomes nearly impossible. My take on this book is that the author is telling us that racial bigotry based on skin color makes no sense, and, of course, he is right.  If everyone were Black, that prejudice would disappear, but other biases might become more widespread.  Anyway, this book definitely provides food for thought in the what-if department.