The Black President (originally either The Clash of the Races or The Black President or Romance of the Clash of the Races in America in the Year 2228) is a work of dystopian science fiction published in 1926 and written by Monteiro Lobato, being the author's only novel written for adults.
The main story follows the first-person narrative of Ayrton Lobo and his conversations with Miss. Jane about the United States of the year 2228, witnessed through a porviroscope, about the dispute between the Men's Party and its representative, President Mr. Kerlog, seeking re-election, and the Elvinist Party, with Miss Astor as its candidate, against Jim Roy, the candidate of the Black Association for President of the United States, and the macabre outcome of the struggle for power.
Plot The book begins with a conversation at the London Bank between two friends who, after discussing the world, focus on the strange figure of Professor Benson, a reclusive scientist with great financial ability. We get to know the protagonist and his self-focused personality, as well as his work at Sá, Pato & Cia and his desire to rise socially by buying a car. He finally buys a Ford, but on a business trip, he gets into an accident due to his love of speed and is saved by Professor Benson's employees. After his recovery, Benson accepts him as a confidant, sending him for a walk in the open air before meeting him in his office, as a hook for the second chapter, which introduces the "strange castle" and its surroundings.
Upon his return, in Chapter III, the protagonist reveals his impressions of the strange laboratory and, when Dr. Benson arrives, we finally discover that the story is told by Ayrton Lobo. Then, in Chapter IV, lunch takes place, and we meet Miss Jane, who makes such an impression on the protagonist, and new details about the "mysterious invention". After lunch, the story continues with Professor Benson presenting his theories on reality, preparing an intellectual basis for Ayrton Lobo, before presenting his invention. From the intellectual part, they move on to the mechanical part, as a way of continuing to create a basis of understanding.
In the office, Ayrton Lobo, already getting used to Miss Jane, learns about her family's past and that she is a second-generation Brazilian, as well as developments for the future. The story continues with new conversations between Ayrton and Jane, both about the present moment and future developments, as well as the idea of writing a novel about the future. Dr. Benson, at the age of 70 and in poor health, leaves to destroy his invention, and dies at the end of the chapter. After the professor's death, Ayrton returns to his day-to-day work at the firm, but his mind is far from there... Seeing Miss Jane again, she asks him to come back every Sunday, as it would do her good and he could learn about future history.
A week later, Ayrton returns to Miss Jane, where they discuss various questions about the origin of the USA, as well as her planting curiosity about the events of the year 2228. Between chapters XI and XIII the future situation is presented, as well as the main characters of future history: Jim Roy, leader of the Black Association and a social leader of great influence; Miss Astor, representative of the Elvinist Party, together with the theoretical basis of its ideology; and President Kerlog, leader of the Men's Party, a fusion of the Democratic and Republican Parties. The story continues with the presentation of technologies such as radio transport, but Ayrton loses most of the narrative by daydreaming about Miss Jane.
The story returns a week later when Miss Jane spends some time exploring some future themes, such as Eropolis, making Ayrton Lobo daydream, and we move on to the moments before the election, with the tension in both the Men's Party and the Elvinist Party, hooking into the next chapter when Jim Roy decides, after long reflection, to put his own name in the ballot. Jim Roy transmits the password, which is discovered via espionage by the Envinist Party, which causes the group to disband and the alliance of its coreligionists with the Men's Party. Roy is elected with 54 million votes.
A week later, Ayrton Lobo considers declaring his love to Miss Jane, but loses his nerve when he finds her at her father's grave. As they return to discuss the events of 2228, Miss Jane recounts Roy and Kerlog's first meeting after the elections, as Roy wanted to prevent the country from descending into conflict, as Kerlog recognized Roy's genius and attributes, but nevertheless declared war on him, with Ayrton showing himself moved by the events. We return to see the outcome of the Elvinist Party which, although momentarily disbanded, has reconstituted itself over time. We explore a little of the ideological and scientific development of Elvinism, before returning to Kerlog who, despite raising the possibility of following the law and swearing in Roy, his Minister of Equity follows the "voice of the Blood" and the White Race Convention is called.
On a mid-week holiday, Ayrton Lobo returns and learns about the events of the White Convention, where representatives of the white ethnic group met with President Kerlog and, rather coldly and distantly, voted on the "Leland motion" (the content of which has been kept secret at this point in the narrative). Next, the figure of inventor John Dudley is introduced, who promises a solution to a problem that the government spends days trying to solve. In the end, it is revealed that Dudley invented the "Omega rays", which are capable of straightening afro hair – something that receives huge support and demand from the public. We follow Miss Astor and President Kerlog's love connection a little more closely, while Ayrton becomes frustrated with his difficulty in expressing himself – a frustration that ends in his dismissal from his job.
A week later, inspired by the film The Sea Beast with John Barrymore, Ayrton returns to discover the following events: on the eve of the inauguration, Kerlog goes to Jim Roy, who has been exposed to Omega rays and has felt his strength fading, and calmly, sensing the tragic atmosphere, reveals that Omega rays cause sterilization in those who use them. Discovering this, Roy falls unconscious in his office.
The next day, the government announces a new type of toy and, distracting the public, reveals the death of Jim Roy. New elections are called and Kerlog, married to Miss Astor, is re-elected with 100 million votes. Months later, the reality of the Leland motion and the sterilizing action of the Omega rays is revealed. The birth rate of the black population is dropped and decades later, there is only a blonde population with slightly coppery skin.
In the final chapter, we discover how the outcome of the narrative has left Ayrton Lobo shaken, but focused on his passion for Miss Jane, he spends the following week writing the first chapter of his novel, full of stylistic exaggerations. Miss Jane notes it, and Lobo goes a week without writing, frustrated. After being encouraged again to write with his personality, Lobo writes his own way, without corrections, which Miss Jane approves of. At the end, feeling happy, Ayrton kisses her, which is reciprocated.
Composition Narrative
Monteiro Lobato develops two timelines in his dystopia: the one between Ayrton Lobo and Miss. Jane in 1926, and the one that takes place in the year 2228, with the "story within a story" structure. The first part of the story follows Ayrton Lobo, described by as "clumsy", and by Filipe Chamy as someone extremely imaginative, who suffers a car accident and is cared for on the estate of Dr. Benson, a wealthy scientist, and his daughter, Miss Jane, according to researcher Carlos Minchillo, a "Sherazade"-like character, also a researcher and who doesn't think about "marriage, fashion and other “futilities".” The second part deals with the presidential race in 2228, which aims to elect the 88th president. According to Maicon Alves Dias, the work proposes an allegorical reading of the Brazilian and American people, as well as establishing a dialectic between the two eras. Also according to Dias, the parallel between the present and the future leads each character to reflect on the reality of their time.
Alter-ego? Authors such as present the "protagonist" of the work as being the "representative" of Lobato's "extreme views" – and therefore an "alter-ego". However, this idea is questioned in , noting that "[...] although the lines and ideas expressed by the characters were coined by the author, they do not necessarily represent what the author thinks." and that no character is consistently against the black population throughout the narrative, in addition to the fact that there are characters who oppose each other, with totally different ideas and worldviews, written by the same author, makes it impossible for the same author to defend all these views at the same time. For researcher Emerson Tin, while presenting the interpretations of Marcia Camargos, Vladimir Sacchetta and Marisa Lajolo, says that it would be too superficial and simplistic to focus on decontextualized passages from the novel to accuse it of being a racist work, Dias says that the use of allegories means that, in hasty readings, we end up missing the author's attempt to portray his time and society and Felipe Chamy says that the author is "diluted in various forms in the fictional spheres of this work." An example of the contradictions in the characters' feelings occurs in chapter XVIII, where President Kerlog recognizes Jim Roy's merits, but concludes: “I admire you as a man, Jim. I recognize you as a brother, and I feel your genius. But as a white man, I see you only as an enemy whom I must crush...”, embracing an irrational impulse, or as described by Santana-Dezmann, the “instinct of race”, denying the “superior and rational” position defended by the “representatives of white ethnicity”. Ultimately, the existence of these irrational impulses, according to Santana-Dezmann's, shows how pointless artificial selection and eugenic policies are in the narrative.
Language
begins the discussion on the language of the work with an example already seen in the opening of Chapter I, where two characters discuss human dishonesty and all the problems it causes, resulting in the exclamation: “[...] Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like if a wise eugenics combated dishonesty by eliminating all dishonest people. What a paradise!" The term "elimination", according to the researcher, while it may convey the idea of extermination, can also involve other ways of putting an end to dishonesty, such as access to education and a decent wage. As for the term "wise eugenics", the meaning continues to be "combating dishonesty". The researcher notes the difficulty critics have in noticing the different meanings of the same word, which ends up causing them to discard the first part of the work, due to the negative connotation the term has received from the non-specialized public, and that Lobato seeks to conceptualize how the same word can have both a specific and a generic meaning, depending on the reader's knowledge.
Afterward, the researcher explains why it is necessary to understand the internal context of the narrative and the external context of the moment in which the work was composed, and that this understanding is necessary to differentiate an adequate reading from an inadequate one. On the other hand, in Carlos Minchillo's view, the work is ambiguous and an example of the different ways in which any literary work can be read and interpreted. In Dias' view, the work contains "irony, criticism and concern for humanity and society", something that is often seen in Lobato's children's work and in José Wellington de Souza's view, the work has a fluid style, different from Lobato's previously published short stories.