Beatty’s protagonist Gunnar Kaufman embodies the progression that Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned with the Civil Rights Movement. He is an African-American male who was raised in predominantly Caucasian environment without profound discrimination. Although the white community accepts him, he struggles to be accepting of his native African-American community. Even after his mother moves his family to Hillside, a notorious California ghetto, he initially does not connect to the "ghetto" lifestyle. He has notions of what life as an African-American should be like, but he has yet to live it. Gunnar is a chameleon that slowly but surely fits into almost every environment he is placed in. When Gunnar moves from the predominant white Hillside to a predominantly Black neighborhood he slowly changes "colors" and begins to represent everything that is considered to be "Black." However, it could just be Gunnar's environment that is shaping his personality and not his desire to conform. Gunnar did desire to be accepted in this new community but even if he did not desire to be accepted he was bound to retain some of the attributes of the people that were in his surroundings. Gunnar’s friendship with these Black characters can be interpreted as the white person saying these are my "cool Black friends". Gunnar is no longer the "cool Black" friend he is the "white person" saying these are my "cool Black friends". Through the help of Scoby and Psycho Loco, he begins to fit into the black aesthetic, but superficial conforming does not change his innate personality. When his father forces him to return to a predominantly white school, he naturally reverts to his true self, one that does not see skin color as a barrier.