Beatty, writing Post-Civil Rights Movement and during the Black Arts Movement, creates a character that transcends racial barriers, as many African Americans at that time wished to do. He along with other activists redefined what it meant to be black. Beatty created a character that fit into a white community as equally well as a black community; he also marries and impregnates a Japanese woman. From Gunnar's encounter with the Harvard graduate, he learns that he is not interested in losing his true African-American self to become a pretentious imposter. The African-American community appoints him to the status of Negro Demagogue. They overlook the Caucasian environment that saturates the majority of his upbringing and his Japanese wife because at the end of the day, Gunnar is simply an African American male. This book proves that being raised in a ghetto or only having African-American friends are not the only qualification that one must fill to be considered "Black". Anyone can represent the African-American community, including well-spoken, well-educated black men and women. Paul Beatty's novel puts the foot in the door for a new Black being. It is a New Black Aesthetic.