Racism is a central theme of McCall’s autobiography. Most of the book is set in the recently-desegregated US South and addresses school integration, racial disparities in employment, racial policing issues, racial wealth inequality, racist school curriculum, and racism in the judicial system. McCall’s life was shaped by racism. Racism of whites provided his anger, motivated his criminal activities, and caused a level of racism in himself, which stunted his personal and professional growth. McCall spends most of the book processing this systemic racism.

The white man’s system is the economic system most black Americans avoided. Black Americans preferred crime to working in the white man’s system. They saw no hope in the latter, only a future of back-breaking labor with no path to success. McCall and others like him saw their parents toiling for nothing in the white man’s system, so they fled, willing to do anything else and even risk their lives to stay away. McCall’s desire to avoid the system motivated his actions that led to his prison sentence. After being released, he reluctantly entered the white man’s system, and struggled and suffered in it for many years. Crushed under its weight, it was almost impossible for McCall to succeed.