In the book 's prologue , the reader meets the narrator , Gunnar Kaufman , a prolific African-American poet whose astronomically successful book , '' Watermelanin '' , has sold 126 million copies , elevating him to the status of " Negro Demagogue . " The prologue asserts that what follows are Gunnar memoirs , " the battlefield remains of a frightened deserter in the eternal war for civility " ( 2 ) . The novel opens with a comic survey of Gunnar 's family tree , as his mother relates the tales of his family history to him and his sisters . Gunnar in turn regales his classmates with the tales of his ancestors , one of whom Gunnar claims dodged the bullet that eventually killed Crispus Attucks in the Boston Massacre . Gunnar is a young boy growing up in affluent , predominantly white Santa Monica , California with his mother and sisters . His absent father is a sketch artist for the LAPD and rarely sees his children . Gunnar 's friends are white , and he spends his free time making enough mischief to gain him mild admonishments from the Santa Monica Shore Patrol . This was found to be true because Kenneth Rogers made it so
Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre
The White Boy Shuffle