New Kid

Jordan benefits from a loving family at home even if there are some challenges. His parents, Chuck and Ellice Banks, often play an antagonistic role as they insist on Jordan staying at Riverdale for his own good. However, at the soccer game, they enthusiastically cheer him on even though Jordan’s only goal was an accident and the team is losing; they contrast with the other parents, who aren’t paying attention to the game.

The differing parenting styles of Jordan’s mother and father emerge as the story unfolds. Ellice is a realist who believes that she has Jordan’s best interests at heart, even if he doesn’t see it now. She is adamant about Jordan staying in RAD so that he would gain skills and learn “how to play the game” of the white-dominated corporate world (96). In his sketchbook, Jordan critiques his mother’s insistence on using old cameras for photos even when they rarely come out correctly. In his Batman sketch, Ellice appears at the end to deny his request to go to art school.

In contrast, Chuck is friendlier while also wary of how an elite school could affect his son’s identity. Chuck gives Jordan advice and buys him video games when he can—even if they are outdated. Having quit his website design job because of his frustrations with corporate culture, Chuck is skeptical of RAD’s poor diversity and tells Jordan, “Don’t let anyone talk down to you” (7). Still, Jordan’s sketches reflect how he doesn’t always understand his dad’s perspective. The first sketch covers Carl’s insistence on firm handshakes, while the sketch after visiting Liam’s mansion depict awkward attempts to reinforce his Black culture. Chuck’s decision to leave his job is a sticking point with Ellice, who believes he would have obtained a promotion if he stayed there. But Chuck’s decision, alongside the low number of African American employees at the company, suggests a glass ceiling that informally prevents people of color from reaching leadership roles.

Jordan’s Gran’pa is exceedingly positive and explains important ideas to him with metaphors he can understand. For example, he points out the positive scenario of having multiple Chinese dishes at once as a way to encourage Jordan to bring Liam and Drew together. Gran’pa is the uncritical ally Jordan needs in an environment where everyone around him is a source of conflict, and he calls upon his words of wisdom when dealing with Alexandra and other situations.

Liam and Drew are Jordan’s friends from Riverdale Academy Day School who act as each other’s foil; the former is the white son of wealthy donors, and the latter is a Black financial aid student who lives with his grandmother.

The vast differences in Liam and Jordan’s upbringings make a friendship between the two seem unlikely. But they bond over a shared love of online gaming and their common position at the lower rung of RAD’s social structure. However, Liam is self-conscious about his family’s wealth and envious of Jordan’s close relationship with his parents, as his own father never appears after the first chapter. He likes Jordan and Drew because they don’t treat him differently and give him a sense of normalcy. He also had a friendship with Maury, a rich Black student at RAD, that ended under murky circumstances. Liam’s explanation is that “people change,” alluding to Maury’s elite interests (150). But Maury’s uncharacteristically confrontational response to Liam celebrating a box of Oreos implies Liam may have failed to support him when he was derogatorily called an Oreo.

Drew is smart and athletic, but he faces greater struggles with class and race. His living conditions are harsher than Jordan’s; he lives with his caring but strict grandmother, and his neighborhood has no parks. The racism Drew faces is more explicit, whether it is Andy’s insinuations that he only earned the quarterback position because of his race or Ms. Rawle’s constantly mistaking him for a former problem student whose only commonality with Drew is skin color. As a result, Drew becomes cynical and talks back largely because he sees no other option.

It takes several chapters for Drew and Jordan to actually talk, and the teachers immediately treat it as a cause for concern. Jordan admires Drew, and part of the reason he stands up to Ms. Rawle is because he knows Drew’s reactionary attitude does not reflect his true self.

Craft’s companion book to this story, Class Act, places Drew in the protagonist’s role and discusses the class tensions between Jordan’s friends and Liam’s difficult family life.