Gunnar Kaufman

Gunnar is the narrator of The White Boy Shuffle. He tells the reader in the Prologue that the remaining text is his memoirs. He begins with an outrageous and hilarious account of his male ancestors. When the reader first meets Gunnar, he is an elementary student at a predominantly white school in Santa Monica, California where multicultural issues pervade every facet of the curriculum. Even at such a young age Gunnar already has a developed and sarcastic sense of humor, and he sometimes unleashes it on unsuspecting adults in positions of authority. The most notable early example of Gunnar's sense of humor is described during the preemptive visit by the police after Gunnar's mother moves the family to a poor black neighborhood. Gunnar is asked about his gang affiliation, and he finds the question absurd since he has not been in the neighborhood long enough to even...