This paper examines the novel, "Devil in a Blue Dress" by Walter Mosely, an African-American mystery thriller set in Los
Angeles in 1948, about a black man, Easy Rawlins, and his search for
knowledge about himself and his race. It looks at how the novel talks about knowledge being power and what the dominant (white) race and class struggled long in history to deprive the blacks. It also analyzes how the novel treats violence as an endorsement of the black
ideology of useless respect and how, at the same time, rejects a white ideology of violence that defines white superiority.