Gunnar's Seppuku

Gunnar's decision  to commit suicide by the end of the book is questioned by multiple people as an act of submission and weakness. They assume that Gunnar's decision to not go out in a blaze of gloryis  him accepting he won't win and giving up. However, Gunnar maintains that by killing himself, he isn't giving them the satisfaction of killing him. He quotes Mishima during an interview with a reporter-- "'Sometimes hara-kiri makes you win.' I just want to win one time".
Gunnar's character is overtly influenced by Japanese culture, first through Yoshiko, then through the literature she sends him. He rejects the Western concept of suicide as being dishonorable, instead viewing it as a final 'screw you' to the government.
Gunnar compares his suicide to seppuku, the ritual act of suicide by self-disembowelment reserved for samurai. Traditionally, it was used to preserve the dignity of the samurai rather than being disgraced by falling into the hands of their enemies. Gunnar embraces this view of suicide, rather than the western view, which views it as a sin. His decision highlights how Gunnar has experienced and has been influenced by multiple cultures-- black, white, and Japanese. His rejection of a western perspective also renforces that he goes against the grain of mainstream society and combines these different racial and cultural influences into his own unique ideology.

Great-great-great-great-great Uncle Tom

White Boy Shuffle's protagonist Gunnar Kaufman comes from a long line of ancestors who fit the 'Uncle Tom' archetype. Gunnar family not only accepts their Uncle Tom-like ways, but revel in them. Gunnar states in the first chapter that, "their resolute deeds and Uncle Tom exploits were passed down by my mother's dinner table macaroni-and-cheese oral history lessons.".

The entire first chapter is devoted to Gunnar describing his family and their so called "Uncle Tom exploits" with great detail and pride, showing that his family truly believed that by conforming to how white society wanted them to act, they were doing something noteworthy.
Instead, his family stays just outside of history, purportedly behind major historical events like the beginning of the American revolution, or the assassination of Malcolm X. However, their contributions to these events are glossed over, in favor of telling about just eager to please white people they were.

Unlike the rest of his family however, Gunnar rejects having to please white society, saying at the end of the first chapter, "the fruit never falls far from the tree, but I've tried to roll down the hill at least.".

We can tell from his call for mass suicide as "the ultimate sit-in" and his self-description as a "Negro Demagogue that Gunnar has achieved his goal of not becoming the Uncle Tom stereotype he so feared.

Given this knowledge about future Gunnar, as well as the all white environment we see him in for the first few chapters, we can surmise that some event must occur to make Gunnar break away from the path he was starting down, and begin to question his ancestors.