The theme of the story The Black Ball would have to do with Persistence and doing hard work through the tough times. The author uses metaphors, allegories and other literary terms like characterization, to see the negative of how racism and discrimination affects people in a big way of there thinking.
Racism impacts characters' live because in the following ways:
The main character is a man named John, born around the civil war that goes through difficulties and challenges in his life being an African American. John tries to convinced his son that he is not black at all , telling him “of course not, you’re brown. You know you’re not black”. What john is trying to teach his son here is that there is no point in saying there’s black and then there’s white, his trying to teach him that no matter what race you are they are all individuals.
Also, the term “Behind the black ball” means to be in a losing position and its reference comes from a game of pool. The Black Ball in the story is used as a symbolic way of racism and the way people discriminate.
White supposedly means pure and innocent and at the same time john's son is playing with a white ball and that’s symbolism for the experiences he will have.