It's seen as the ultimate test of man hood, and I don't doubt for one second that the gambler is a stand in for Toback. This all while the white protagonist watches as if viewing an animal make love to, then inflict pain upon his prey. The blackness Toback gives us in Black and White is similar. Sadly, Toback doesn't explore the issue, he exploits it. With this film he's making a blaxploitation flick that thinks it's anthropology.
Improvisation is a chancy way to approach film.
When it works it can be highly invigorating as in some of the better Robert Altman films, though when it doesn't, it can be torturously awkward as in some of the lesser Altman films. In Black and White we get helpings of both, though I think by the end the latter response wins out. The energy of those scenes only work to show how good the film could have been had Toback reigned himself in. Much of the movie becomes repetitive with elliptical conversations that don't lead anywhere. It's as if Toback blew his load early on and had nothing more to say so he simply repeated himself.