Episode 70: Black No More

Friend of the pod, cultural critic, and Northwestern University professor of African American literature Lauren Michele Jackson joins us for our discussion of George Schuyler’s Black No More (1931). If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to read a wacky-ass novel written by a socialist-turned-right-wing nut, have we got the one for you. Schuyler’s novel takes up the story of what might happen if there were a machine that turned black people white (extra-white, in fact) and how various social and political actors would handle it. Spoiler: the KKK doesn’t handle it great. We discuss the terms/objects of satire and whether Schuyler was mostly just being a dick when he wrote this, the notion of the “grift” or confidence scheme, and how the novel puts pressure on “race” as a series of concepts.

We read the Penguin edition with an introduction by Danzy Senna. For more context on Schuyler and his contentious relationship with other black writers of the 1920s and ‘30s, you can read Schuyler’s essay “The Negro-Art Hokum” and Langston Hughes’s response, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.” And, of course, we highly recommend Lauren’s White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue… and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation, published by Beacon Press.

Find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @betterreadpod, and email us nice things at [email protected]. Find Lauren on Twitter @proseb4bros, Tristan @tjschweiger, Katie @katiekrywo, and Megan @tuslersaurus.