the sellout. paul beatty. (269)

i came across paul beatty's the sellout on flavorpill's list of must read books for march.  the description stated:  

One of the best books of the year so far, and one of the funniest in decades (in a laughing-to-keep-from-crying kind of way — the sharpest, most lasting humor), The Sellout is a major work from the wildly talented Beatty, the author of two books of poetry and three previous novels, including the cult classic The White Boy Shuffle. The biting satire on race in America that we need in these times, it follows a gentleman farmer nicknamed “Bonbon” with the last name of Me as he, well, reinstates slavery (with the help of the last living Little Rascal) and brings back segregation. The result gets him in front of the Supreme Court, in a case called “Me vs. The United States of America.” This is a difficult and dazzling book that, if we’re lucky, we’ll be talking about for a long time to come. 

i could just make this post that blurb and say read the book.  but i will also share my thoughts on it.  however, i really think you should read the book first, and then come back to this post.

the book also had a blurb on it's backcover from sarah silverman that was spot on as well, "the sellout is brilliant.  amazing. like demented angels wrote it."

yes, this novel is something demented angels wrote.  this book speaks honestly and truthfully about race, but in the most absurd way.  as shared in the flavorpill post, the protagonist, bonbon, brings back slavery and segregation.  bonbon was a farmer that sold pot and delicious fruit (i have to admit his watermelon sounded good!) south los angeles, in the tiny town of dickens that had been erased from the maps.   in an attempt to bring dickens back, he also brought slavery and segregation but instead of regress, dickens progressed.

when we are first introduced to bonbon he was in dc for his supreme court trial. he didn't share with us his crimes but the fact that arresting him for getting high at the lincoln memorial was pointless.  bonbon appeared to not give any fucks about what is going on, but as we will see later on, it was because he didn't really do anything wrong.  bonbon's actions were misconstrued and he is a hero instead of criminal.

bonbon had an odd childhood.  his father, though gifted with the art of n*gger whispering (calming down suicidal n*ggers), was cray.  he made bonbon the subject of numerous replications of social science experiments but with a racial twist.  for example, to test out the bystander effect", he decked out bonbon with expensive chains and electronics and then mugged him.  however, instead of people helping bonbon, they helped his father beat him.  bonbon's unorthodox upbringing made him a little off as a person but that ended up helping him change the dickens.  ultimately, bonbon's father was shot by police while trying to help a suicidal person.  this resulted in bonbon becoming the new n*gger whisperer and motivated him to reclaim dickens.

bonbon did not purposely reinstate slavery, it actually just showed up one day on his doorstep, well his front yard, in the form of hominy jenkins.  hominy was a member of the "little rascal", his role was akin to buckwheat but more racist from the description.  he was a celebrity around dickens but when the town went so did his fame, because people couldn't find him.  due to this, hominy attempted suicide but bonbon saved him and as a thank you, hominy became his slave.

however, hominy was only a slave in name.  he didn't really do any work and demanded that he be whipped on wednesday.  not wanting to whip

an old man, bonbon took him to a dominatrix!

through hominy, different race issues are examined.  for one is the tradition minstrelsy, as we all now know and recognize it is racist.  however, it is demonstrated through hominy that he was very serious and proud of his acting. and i felt that actors who played racist roles in history should not be scorn for the roles they played but celebrated for working in such a racist industry like entertainment.  i also related this to current shows like fresh off the boat and blackish, which have both received backlash for being racist.  however, i enjoy both shows and yes they do portray stereotypes but isn't television about generalizations and stereotypes?  plus the actors are asian and black and they don't have an issue with the roles they are portraying so i am not sure how this backlash happen.  also, i think to certain point these characters are relatable regardless of ethnicity.  and for the record i am not saying minstrelsy is okay but i do not think it exist in the modern world or post racial america.

another thing that hominy was the direct cause of was the segregated bus.  for his birthday, hominy wanted to give up his seat to a white person the the bus.  ironically, no white people were on the bus, so bonbon hired an actress.  in addition to that a plaque was put up that read:  

priority seating for seniors, disabled, and whites 

instead of causing an uproar, the sign actually resulted in the bus being one of the safest ones. people became

more respectful because they were reminded of how much progress needs to be made.  i can actually see this working in real life.  i never really considered myself a feminist however after reading literature on how oppressed women really are, i have become

more of a feminist.  and this is the issue with race right now in a post racial

america.  by ignoring race and racism because supposedly things are better now, america will continue to have inqualities among the races.  you can't solve a problem if most of society does not think it exists.

the segregating of the schools stemmed from the bus.  bonbon put up signs for a fake academy that catered toward white students.  this fake academy became motivation for the students of dickens to start working more since they were excluded from the academy.  students were achieving and due to this white students wanted to attend school with the blacks and latinos.  in the end, this need to desegregate the schools resulted in bonbon going on trial in front of the supreme court.

at his trial, bonbon's attorney recoded the question "what is blackness, your honor?" he explained that based on bonbon's father's theory there were different stages of blackness:

neophyte negro:  "here the black lesson exists in a state of preconsciousness. . . the neophyte is scared of his own black was." examples given:  michael jordan, colin powell, and condoleezza rice.

stage II is "capital b black":  "a heightened awareness of race." examples given:  jesse jackson, sojourner truth, and kim kardashian. (lol.  i am serious!)

stage III is "race transcendentalism", "a collective consciousness that fights oppression and seeks serenity".  examples given: rosa parks, harriet Tubman, sitting bull, cesar chavez, and ichiro suzuki

bonbon believed there needsd to be a stage IV called "unmitigated blackness" which would be "simply not giving a fuck".  examples given: clarence cooper, charlie parker, richard pryor, maya deren, sun ra, mizoguchi, frida kahlo, black-and-white godard, celine, gong li, david hammons, björk, and wu-tang clan.  (yes, i loved that my girls frida and björk got an a shout out!!)

as bonbon explained, "unmitigated blackness is coming to the realization that as fucked up and meaningless it all is, sometimes it's the nihilism that makes life worth willing."  that was deep to me.  i have often explained how faith in nothing can be actually cause one to embrace it all.  beatty summed it up perfectly.  i can't say more.  this is the lesson of this amazing work.

i would end it here on this high note, but have to do some gushing.

i have to add that in addition to having great commentary on race, it also raised interesting points about los angeles as a city, ie the trend of neighborhoods labeling themselves and how the city is segregated based on race and class.  he made the excellent point of how "you can  find korean taco trucks only in white neighborhoods." something that slapped me in the face with how true that is. god i am such white hipster trash though i am mixed race! i have to also ass that i did love that one of my favorite la landmarks, tito's tacos!!!, got a shout out.

first of all, i loved beatty's pop references.  bebe's kids, turtle from entourage, coral from the real world all got hilarious mentions.  also it's my theory that adam y____ from the trial is adam yauch from the beastie boys but i can be reading into his free tibet shirt too much.

also there was a character, foy chesire who read like he would be the love child of oprah and al sharpton.  he was rewrote classics and other beloved books for young black readers.  i felt bonbon's regret for not saving them because they were quite clever, as a book lover i loved the puns:

the perjorative-free adventures and intellectual spiritual journeys of african-american jom and his protege,

white brother huckleberry fun as they go in search of the lost black family unit 

the great blacksby

uncle tom's condo

the point guard in the rye

the dopeman cometh

me talk white one day

as you can see this book is hilarious but deep, and a definite must read!!!

  

henry's freedom box. ellen levine. kadir nelson.

i purchased henry's freedom box from the beale library book sale.  i bought it because it was a caldecott winner and only 50 cents. in retrospect, i feel that the library should have charged more for it.

i didn't read it immediately and then while coming across it while packing, decided to save it to read for black history month.

it is a beautiful story based on the actual events of henry "box" brown's escape to the north.  i had never heard of brown prior to this book and was impressed yet sadden by the risk he took for freedom.

the book opened with henry as a child, not knowing his age because he was a slave.  his master died and he was separated from his family.  with his new master, he found a wife and they had children.  then one day, his wife and children were sold.  henry was devastated and decided to escape to freedom in the north.  his plan was to mail himself.  thankfully his plan was successful and he made it to philadelphia.  his first day of freedom then became his birthday.

the afterword explained in that brown mailed himself from richmond, virginia and his journey was twenty-seven hours.  his story was shared in newspapers in europe and america. it amazed me that his plan worked, it seemed too outrageous but then again any risk is worth it if the end result is freedom.

although it ends with henry gaining freedom, i was still sadden by the fact that brown had lost his family.  henry lost not only his wife and children but his mother and siblings as well.  it still saddens and outrages me that  slaveowners could take separate child and parent without an remorse.  it is so cruel and inhumane.

i was appreciative that the book shed light on the dividing of the family unit.  it included many aspects of slavery, even though a children's novel, henry's freedom box gave an honest portrayal of slavery.  it did not shy away from the mention of abusiveness and violence of slaveowners.  and interesting enough, many of the themes presented reminded me of the toni morrison beloved.  in beloved, the division is family is the cause for their escape to freedom.  also henry's admiration of the free bird he saw on the day he left his mother reminded me of the envy of the rooster's freedom from beloved, both demonstrating the low status of slaves.  another theme that the book did not ignore was the willingness of slaves to harm themselves in

hopes of freedom.  henry burning his hand to help him escape, and the act of

running away itself.  slavery diminished the human spirit so individuals did all they could to be free and to feel and be treated as human.  

i all got all this from it and though i did not go into as deep a conversation with my brother when we read this, we did discuss some of the themes.  he enjoyed the book because it a a great story.  but it also brought up some questions about slavery on his end, which we discussed. and this is why henry's freedom box is a great story, it is an engaging story but provokes kids to think about slavery in a different way than just something they learn about in school.

oh and as mentioned before, this is a caldecott medal winner, here are my favorite illustrations:  

beloved. toni morrison. (111)

i read toni morrison's "beloved" because it is on flavorpill's 30 before 30 list.  i have to admit, at first i was weary because of the ghost and supernatural occurances in 124.  i am not one for ghost stories but it turned out to be a tragic yet beautiful story of endurance. 

"beloved" is the tale of a family and community coping with a tragedy and the appearance of a mystery woman.  the tragic event was when slaveowners found escaped slave sethe (the protagonist) to return her to the farm and in an attempt to keep her children safe, she kills her infant daughter.  sethe is jailed and the slaveowner frightened by the sight leaves her alone.  this infant daughter haunts her house and the community and then comes back in the form of an actual person, beloved.  

infanticide is a horrible crime yet is justifiable considering the horrors of slavery.  i might sound like a horrible person but i understand why sethe killed her baby.  better for that baby to die at the hands of her mother than later in life by her slaveowner or the clan.  also better to avoid a life of abuse and treatment like an animal.  actually as demonstrated in paul d's (an old friend of sethe who becomes her lover) story about how he was jealous of a rooster when he realized it was more free than him.  its horrible to imagine any situation in which a human is treated less than an animal but sadly this was how the american institution of slavery was.

in my post for art spiegelman's "maus", i discussed how "maus" allows readers to truly understand a part of history that one would only know due to history books but not as a human experience.  the same can be said for "beloved".  in school, we learn about slavery yet we have have no idea what it was really like.  in history books there are excerpts from slave narratives but unless you read one it's can not grasp the full experience of a slave.  furthermore, i would assume american textbooks present slaveflaw oils not be complete honesty about slavery and present it in a sympathetic light because american society would not want its student to see its country negatively.  to get a honest perspective one has to look elsewhere. "beloved" allows the reader to do just that, it puts things into perspective.  

for example, i knew that slaves were separated from their family members; families torn apart because they were viewed as property but it was different when i read about it in "beloved".  reading about baby suggs, sethe's mother-in-law, trying to find out which farms her children were taken to or how paul d was  amazed and envious when he met generations of black families that were able to stay together, framed it in a ways i could relate.  but the best example was paul d thought that sethe love for her daughter denver was "risky":

for a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much is dangerous . . . the best thing, he knew, was to love just a little bit; everything, just a bit, so when they broke it back, or shoved it in a croaker sack, well, maybe you'd have a little love left over for the next one.

it sad to imagine a world in which affection and love for your child was

dangerous because at any moment they could be taken away from you.  and yes all parents fear losing a child but for slaves it was a fact of life. furthermore, imagine your family bonds not being respected because you were not viewed as a person.  family relations were ignored because slaves were not viewed as having them because they were property.

another aspect of "beloved" that left an impression on me was the hopelessness of slavery and how individuals coped with it.  all the characters had to deal with it but i believe baby suggs was the best example because she was free and yet did not find happiness.  her son, sethe's husband, had bought her freedom but even than it did not result in peace for her. baby suggs was a spiritual leader but after the tragedy with sethe, her spirit was broken.  like she told her friend stamp when he asked why she didn't preach anymore and accused her of punishing god, she replied "not like He punish me".  it's hard to believe in a god that does not stop the suffering in one's life.  i have always said that i could never be job so i undertstand baby sugg's frustration with god.  as a result of her hopelessness, baby suggs went to bed and stayed there, her "wish was to consider what in the world was harmless" and she did that by thinking about colors because they never harmed anyone.  it was sad but beautiful how she found comfort in colors, she still had hope even if she didn't have faith in god.

another example of this hopelessness was the chain gang that paul d worked on.  it was explained that the gang would sing as they worked:

singing love songs to Mr. Death, they smashed his head.  more than the rest, they killed the flirt whom folks called Life for leading them on.  making them think the next sunrise would be worth it . . .

morrison's analogy of life as a flirt is quite clever though sad.  it's one thing to not have faith in god but quite another to not have faith in life.  

though "beloved" demonstrated the horrors of slavery, the lesson to be learn is to not hold on to the past.  (this is also the same lesson of "the great gatsby" which is also on the 30 before 30 list. hmmmm).  as explained before, sethe's dead daughter comes back to life as beloved and at first sethe is happy because it gives her the opportunity to right her wrong.  however, even though sethe wa regretful and tried to give beloved the love she needed, in the end, beloved destroyed her.  and that is how it is in life, if you cling to the past it will ruin you (like seen in "gatsby").  instead one must accept their past, mistakes and all, and continue to life on.  one can not let tragedy stop them.  an individual must learn to endure the pain that life can be at times.

i wonder if this is the one of the overall lesson of the flavorpill list?  so far two books about not holding onto the past.  but regardless, "beloved" was a wonderful novel and should be read regardless of your age.