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Black No More
This celebrated Picaresque novel is a 1931 Harlem Renaissance era satire on American race relations. Schuyler targets both the KKK and NAACP in condemning the ways in which race functions as both an obsession and a commodity in early twentieth-century America. The central premise of the novel is that an African American scientist invents a process that can transform blacks into whites. Those who have internalized white racism, those who are tired of inferior opportunities socially and economically, and those who simply want to expand their sexual horizons, line up to be transformed. As the country "whitens", the economic importance of racial segregation in the South as a means of maintaining elite white economic and social status becomes increasingly apparent. The novel is known not only for its satiric bite and inventive plot machinations, but also for the caricatures of prominent figures of the American 1920s including W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, James Weldon Johnson, C. J. Walker and others.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1931
360 people are currently reading
9240 people want to read
About the author
George S. Schuyler
31 books78 followers(1895–1977), satirist, critic, and journalist. George Samuel Schuyler was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to Eliza Jane Fischer and George S. Schuyler. He grew up in a middle-class, racially mixed neighborhood in Syracuse, New York, where he attended public schools until he enlisted in the army at the age of seventeen. He spent seven years (1912–1919) with the black 25th U.S. Infantry and was discharged as a first lieutenant.
From early on, Schuyler possessed a high level of confidence and boasted of his family having been free as far back as the Revolutionary War. In 1921, Schuyler joined the Socialist Party of America, through which he connected with A. Philip Randolph, who hired him in 1923 as assistant editor for the Messenger; in that position, from 1923 to 1928, Schuyler also wrote a column entitled “Shafts and Darts: A Page of Calumny and Satire.” In 1924, Schuyler became the New York correspondent for the Pittsburgh Courier, contributing a weekly commentary, “Views and Reviews.” Schuyler led several investigative series while with the Courier, including one entitled “Aframerican Today,” reporting on race relations in Mississippi in 1925–1926. In 1926, his article “The Negro-Art Hokum,” published in the Nation, propelled him into the middle of the literary debate of the Harlem Renaissance. While Schuyler was concerned with race difference always being interpreted as inferiority and was trying to refute negative stereotypes, his statement in that essay, “the Aframerican is merely a lampblacked Anglo-Saxon,” caused him to be labeled as an assimilationist throughout his career. In 1927, “Our White Folks” was published in H. L. Mencken's American Mercury; from this, Schuyler's reputation grew and Mencken published nine more of Schuyler's articles between 1927 and 1933.
By the end of the 1920s, Schuyler began to acquire a national reputation as an iconoclast; despite his constant attacks on white racism, his commitment to exposing fraud, regardless of race, caused some African Americans to doubt his racial loyalty. In 1928, Schuyler married Josephine Cogdell, a white Texan ex-model.
In 1931, Schuyler published his first satirical novel, Black No More, Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free. The bulk of Schuyler's reputation rests on the success of this novel, which attacks myths of racial purity and white supremacy and the ways in which the perpetuation of racism serves economic purposes. Also in 1931, Schuyler became the first African American writer to serve as a foreign correspondent for a metropolitan newspaper, when the New York Evening Post sent him to assess the controversy of Liberia's slave labor. The articles were condemned by Marcus Garvey supporters, but based on the experience he published Slaves Today: A Story of Liberia (1931).
Schuyler also had several literary alter egos. Between 1933 and 1939, he produced fifty-four short stories and twenty novels/novellas in serialized form under such pen names as Samuel I. Brooks and Rachel Call. Until recently, scholars paid no attention to this body of work and Schuyler's own attitude toward his serialized fiction ranged from amusement to disdain. The freedom of a pen name allowed him to explore melodrama, and in contrast to the audience for his satirical essays and his novel, Black No More, Schuyler wrote his serialized fiction for an exclusively African American audience. To date, four of his serialized novels have been reprinted into two volumes: Black Empire (1991) and Ethiopian Stories (1995). Black Empire explores the success of the retaking of Africa from European colonial powers; Ethiopian Stories explores Ethiopia's wars against Italian occupation.
Schuyler continued his career as a journalist until 1966, when he published his autobiography, Black and Conservative, which gives an inside track to the feuds among the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance.
From early on, Schuyler possessed a high level of confidence and boasted of his family having been free as far back as the Revolutionary War. In 1921, Schuyler joined the Socialist Party of America, through which he connected with A. Philip Randolph, who hired him in 1923 as assistant editor for the Messenger; in that position, from 1923 to 1928, Schuyler also wrote a column entitled “Shafts and Darts: A Page of Calumny and Satire.” In 1924, Schuyler became the New York correspondent for the Pittsburgh Courier, contributing a weekly commentary, “Views and Reviews.” Schuyler led several investigative series while with the Courier, including one entitled “Aframerican Today,” reporting on race relations in Mississippi in 1925–1926. In 1926, his article “The Negro-Art Hokum,” published in the Nation, propelled him into the middle of the literary debate of the Harlem Renaissance. While Schuyler was concerned with race difference always being interpreted as inferiority and was trying to refute negative stereotypes, his statement in that essay, “the Aframerican is merely a lampblacked Anglo-Saxon,” caused him to be labeled as an assimilationist throughout his career. In 1927, “Our White Folks” was published in H. L. Mencken's American Mercury; from this, Schuyler's reputation grew and Mencken published nine more of Schuyler's articles between 1927 and 1933.
By the end of the 1920s, Schuyler began to acquire a national reputation as an iconoclast; despite his constant attacks on white racism, his commitment to exposing fraud, regardless of race, caused some African Americans to doubt his racial loyalty. In 1928, Schuyler married Josephine Cogdell, a white Texan ex-model.
In 1931, Schuyler published his first satirical novel, Black No More, Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free. The bulk of Schuyler's reputation rests on the success of this novel, which attacks myths of racial purity and white supremacy and the ways in which the perpetuation of racism serves economic purposes. Also in 1931, Schuyler became the first African American writer to serve as a foreign correspondent for a metropolitan newspaper, when the New York Evening Post sent him to assess the controversy of Liberia's slave labor. The articles were condemned by Marcus Garvey supporters, but based on the experience he published Slaves Today: A Story of Liberia (1931).
Schuyler also had several literary alter egos. Between 1933 and 1939, he produced fifty-four short stories and twenty novels/novellas in serialized form under such pen names as Samuel I. Brooks and Rachel Call. Until recently, scholars paid no attention to this body of work and Schuyler's own attitude toward his serialized fiction ranged from amusement to disdain. The freedom of a pen name allowed him to explore melodrama, and in contrast to the audience for his satirical essays and his novel, Black No More, Schuyler wrote his serialized fiction for an exclusively African American audience. To date, four of his serialized novels have been reprinted into two volumes: Black Empire (1991) and Ethiopian Stories (1995). Black Empire explores the success of the retaking of Africa from European colonial powers; Ethiopian Stories explores Ethiopia's wars against Italian occupation.
Schuyler continued his career as a journalist until 1966, when he published his autobiography, Black and Conservative, which gives an inside track to the feuds among the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 643 reviews
November 30, 2020
Every year I have encounter at least one classic that just blows my mind. In 2020 I find that George Schuyler has accomplished this on fleek! This guy…just wow!! Maybe it is my current state of mind. We've just been through a horribly contentious election where far too many people voted in a way that defies understanding unless one acknowledges prevalence white supremacy. And guess what!?! Schuyler writes about this very phenomenon so sharply and distinctly that this novel could have been written yesterday. The only thing that dates this novel is the disposition of the political parties. During his time Republicans were the "big tent" party and Democrats were the "conservatives". Everything else is spot on! And by everything else I mean classism, racism, sexism, religious (in)tolerance, economic inequality, abortion, ignorance, government corruption, craven political interests, lobbyists, science, corporate interests, cultural attitudes and states of mind etc. Schuyler doesn't limit his criticisms to the white supremacists but also lampoons the negro interests as well. The intellectuals, the ministers, the wealthy, the poor, the local leaders, etc. There is no hiding from the cynicism and contempt in Schuyler's perception of the times. Unfortunately as they say, "the more things change, the more they stay the same".
When I read a little about Schuyler, the description is that he is a "conservative intellectual". I wish they wouldn't so prominently use that word in the bio. In 2020, it carries a stigma without much substance. Franklin D. Roosevelt said
The blurb gives the plotline: man invents a procedure that turns black people white. What follows is some very smart, observant concepts of how various corners of American civilized society respond. Schuyler is astute and funny and very cynical.
On the whole I found the book to be quite funny in parts and so piercingly poignant in others. Schuyler is uncovering some really harsh truths about Americans white and black. Schuyler asserts that wealthy whites invented racism to maintain their wealth disparities at the expense of other poor people (white and black). He asserts that blacks profit and gain status through racial discrimination by selling the assimilation of white culture. He is also vocal about economic inequality. If you know any history of politics of the era, you will see caricatures of many famous leaders (religious, political, academic, wealthy, medical, scientists). There are many important observations/ideas/ commentary to the story than I have mentioned here. This was quite a find for me. Spot on satire in this day and age. This book written in 1931 is a near perfect skewering of politics in 2020. Timeless and excellent!! Read it and be amazed!!
5 Stars
Read on kindle
When I read a little about Schuyler, the description is that he is a "conservative intellectual". I wish they wouldn't so prominently use that word in the bio. In 2020, it carries a stigma without much substance. Franklin D. Roosevelt said
"A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward."This book predates Roosevelt and many of the social reforms of the 1930 that helped to build a robust middle class after The Great Depression (at least as is taught in public schools) like The New Deal and the Tennessee Valley Authority, Social Security etc. Many of the Harlem Renaissance authors and intellectuals were open to many of the principles of socialism, so I suppose being labeled a "conservative" helped him to standout. Interestingly, he married a retired, white model in 1928. It's not a huge lift to imagine why Schuyler would be compelled to write a scathing novel on racial identity and the state of America. Branded an assimilationist, Schuyler wrote a novel about what happens when we eliminate the superficial but obvious things that make people different. It's uncanny that it so incredibly relatable in 2020.
The blurb gives the plotline: man invents a procedure that turns black people white. What follows is some very smart, observant concepts of how various corners of American civilized society respond. Schuyler is astute and funny and very cynical.
On the whole I found the book to be quite funny in parts and so piercingly poignant in others. Schuyler is uncovering some really harsh truths about Americans white and black. Schuyler asserts that wealthy whites invented racism to maintain their wealth disparities at the expense of other poor people (white and black). He asserts that blacks profit and gain status through racial discrimination by selling the assimilation of white culture. He is also vocal about economic inequality. If you know any history of politics of the era, you will see caricatures of many famous leaders (religious, political, academic, wealthy, medical, scientists). There are many important observations/ideas/ commentary to the story than I have mentioned here. This was quite a find for me. Spot on satire in this day and age. This book written in 1931 is a near perfect skewering of politics in 2020. Timeless and excellent!! Read it and be amazed!!
5 Stars
Read on kindle
July 2, 2020
Here is a fantastic brainspinning cringemaking you-can’t-say-THAT! satire from 1931 which would be a perfect addition to any Black Lives Matter reading list in order to show that in the right hands a broad comedy about racism in the USA is not only possible but is a very welcome place to rest and recuperate for a moment or two, and look at the whole problem again from the strangest perspective.
George Schuyler has the highest of high concepts – a black doctor invents a process to turn black Americans white. It’s cheap and available to all. Got that ? Now let the uneasy laughter begin.
The process is available at the various clinics operated by Black No More Incorporated, and it’s immediately wildly popular. Our author drily comments :
A lifetime of being Negroes in the United States had convinced them that there was a great advantage in being white.
We follow the fortunes of one black chancer Max Disher, who wants to be the very first to turn white. And he does. The leaving of black society give him twinges of remorse :
Max stood irresolutely in the midst of the gibbering crowd of people. Unaccountably he felt at home here among these black folk. Their jests, scraps of conversation and lusty laughter all seemed like heavenly music.
Well, that wistfulness doesn’t last long. He immediately thinks
What a treat it would be to mingle with white people in places where as a youth he had never dared to enter. At last he felt like an American citizen.
Very soon Max is off on some adventures amongst the racists of the southern states.
Let’s just take a pace back here. This is a science fiction idea and you have to swallow it lock stock & barrel for the satire to work. George Schuyler dismisses any issues of different physiognomy – it seems all this is “fixed” during the whitening process. That leaves one very obvious difference – language. Surely all these blacks-turned-white would still speak in the same way, using their usual vocabulary, mannerisms, slang, and so on, and therefore be instantly recognisable. George Schuyler waves all this away in one unconvincing paragraph. The reader has to just get on board with the idea that these whitened blacks cannot be distinguished from white people.
He follows through the logic of this massive ironic offensive idea mostly in order to deal satirical blows to both white and black politics, wheelers and dealers, the capitalist barons who use race to suppress the Southern white workers, the grandiose black charities, the community leaders, the great and the good - they all get it in the neck.
I think he loves to goad intellectuals the most :
Like most men with a vision, a plan, a program or a remedy, he fondly imagined people to be intelligent enough to accept a good thing when it was offered to them, which was conclusive evidence that he knew little about the human race.
and again
During his leisure time he wrote long and learned articles, bristling with references, for the more intellectual magazines, in which he sought to prove conclusively that the plantation shouts of Southern Negro peons were superior to any of Beethoven’s symphonies and that the city of Benin was the original site of the Garden of Eden.
and yet again
His well-known work “The Fluctuation of the Sizes of Left Feet among the Assyrians during the Ninth Century before Christ” had been favourably commented upon by several reviewers, one of whom had actually read it
Of Dr Bonds, head of the Negro Data League :
He was engaged in a most vital and necessary work, i.e. collecting bales of data to prove satisfactorily to all that more money was needed to collect more data.
The revolutionary Black No More process, strangely, according to George, does not provoke any white supremacist violence :
As there had never been more than two million Negroes in the North, the whitening process had been viewed indifferently by the masses because those who controlled the channels of opinion felt that the country was getting rid of a very vexatious problem at absolutely no cost.
It’s quite true that Schuyler does not get into the detail of how the “new whites” would possibly live their lives, and how existing whites would reacts to the rapid vanishing of black people in the USA (by page 132 practically all blacks in America are now white). But to do any of that would capsize the fast and furious momentum of this delicious novel as it races towards some final corkscrewingly ironic twists.
Oh yes, and when you think George has, well, been softer and kinder to everybody than you were expecting, he ambushes you with an ending that shows the teeth and dripping red claws under this brilliant comedy.
Totally recommended.
George Schuyler has the highest of high concepts – a black doctor invents a process to turn black Americans white. It’s cheap and available to all. Got that ? Now let the uneasy laughter begin.
The process is available at the various clinics operated by Black No More Incorporated, and it’s immediately wildly popular. Our author drily comments :
A lifetime of being Negroes in the United States had convinced them that there was a great advantage in being white.
We follow the fortunes of one black chancer Max Disher, who wants to be the very first to turn white. And he does. The leaving of black society give him twinges of remorse :
Max stood irresolutely in the midst of the gibbering crowd of people. Unaccountably he felt at home here among these black folk. Their jests, scraps of conversation and lusty laughter all seemed like heavenly music.
Well, that wistfulness doesn’t last long. He immediately thinks
What a treat it would be to mingle with white people in places where as a youth he had never dared to enter. At last he felt like an American citizen.
Very soon Max is off on some adventures amongst the racists of the southern states.
Let’s just take a pace back here. This is a science fiction idea and you have to swallow it lock stock & barrel for the satire to work. George Schuyler dismisses any issues of different physiognomy – it seems all this is “fixed” during the whitening process. That leaves one very obvious difference – language. Surely all these blacks-turned-white would still speak in the same way, using their usual vocabulary, mannerisms, slang, and so on, and therefore be instantly recognisable. George Schuyler waves all this away in one unconvincing paragraph. The reader has to just get on board with the idea that these whitened blacks cannot be distinguished from white people.
He follows through the logic of this massive ironic offensive idea mostly in order to deal satirical blows to both white and black politics, wheelers and dealers, the capitalist barons who use race to suppress the Southern white workers, the grandiose black charities, the community leaders, the great and the good - they all get it in the neck.
I think he loves to goad intellectuals the most :
Like most men with a vision, a plan, a program or a remedy, he fondly imagined people to be intelligent enough to accept a good thing when it was offered to them, which was conclusive evidence that he knew little about the human race.
and again
During his leisure time he wrote long and learned articles, bristling with references, for the more intellectual magazines, in which he sought to prove conclusively that the plantation shouts of Southern Negro peons were superior to any of Beethoven’s symphonies and that the city of Benin was the original site of the Garden of Eden.
and yet again
His well-known work “The Fluctuation of the Sizes of Left Feet among the Assyrians during the Ninth Century before Christ” had been favourably commented upon by several reviewers, one of whom had actually read it
Of Dr Bonds, head of the Negro Data League :
He was engaged in a most vital and necessary work, i.e. collecting bales of data to prove satisfactorily to all that more money was needed to collect more data.
The revolutionary Black No More process, strangely, according to George, does not provoke any white supremacist violence :
As there had never been more than two million Negroes in the North, the whitening process had been viewed indifferently by the masses because those who controlled the channels of opinion felt that the country was getting rid of a very vexatious problem at absolutely no cost.
It’s quite true that Schuyler does not get into the detail of how the “new whites” would possibly live their lives, and how existing whites would reacts to the rapid vanishing of black people in the USA (by page 132 practically all blacks in America are now white). But to do any of that would capsize the fast and furious momentum of this delicious novel as it races towards some final corkscrewingly ironic twists.
Oh yes, and when you think George has, well, been softer and kinder to everybody than you were expecting, he ambushes you with an ending that shows the teeth and dripping red claws under this brilliant comedy.
Totally recommended.
October 10, 2021
I don’t remember where I heard about this book, but it was quite recently. It’s a shame that I did not know about it sooner. This is really sharp, sophisticated satire written during the Harlem Renaissance about the search for chromatic perfection. There are “....three ways for the negro to solve his problem in America. ....get out, get white or get along”. Max wasn’t leaving and was getting along “only indifferently” so he was the perfect candidate for the newly invented Black No More treatment that promised to change negroes into caucasians. Invented by a black biologist, the treatment becomes hugely popular. Soon, almost the entire negro population is white (aside from the occasional brown baby). It becomes really difficult to know who to look down upon (or lynch). The political and social structures are changed. Max goes to work for, and manipulates, a white supremacist organization and gets involved in a presidential election. The book is worth it for the political satire alone. It could have been written today. This is a smart and very funny book.
December 4, 2018
In a capitalistic economy an underclass will always be created some way, some how. Schuyler was well aware of this in 1931, which speaks directly to all the reviewers mentioning this novel's painful relevance.
A wonderfully satiric & clever intro, for me, into the game-changing world of Harlem Renaissance Literature.
A wonderfully satiric & clever intro, for me, into the game-changing world of Harlem Renaissance Literature.
May 18, 2016
In this Harlem renaissance classic, Schuler mixes satire and science fiction for a unique blend of social commentary. Black No More is not often referred to as science fiction, but it is the first science-fiction work by an African-American writer.
By definition, a satire can be to be “over the top” funny. Here, Schuler’s jokes are mostly “in your face”, but just when you, as a reader, are feeling saturated by the humor, he switches it up and gives you something a little more subtle. For myself, I didn’t think that it was laugh out loud funny, but I found it extremely interesting. The irreverence he showed for the icons of his time, like DuBois was shocking, but I felt he made a good cases to justify his criticism.
Schulyer’s overarching themes are: (1) Racism is absurd; (2) Racism is used by capitalist elites to control the population. After reading this book, I did a little research on Schyuler, and I was surprised that shortly after writing this book, his political leanings took a 180 degree turn. Clearly, part of the agenda in writing Black No More was to garner support for, what was considered at the time, socialist ideas. Also, Schuler was very critical of the NAACP. Maybe his satire spoke more truth about who he was than anyone could have guessed. In Black No More he accused everyone of using racism to make money, but Schulyer seems to have done exactly that. He aligned himself with agendas that most would consider hostile to civil rights. For example, in 1968, in a radio broadcast Schuyler said, "In South Africa you have a system of apartheid. That's their business. I don’t think it’s the business of other people to change their society." He opposed Martin Luther King’s award of the Nobel Peace prize. Although, in Black No More, he was very critical of the NAACP, Schulyer worked for the NAACP from 1937-1944 as business manager.
Was any of the satire based on genuine conviction? He criticizes black men for their apparent rejection of black women, but at the time he wrote the book, he was married to the rich, white heiress, Josephine Lewis Cogdell. Schuyler became a staunch conservative, leaning extremely right, and he made a good living expounding his point of view. He may have switch sides in real life as easily as Max Disher turned into Matthew Fisher. It might be interesting to read one of his later books like Black and Conservative: the Autobiography of George Schuyler or Rac(e)Ing to the Right. I assume either would offer some explanation for his transformation.
Questioning Schuyler’s real opinions when he wrote this book is interesting, on an academic level to me, but does not change my perception of the book itself. It is well done. The book lacks depth, but that can be forgiven with a satire. I didn’t like the part of the ending involving the botched getaway. I thought it was little long and gory. When I read Black No More, it reminded me of Mat Johnson’s Pym. In a way, even the endings were similar. Johnson lost control of Pym in the same way I think Black got away from Schulyer. Both books offer irreverent, entertaining social commentary.
This is my first classic of 2016. I'm taking part in the 2016 PrettyBooks Classic Challenge. My classics blog is: http://lindasclassicschallenge.blogsp...
By definition, a satire can be to be “over the top” funny. Here, Schuler’s jokes are mostly “in your face”, but just when you, as a reader, are feeling saturated by the humor, he switches it up and gives you something a little more subtle. For myself, I didn’t think that it was laugh out loud funny, but I found it extremely interesting. The irreverence he showed for the icons of his time, like DuBois was shocking, but I felt he made a good cases to justify his criticism.
Schulyer’s overarching themes are: (1) Racism is absurd; (2) Racism is used by capitalist elites to control the population. After reading this book, I did a little research on Schyuler, and I was surprised that shortly after writing this book, his political leanings took a 180 degree turn. Clearly, part of the agenda in writing Black No More was to garner support for, what was considered at the time, socialist ideas. Also, Schuler was very critical of the NAACP. Maybe his satire spoke more truth about who he was than anyone could have guessed. In Black No More he accused everyone of using racism to make money, but Schulyer seems to have done exactly that. He aligned himself with agendas that most would consider hostile to civil rights. For example, in 1968, in a radio broadcast Schuyler said, "In South Africa you have a system of apartheid. That's their business. I don’t think it’s the business of other people to change their society." He opposed Martin Luther King’s award of the Nobel Peace prize. Although, in Black No More, he was very critical of the NAACP, Schulyer worked for the NAACP from 1937-1944 as business manager.
Was any of the satire based on genuine conviction? He criticizes black men for their apparent rejection of black women, but at the time he wrote the book, he was married to the rich, white heiress, Josephine Lewis Cogdell. Schuyler became a staunch conservative, leaning extremely right, and he made a good living expounding his point of view. He may have switch sides in real life as easily as Max Disher turned into Matthew Fisher. It might be interesting to read one of his later books like Black and Conservative: the Autobiography of George Schuyler or Rac(e)Ing to the Right. I assume either would offer some explanation for his transformation.
Questioning Schuyler’s real opinions when he wrote this book is interesting, on an academic level to me, but does not change my perception of the book itself. It is well done. The book lacks depth, but that can be forgiven with a satire. I didn’t like the part of the ending involving the botched getaway. I thought it was little long and gory. When I read Black No More, it reminded me of Mat Johnson’s Pym. In a way, even the endings were similar. Johnson lost control of Pym in the same way I think Black got away from Schulyer. Both books offer irreverent, entertaining social commentary.
This is my first classic of 2016. I'm taking part in the 2016 PrettyBooks Classic Challenge. My classics blog is: http://lindasclassicschallenge.blogsp...
August 13, 2024
I could give this novel 10 Stars! 🌟
While searching for a newfound author during the Harlem Renaissance Era, I stumbled upon this author, George Schuyler, and this extremely interesting piece of literature. A True Enjoyment considering that the more I read through each chapter, this author’s work ignited several thought-provoking questions in light of this world, presently.
It’s 1933, the Night of New Year’s Eve, and Max Disher feels down on his luck for the fact that he has no woman to help him bring the New Year. Once he runs into his friend, Bunny Brown, they decide to peep the scenes of a Honky Tonk Club in New York City. A blonde girl originally from Atlanta catches Max’s attention in the bar, and he asks her for a dance. With disdain, she rejects him because Max is a Black man…
Readers learn the significance of the title, ‘Black No More,’ with Max’s initial desire to search for a blonde woman. George Schuyler has satirically written this novel in memorable riveting Phases: The Treatment, Black and White Elites, Knights of Nordica, Black/White Babies, Presidential Election, Mexico, Republican.
When I reached the political chapters, and forward.. Just Disbelief !! The Revelations within these pages...
Love.Love.Love 🪷.
At the Conclusion, it was so Astonishing already Understanding this novel was originally published in 1931. I must purchase this Literary Gem 💎.
A True Masterpiece!
While searching for a newfound author during the Harlem Renaissance Era, I stumbled upon this author, George Schuyler, and this extremely interesting piece of literature. A True Enjoyment considering that the more I read through each chapter, this author’s work ignited several thought-provoking questions in light of this world, presently.
It’s 1933, the Night of New Year’s Eve, and Max Disher feels down on his luck for the fact that he has no woman to help him bring the New Year. Once he runs into his friend, Bunny Brown, they decide to peep the scenes of a Honky Tonk Club in New York City. A blonde girl originally from Atlanta catches Max’s attention in the bar, and he asks her for a dance. With disdain, she rejects him because Max is a Black man…
Readers learn the significance of the title, ‘Black No More,’ with Max’s initial desire to search for a blonde woman. George Schuyler has satirically written this novel in memorable riveting Phases: The Treatment, Black and White Elites, Knights of Nordica, Black/White Babies, Presidential Election, Mexico, Republican.
When I reached the political chapters, and forward.. Just Disbelief !! The Revelations within these pages...
Love.Love.Love 🪷.
At the Conclusion, it was so Astonishing already Understanding this novel was originally published in 1931. I must purchase this Literary Gem 💎.
A True Masterpiece!
May 16, 2024
George Schuyler was ahead of his time when he wrote this novel, he essentially argues what we know today that race is a social construct. Black No More starts off as a story about one Black man who wants to be white but morphs into a larger story about what whiteness becomes when there is no Blackness. I especially enjoyed the social commentary Schuyler addresses when he calls out the different social leaders in the Black and white communities, some of whom are based on real people from the time. This classic novel does not read like your typical dry classic novel from the time, it's accessible and really good. It translates even today, minus the dated references. A funny, thought-provoking book about race, that I believe is still relevant in this current moment 93 years later.
July 26, 2019
This mother-fucker made me laugh out loud. Schuyler was actually a rather conservative African American writing at the same time the Harlem Renaissance was occurring, which as a result, rather shocked me that I would be able to relate so well to his views. The premise is that a black doctor (read: mad scientist) has developed a method to artificially give his subjects vitiligo, the disease the Michael Jackson claims to have, that causes the pigment to fade from one's skin. As a result there is a mad rush of black folks turning white. White supremacists don't know who to trust and basically all racial hell breaks loose. I liked it and I don't even really read fiction.
June 30, 2016
"A lifetime of being Negroes in the United States had convinced them that there was great advantage in being white."
If the color barrier exists -- that is, the barrier that keeps black Americans from social acceptance and justice because of their color -- then why not eliminate the color? If everyone were white, then racism should cease to exist? Right?
That is the premise George Schuyler explores in Black No More, an initially breezy little comic novel from 1931 that speculates about what might happen if science developed a quick, easy and affordable medical/biological process to eliminate skin pigmentation. The conceit is Swiftian, and the believability of its scientific efficacy is just as unimportant as it is in, say, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or in Stevenson's ...Jekyll and Hyde, where those processes are similarly vague and incredible and pretty much beside the point. We don't have to suspend disbelief about this process as much as we have to believe in the sharpness, astuteness and potency of the resulting satire. So, having set up these richly promising possibilities, does Schuyler fully realize them and deliver the goods?
Not really, I'm afraid.
Before I elucidate what are for me the strengths and weaknesses of the book -- and there are, indeed, strengths -- I need to make it clear up front that, for me, this is one of the worst satirical novels I've ever read.
Normally, I don't bother with plot descriptions in my reviews, as such, but here it might help to provide a little for context. The book begins in Harlem, in New York City on New Year's Eve in 1933 and focuses on Max Disher, a dandy doing relatively well for himself despite the Depression. While frequenting the uptown night spots, he and an old war buddy, Bunny, shoot the shit on various topics including the haughtiness of "high yallah" black women, and during the course of the evening, Disher catches the eye of a lovely white lady and is rebuffed and called a nigger when asking her for a dance. Disgusted by the various injustices suffered by black Americans, and also retaining a fascination for the unattainable white woman, Disher manages to worm his way into the affections of Dr. Crookman, a black scientist who is about to unleash his amazing de-pigmenting process based on his research into the whitening skin condition, vitiligo, and manages to make himself the first subject of the doctor's "treatment."
Very quickly, Dr. Crookman and his investors, find they've unleashed a money making monster, and in short order black Americans are lining up around the block in 100 cities to take the treatments in their Black No More clinics. (The book rather unconvincingly posits that the process also changes other black physical features, including kinked hair, making the transformation complete). With so many new whites around, the various vested interests who had profited from either black-oriented businesses (black hair salons, for instance) or those whose livelihoods depended on exploiting the community (high-rent slum lords, for instance), begin to find their avocations in jeopardy. Most importantly, racists no longer have an enemy, no "other" to hate, so they try to find legislative ways to stop the whitening of the country. There is still "black blood" coursing through these new "fake" whites, after all. The racists see it as a new plot (managing, of course, to throw Communism in as a phony instigator) to infiltrate white society through stealthy race mixing.
Max, now white, takes on a new name and identity as Matthew Fisher, and goes to Atlanta in search of his white dream girl, Helen. While there he ingratiates himself with a racist reverend who happens to be the gal's father but is also the head of a powerful new Klan-type organization dedicated to destroying Black No More. Matthew eventually rises to power in the organization, laughing all the way to the bank and learning a lot about white society as he proceeds, and even manages to marry Helen. The complicated plot weaves through various political maneuvers as the forces at war try to destroy or sustain Black No More.
This all sounds very good and there are laughs and some sharply observed truths that emerge as the plot plays out.
The most important point the book addresses, and it is a piquant one still as relevant and real as ever, is society's need for the scapegoat, the "other," the person or the group that can keep the social order divided to divert attention from real human problems and solutions and keep elites in power. This paradigm also allows the lower white classes to have their own whipping boy to blow off steam and ignore their real enemies. The racial divide serves that purpose, and eliminating it threatens too many vested interests. One must be able to "see" one's perceived enemy in plain sight.
At the same time, Schuyler boldly broaches some sensitive topics and some skewers some sacred cows. He has no truck with a hagiographic-styled presentation of black grievances that overlooks the foibles and hypocrisies of black people or of ineffectual community leaders. The following quote referring to one male character's bent toward sexual harassment, for instance, might even please a contemporary feminist: "He bitterly denounced the Nordics for debauching Negro women while taking care to hire comely yellow stenographers with weak resistance."
Schuyler pops balloons left and right. Settles old scores. Deflates dogmas and egos in an equal opportunity manner. Politics, religion, the economic order, social habits, all come in for a pointed drubbing. His lampooning of religion is often spot on, as seen in these quotes:
"She believed the Bible from cover to cover, except what it said about people with money..."
"He quickly saw that these people would believe anything that was shouted at them loudly and convincingly enough."
Such quotes, while representing the book's strengths are also typical of its weaknesses. Human beings, or in this case, his characters, are simply ciphers for Schuyler to hang judgments upon.
Yes, Schuyler nails how stupidly gullible and pliable the American public is. He's hip to the forces that go on in the social order. He's keen to the hypocrisies and self-serving connections that bind a Randian selfish universe; he sees that shooting one's self in the foot is, ironically, a survival strategy. He makes us aware that he was aware of the comic absurdity of it all. I give him kudos and props for having his pulse on the sad state of things. And truly, one admires him for writing a book that had to be written. He identifies the problems, and spells them out.
Unfortunately, that's all he does. And that does not make for a novel.
Schuyler seems to have thought out all of the possible fall-out results of the de-colorization of America, but presents them as little more than a laundry list, as though merely mentioning them gives them any kind of novelistic gravitas or substance.
Even worse, Schuyler's approach is unyieldingly misanthropic -- there's nobody in his universe worth a shit -- black or white. It's like John Calvin writing a French farce.
Schuyler's particular brand of snark comes with large nudges and unseen but very blatantly felt exclamation points (just to make sure you "get" the joke). When he mocks a character, he makes sure to ascribe outrageous physical traits to them. He makes sure that you know, before he even mocks them, that they look worthy of mockery. Loading the deck against his characters to mock them in this way is akin to playing whack a mole with an atomic bomb. Subtle delineation gives way to editorial cartooning, and often I found it mean-spirited, offensive and an insult to the intelligence of the reader.
Even with characters who make a one-sentence appearance, Schuyler takes pains to describe their looks before lampooning them. He abuts this with the usage of obviously twee "funny" names (Buggerie, Snobbcraft, Kretin, Crookman, etc.) to further drive home the point. There are a lot of dead fish floating in this shot-up barrel.
Having repeatedly established that the racist Rev. Givens is a con man and a greedy fraud, Schuyler, pages later, still manages to describe him as "the avaricious Rev. Givens." OK, already!
In a chapter devoted to an important national radio speech by Rev. Givens, Schuyler extensively quotes the announcer's speech leading up to it, and then, instead of quoting Givens' actual speech, Schuyler simply summarizes it (paraphrasing: "he talked about this and that"). Why not spell out the actual speech after all this buildup?
Because of its premise, Schuyler can't help but wander unavoidably into mixed message territory. In one instance, he satirizes a black advocacy organization for secretly loving outrages such as lynchings of blacks, because such incidents increased the coffers of the organization. That, he posits, is the sole reason for the advocacy group's opposition to the changes wrought by Black No More. This, of course, is an alarmingly disturbing charge, and ignores the notion that black advocacy groups might simply be opposed to the idea of people changing to white simply because there's nothing wrong with being black -- and that the organization might, in fact, have a noble purpose apart from raising money. In fact, Schuyler spares nobody involved in black advocacy movements from charges of suspect motivations. Even Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois, and others (under fictitious names) are not spared Schuyler's acid pen.
There are some interesting passages later in the book -- after the novel has wended its way through its tortuously repetitive political plotting -- such as when Helen has to make a decision about her baby and comes to a sweet change of heart and when two racists get their comeuppance by being confused with blacks and getting horrendously mutilated by a white crowd out for blood. And the book ends on a funny note in which "darkening" becomes a trend when people who are "too white" become the new target of prejudice.
Schuyler's plot swamps some of the occasional interesting suggestions he makes about the tragic loss of culture that occurs as the "race" ceases to exist. But, like many things in the book, it's part of a litany of lost opportunities.
Black No More makes remarkable points and is historically interesting for addressing what seem to be, unfortunately, timeless injustices in the racial and general social order. At the same time, the novel's thematic ambitions, and Schuyler's inability to manage them sink the book. I've rarely seen a novel collapse so badly under the weight of its ambitions. What starts off as a tasty little meal quickly half processes through a poorly functioning digestive system to emerge as a corn-laden steaming pile of crap. It's a comic extravaganza that goes off the rails, badly.
That's too bad, because Schuyler did have talent. I like the opening pages in Harlem as Max sampled its nightlife. In fact, Schuyler's grasp of that milieu is so good that I wish he had scaled down his grandiosity and instead told a story that involved just a few well-fleshed-out characters living in the city.
Instead, he was a chef who wanted to throw everything into his one novelistic souffle and by hurrying it along and half baking it ended up with a dish with some admirable ingredients that nonetheless leaves you nauseous.
(KR@KY 2016)
If the color barrier exists -- that is, the barrier that keeps black Americans from social acceptance and justice because of their color -- then why not eliminate the color? If everyone were white, then racism should cease to exist? Right?
That is the premise George Schuyler explores in Black No More, an initially breezy little comic novel from 1931 that speculates about what might happen if science developed a quick, easy and affordable medical/biological process to eliminate skin pigmentation. The conceit is Swiftian, and the believability of its scientific efficacy is just as unimportant as it is in, say, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or in Stevenson's ...Jekyll and Hyde, where those processes are similarly vague and incredible and pretty much beside the point. We don't have to suspend disbelief about this process as much as we have to believe in the sharpness, astuteness and potency of the resulting satire. So, having set up these richly promising possibilities, does Schuyler fully realize them and deliver the goods?
Not really, I'm afraid.
Before I elucidate what are for me the strengths and weaknesses of the book -- and there are, indeed, strengths -- I need to make it clear up front that, for me, this is one of the worst satirical novels I've ever read.
Normally, I don't bother with plot descriptions in my reviews, as such, but here it might help to provide a little for context. The book begins in Harlem, in New York City on New Year's Eve in 1933 and focuses on Max Disher, a dandy doing relatively well for himself despite the Depression. While frequenting the uptown night spots, he and an old war buddy, Bunny, shoot the shit on various topics including the haughtiness of "high yallah" black women, and during the course of the evening, Disher catches the eye of a lovely white lady and is rebuffed and called a nigger when asking her for a dance. Disgusted by the various injustices suffered by black Americans, and also retaining a fascination for the unattainable white woman, Disher manages to worm his way into the affections of Dr. Crookman, a black scientist who is about to unleash his amazing de-pigmenting process based on his research into the whitening skin condition, vitiligo, and manages to make himself the first subject of the doctor's "treatment."
Very quickly, Dr. Crookman and his investors, find they've unleashed a money making monster, and in short order black Americans are lining up around the block in 100 cities to take the treatments in their Black No More clinics. (The book rather unconvincingly posits that the process also changes other black physical features, including kinked hair, making the transformation complete). With so many new whites around, the various vested interests who had profited from either black-oriented businesses (black hair salons, for instance) or those whose livelihoods depended on exploiting the community (high-rent slum lords, for instance), begin to find their avocations in jeopardy. Most importantly, racists no longer have an enemy, no "other" to hate, so they try to find legislative ways to stop the whitening of the country. There is still "black blood" coursing through these new "fake" whites, after all. The racists see it as a new plot (managing, of course, to throw Communism in as a phony instigator) to infiltrate white society through stealthy race mixing.
Max, now white, takes on a new name and identity as Matthew Fisher, and goes to Atlanta in search of his white dream girl, Helen. While there he ingratiates himself with a racist reverend who happens to be the gal's father but is also the head of a powerful new Klan-type organization dedicated to destroying Black No More. Matthew eventually rises to power in the organization, laughing all the way to the bank and learning a lot about white society as he proceeds, and even manages to marry Helen. The complicated plot weaves through various political maneuvers as the forces at war try to destroy or sustain Black No More.
This all sounds very good and there are laughs and some sharply observed truths that emerge as the plot plays out.
The most important point the book addresses, and it is a piquant one still as relevant and real as ever, is society's need for the scapegoat, the "other," the person or the group that can keep the social order divided to divert attention from real human problems and solutions and keep elites in power. This paradigm also allows the lower white classes to have their own whipping boy to blow off steam and ignore their real enemies. The racial divide serves that purpose, and eliminating it threatens too many vested interests. One must be able to "see" one's perceived enemy in plain sight.
At the same time, Schuyler boldly broaches some sensitive topics and some skewers some sacred cows. He has no truck with a hagiographic-styled presentation of black grievances that overlooks the foibles and hypocrisies of black people or of ineffectual community leaders. The following quote referring to one male character's bent toward sexual harassment, for instance, might even please a contemporary feminist: "He bitterly denounced the Nordics for debauching Negro women while taking care to hire comely yellow stenographers with weak resistance."
Schuyler pops balloons left and right. Settles old scores. Deflates dogmas and egos in an equal opportunity manner. Politics, religion, the economic order, social habits, all come in for a pointed drubbing. His lampooning of religion is often spot on, as seen in these quotes:
"She believed the Bible from cover to cover, except what it said about people with money..."
"He quickly saw that these people would believe anything that was shouted at them loudly and convincingly enough."
Such quotes, while representing the book's strengths are also typical of its weaknesses. Human beings, or in this case, his characters, are simply ciphers for Schuyler to hang judgments upon.
Yes, Schuyler nails how stupidly gullible and pliable the American public is. He's hip to the forces that go on in the social order. He's keen to the hypocrisies and self-serving connections that bind a Randian selfish universe; he sees that shooting one's self in the foot is, ironically, a survival strategy. He makes us aware that he was aware of the comic absurdity of it all. I give him kudos and props for having his pulse on the sad state of things. And truly, one admires him for writing a book that had to be written. He identifies the problems, and spells them out.
Unfortunately, that's all he does. And that does not make for a novel.
Schuyler seems to have thought out all of the possible fall-out results of the de-colorization of America, but presents them as little more than a laundry list, as though merely mentioning them gives them any kind of novelistic gravitas or substance.
Even worse, Schuyler's approach is unyieldingly misanthropic -- there's nobody in his universe worth a shit -- black or white. It's like John Calvin writing a French farce.
Schuyler's particular brand of snark comes with large nudges and unseen but very blatantly felt exclamation points (just to make sure you "get" the joke). When he mocks a character, he makes sure to ascribe outrageous physical traits to them. He makes sure that you know, before he even mocks them, that they look worthy of mockery. Loading the deck against his characters to mock them in this way is akin to playing whack a mole with an atomic bomb. Subtle delineation gives way to editorial cartooning, and often I found it mean-spirited, offensive and an insult to the intelligence of the reader.
Even with characters who make a one-sentence appearance, Schuyler takes pains to describe their looks before lampooning them. He abuts this with the usage of obviously twee "funny" names (Buggerie, Snobbcraft, Kretin, Crookman, etc.) to further drive home the point. There are a lot of dead fish floating in this shot-up barrel.
Having repeatedly established that the racist Rev. Givens is a con man and a greedy fraud, Schuyler, pages later, still manages to describe him as "the avaricious Rev. Givens." OK, already!
In a chapter devoted to an important national radio speech by Rev. Givens, Schuyler extensively quotes the announcer's speech leading up to it, and then, instead of quoting Givens' actual speech, Schuyler simply summarizes it (paraphrasing: "he talked about this and that"). Why not spell out the actual speech after all this buildup?
Because of its premise, Schuyler can't help but wander unavoidably into mixed message territory. In one instance, he satirizes a black advocacy organization for secretly loving outrages such as lynchings of blacks, because such incidents increased the coffers of the organization. That, he posits, is the sole reason for the advocacy group's opposition to the changes wrought by Black No More. This, of course, is an alarmingly disturbing charge, and ignores the notion that black advocacy groups might simply be opposed to the idea of people changing to white simply because there's nothing wrong with being black -- and that the organization might, in fact, have a noble purpose apart from raising money. In fact, Schuyler spares nobody involved in black advocacy movements from charges of suspect motivations. Even Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois, and others (under fictitious names) are not spared Schuyler's acid pen.
There are some interesting passages later in the book -- after the novel has wended its way through its tortuously repetitive political plotting -- such as when Helen has to make a decision about her baby and comes to a sweet change of heart and when two racists get their comeuppance by being confused with blacks and getting horrendously mutilated by a white crowd out for blood. And the book ends on a funny note in which "darkening" becomes a trend when people who are "too white" become the new target of prejudice.
Schuyler's plot swamps some of the occasional interesting suggestions he makes about the tragic loss of culture that occurs as the "race" ceases to exist. But, like many things in the book, it's part of a litany of lost opportunities.
Black No More makes remarkable points and is historically interesting for addressing what seem to be, unfortunately, timeless injustices in the racial and general social order. At the same time, the novel's thematic ambitions, and Schuyler's inability to manage them sink the book. I've rarely seen a novel collapse so badly under the weight of its ambitions. What starts off as a tasty little meal quickly half processes through a poorly functioning digestive system to emerge as a corn-laden steaming pile of crap. It's a comic extravaganza that goes off the rails, badly.
That's too bad, because Schuyler did have talent. I like the opening pages in Harlem as Max sampled its nightlife. In fact, Schuyler's grasp of that milieu is so good that I wish he had scaled down his grandiosity and instead told a story that involved just a few well-fleshed-out characters living in the city.
Instead, he was a chef who wanted to throw everything into his one novelistic souffle and by hurrying it along and half baking it ended up with a dish with some admirable ingredients that nonetheless leaves you nauseous.
(KR@KY 2016)
July 30, 2018
Bullet Review:
Pretty creepy that I would 100% believe this could have been written yesterday.
What would happen if there was a way that blacks could be made white? What would America look like? This is that portrait - and in Trump’s America, it’s pretty eery.
Just so no one is surprised: yes, the n-word is used. A LOT. But these characters are pretty awful (both white and black), and this was written in the 1930’s so bear that in mind.
Pretty creepy that I would 100% believe this could have been written yesterday.
What would happen if there was a way that blacks could be made white? What would America look like? This is that portrait - and in Trump’s America, it’s pretty eery.
Just so no one is surprised: yes, the n-word is used. A LOT. But these characters are pretty awful (both white and black), and this was written in the 1930’s so bear that in mind.
August 29, 2020
A remarkable book written in 1931. Max Disher is a Harlem dandy, which is rejected by a gorgeous white woman in a nightclub. Then, Dr. Crookmore breaks the race barrier, with his "Black No More" process, where for $50, a black person can undergo "chromatic emancipation." Max Disher is first, becoming Matt Fisher and moving to Atlanta to find this woman of his dreams, after selling his story to a local newspaper for $1,000. When his money starts to run out, he pretends to be an NY anthropologist, becoming the #2 man in hate organization, patterned after the KKK. He becomes very wealthy, and finds/marries his heartthrob. Meanwhile, Black No More goes national, and practically everyone turns white over about a 2 1/2 year period. As a presidential election approaches, the #1 guy becomes the Democratic candidate and racial purity becomes a central issue, with a secret report released on the eve of the election showing that most whites have some black ancestry. Amusing and appropriate for these crazy times. Recommended.
September 3, 2020
This is a hilarious 1931 social satire asking the Sci-Fi "What If?" question of what would America be like if there were an inexpensive, quick treatment that could turn Black people White? If you think that would solve all our problems, then you don't think like Mr. Schuyler!
I found this hilarious, and actually laughed-out-loud. It is also very cynical. Nobody is spared. Sure it is easy to hate the leaders of the KKK, excuse me "Brothers of Nordica". But this also has thinly disguised scathing caricatures of Black intellectuals like W.E.B. DuBois and Marcus Garvey. Every character is two-dimensional and entirely self-serving.
I highlighted 50 or more funny passages. Maybe I'll add some here later. But it is more fun to discover them in the context of the whole, fairly short novel.
I kept thinking this could make a good movie, though casting would be tough. It turns out, it really was converted into a musical which was supposed to premiere in 2020. Hope I can see that some day.
Content warning: there is a lynching. The "N-word" appears frequently, along with other slurs.
PS: I don't know a whole lot about Mr. Schuyler. I do know that he was socialist for a while and later became very conservative. I doubt I'd agree with many of his real-life views. But this novel is funny.
I found this hilarious, and actually laughed-out-loud. It is also very cynical. Nobody is spared. Sure it is easy to hate the leaders of the KKK, excuse me "Brothers of Nordica". But this also has thinly disguised scathing caricatures of Black intellectuals like W.E.B. DuBois and Marcus Garvey. Every character is two-dimensional and entirely self-serving.
I highlighted 50 or more funny passages. Maybe I'll add some here later. But it is more fun to discover them in the context of the whole, fairly short novel.
I kept thinking this could make a good movie, though casting would be tough. It turns out, it really was converted into a musical which was supposed to premiere in 2020. Hope I can see that some day.
Content warning: there is a lynching. The "N-word" appears frequently, along with other slurs.
PS: I don't know a whole lot about Mr. Schuyler. I do know that he was socialist for a while and later became very conservative. I doubt I'd agree with many of his real-life views. But this novel is funny.
July 1, 2013
Wow. Just wow. I thought I was being totally outrageous when I wrote Koontown, but Schuyler took *all* the gloves off on this one. He even named names. I admire this man's courage, and I love his sense of humor. This is the kind of book that shows you *exactly* what satire is all about.
October 29, 2022
An extremely clever and amusing, wickedly satiric account of race relations in c. 1930. The premise is that a Negro doctor devised a method to turn all blacks into Caucasians — thus solving the “Negro Problem” in America — until the truth of it comes out, of course. Much chaos ensues — since these Caucasian Negroes are still considered to have “Negro blood” — and as he aligns himself with the Southern racists of the Pre-FDR Democratic Party in an attempt to win the Presidency of 1936….
Schuyler, himself, was a strange bird. Beginning as a “Race Man” and then a Socialist during the Harlem Renaissance, he ended up in the John Birch Society (!) during the 1950’s, as did his beautiful and accomplished daughter, who was herself killed in a helicopter crash in Vietnam while covering the war for the far-rightwing Manchester Union Leader. Schuyler’s wife (who was a white Texas Liberal) then committed suicide two years later out of grief.
Schuyler, himself, was a strange bird. Beginning as a “Race Man” and then a Socialist during the Harlem Renaissance, he ended up in the John Birch Society (!) during the 1950’s, as did his beautiful and accomplished daughter, who was herself killed in a helicopter crash in Vietnam while covering the war for the far-rightwing Manchester Union Leader. Schuyler’s wife (who was a white Texas Liberal) then committed suicide two years later out of grief.
March 6, 2023
a satirical tale of a doctor who claims to be able to turn black people white, and a black man who undergoes the procedure.
this definitely made me feel depressed. it posed interesting questions on how race is viewed in america and proposes the idea that skin color has nothing to do with racism — racism will always exist because it is a fundamental part of white supremacy, even when all parties involved are white. it definitely leaves you with a sense of hopelessness. the fact that by the end of the book almost all black people have undergone the procedure to become white makes me sick to my stomach. very well written and thought provoking. i wish the ending would have been expanded upon.
this definitely made me feel depressed. it posed interesting questions on how race is viewed in america and proposes the idea that skin color has nothing to do with racism — racism will always exist because it is a fundamental part of white supremacy, even when all parties involved are white. it definitely leaves you with a sense of hopelessness. the fact that by the end of the book almost all black people have undergone the procedure to become white makes me sick to my stomach. very well written and thought provoking. i wish the ending would have been expanded upon.
August 21, 2014
In this science fiction satire of racial politics in America, George S. Schuyler imagines a world in which a chemical "cure" for blackness is discovered, turning the erstwhile inhabitants of Harlem into mirror-images of their white compatriots. He compares this chemical cure to the cosmetics industry of his age, hair-straighteners and skin-lighteners, and he relentlessly underscores the profitability of prejudice, social anxiety, and self-loathing. Schuyler is incredibly cynical, which is sometimes hard to read, even in the context of broad satire; all of the characters--from the head of the Ku Klux Klan to the head of the fictionalized NAACP--are out to make a buck and advance their reputations, usually at the expense of the populations they purport to represent. However, in many of his insights about political manipulation and racial hatred, Schuyler could be speaking about Tea Party politics. Writing about an audience of working class white people riled into anger about the possibility that there are unrecognized black people in their midst, Schuyler writes: "Herein lay the fundamental cause of all their ills. Times were hard, they reasoned, because there were so many white Negroes in their midst taking their jobs and undermining their American standard of living. None of them had ever attained an American standard of living to be sure, but that fact never occurred to any of them" (81). Similarly, of an upper-class white supremacist, Schuyler observes: "While he had no love for the Knights of Nordica [the novel's revived Klan] which, he held, contained just the sort of people he wanted to legislate into impotency, social, economic, and physical, he believed he could use them to gain his point." This opportunistic alliance between money and the religious masses anticipates Reagan and the religious right, as it does the contemporary Tea Party and its constituency.
Schuyler's central trope is inspired, as he uses the sudden illegibility of skin color to unpack the politics of passing and white beauty standards, to reveal the morass of genealogy that renders the grand theories and binaries of race science nonsensical as well as hateful [the white supremacists, trying to research their own purity, reveal that all supposedly white families contain black ancestry...Though "Finding Your Roots" is totally sincere as opposed to this ironic masterpiece, [author:Henry Louis Gates Jr.|3862441] must have had a chuckle at how much Schuyler would appreciate these narratives of the country's interracialism when he began his American genealogy/genome show for PBS], and to dramatize whiteness as a constructed source of social distinction. By the end of the book, characters wishing to prove their "whiteness" must darken their skin because the transformation process from black to white is rumored to produce super-white skin. So the ironic conclusion finds his would-be white characters on tanning beds and employing skin creams.
Schuyler's satirical tone is Swiftian in its ruthlessness [the description of a lynching towards the end of the book, carried out on two white supremacist characters who have been revealed to have black ancestry, is brutal, dispassionate yet grisly and rending] and in its pessimism about human character; Twain-like in its irreverence and lampooning of authority, pretense, and religion ("She believed in the Bible from cover to cover, except what it said about people with money"); and Austenian in its tongue-in-cheek characterizations that elegantly and completely denigrate their subjects ("like the other girls of her set, [she was] anxious to get a husband who at the same time was handsome, intelligent, educated, refined, and rolling in wealth. As she was ignorant of the fact that no such man existed, she looked confidently forward into the future").
So why four stars instead of five stars when I often found this book very funny, I think it would be very effective in the classroom, and it's a classic of African American satire and, arguably, science fiction? A couple of different reasons. The first is personal taste; the exposure of everyone's crass self-interest becomes very repetitive, which made me enjoy the book less than I might have had it been a bit more interested in its characters or the complexities of these organizations, liturgical, legislative, and corporate. The second is Schuyler's apparent disdain for poor people. Ironically, this connects up with one of my favorite parts of the book, the indictment of the political distraction of the white working class from their own plight by way of inflaming racial hatred. While there are signs that Schuyler is aware of the structural forces keeping ignorance, unhappiness, and anger alive (he even mocks a black sociologist for "revealing the amazing fact that poor people went to jail oftener than rich ones; that most of the people were not getting enough money for their work; that strangely enough there was some connection between poverty, disease, and crime"), he also expresses some hard (for me) to stomach disdain for the poor and working classes: "hard-faced, lantern-jawed, dull-eyed adult children." It threatens to sound like the eugenics rhetoric that Schuyler roundly rejects and debunks throughout the novel. While he mitigates it with an awareness of social context ("the young men, aged before their time by child labor and a violent environment"), it bothered me. This snobbery fits with his wholesale rejection of philanthropy and political activism as barely disguised self-interest and financial opportunism, which is both quite funny (and an important reminder to not take do-gooders at their word, important skepticism today too!) and then also depressing and monotonous. Schuyler's belief that everyone's actions boil down to market motives anticipate his notorious late-career conservativism.
Nonetheless, a powerful book both in the laughter and in the unease that it inspires. I will end my review with another dose of Schuyler's wit: "President Goosie averred again and again, 'I intend to make my second term as honest and efficient as my first.' Though a dire threat, this statement was supposed to be a fine promise."
Schuyler's central trope is inspired, as he uses the sudden illegibility of skin color to unpack the politics of passing and white beauty standards, to reveal the morass of genealogy that renders the grand theories and binaries of race science nonsensical as well as hateful [the white supremacists, trying to research their own purity, reveal that all supposedly white families contain black ancestry...Though "Finding Your Roots" is totally sincere as opposed to this ironic masterpiece, [author:Henry Louis Gates Jr.|3862441] must have had a chuckle at how much Schuyler would appreciate these narratives of the country's interracialism when he began his American genealogy/genome show for PBS], and to dramatize whiteness as a constructed source of social distinction. By the end of the book, characters wishing to prove their "whiteness" must darken their skin because the transformation process from black to white is rumored to produce super-white skin. So the ironic conclusion finds his would-be white characters on tanning beds and employing skin creams.
Schuyler's satirical tone is Swiftian in its ruthlessness [the description of a lynching towards the end of the book, carried out on two white supremacist characters who have been revealed to have black ancestry, is brutal, dispassionate yet grisly and rending] and in its pessimism about human character; Twain-like in its irreverence and lampooning of authority, pretense, and religion ("She believed in the Bible from cover to cover, except what it said about people with money"); and Austenian in its tongue-in-cheek characterizations that elegantly and completely denigrate their subjects ("like the other girls of her set, [she was] anxious to get a husband who at the same time was handsome, intelligent, educated, refined, and rolling in wealth. As she was ignorant of the fact that no such man existed, she looked confidently forward into the future").
So why four stars instead of five stars when I often found this book very funny, I think it would be very effective in the classroom, and it's a classic of African American satire and, arguably, science fiction? A couple of different reasons. The first is personal taste; the exposure of everyone's crass self-interest becomes very repetitive, which made me enjoy the book less than I might have had it been a bit more interested in its characters or the complexities of these organizations, liturgical, legislative, and corporate. The second is Schuyler's apparent disdain for poor people. Ironically, this connects up with one of my favorite parts of the book, the indictment of the political distraction of the white working class from their own plight by way of inflaming racial hatred. While there are signs that Schuyler is aware of the structural forces keeping ignorance, unhappiness, and anger alive (he even mocks a black sociologist for "revealing the amazing fact that poor people went to jail oftener than rich ones; that most of the people were not getting enough money for their work; that strangely enough there was some connection between poverty, disease, and crime"), he also expresses some hard (for me) to stomach disdain for the poor and working classes: "hard-faced, lantern-jawed, dull-eyed adult children." It threatens to sound like the eugenics rhetoric that Schuyler roundly rejects and debunks throughout the novel. While he mitigates it with an awareness of social context ("the young men, aged before their time by child labor and a violent environment"), it bothered me. This snobbery fits with his wholesale rejection of philanthropy and political activism as barely disguised self-interest and financial opportunism, which is both quite funny (and an important reminder to not take do-gooders at their word, important skepticism today too!) and then also depressing and monotonous. Schuyler's belief that everyone's actions boil down to market motives anticipate his notorious late-career conservativism.
Nonetheless, a powerful book both in the laughter and in the unease that it inspires. I will end my review with another dose of Schuyler's wit: "President Goosie averred again and again, 'I intend to make my second term as honest and efficient as my first.' Though a dire threat, this statement was supposed to be a fine promise."
February 5, 2021
Talk about being sick and tired of every. damn. body. I often wondered about the thoughts that must've ran through George Schuyler's mind as he wrote this book. I wondered about the experiences that served as inspiration for this satirical work, and I marveled at how his astute observations regarding race, class, and culture have endured the test of time.
On the surface, this novel is clearly dated. The dialogue between characters contained terms and references that were clearly of their time. But delving further, the novel presents a scathing, cynical and damning critique about the dark crevices of American culture - the racism, religious fundamentalism, political dogmatism, and the really messed up things that people will do for a dollar, no matter with whom or where they identify socially.
The author pulls no punches. He brilliantly employs satire to hold up a mirror to the worst of American society. Heavy on the sarcasm, burningly cynical, borderline crass and at times a bit morbid, this book is not for the soul who is unready for a massive dose of truth. But if you're like those of us who have long found ourselves jaded by the everlasting turmoil of America's darkest sins and who silently detest those who choose to capitalize on them, this book will be a balm for your soul.
The book goes by speedily, and if you can appreciate the humor, you'll enjoy this book tremendously. You will giggle and sigh at the painfully familiar characters, you will laugh at the absurdity of the scenarios, and you will shake your head at the sobering silhouettes of human (and particularly American) nature. You may also find yourself wondering at points: was this book really written in the 1930s? Because in too many ways, too many things have remained the same.
On the surface, this novel is clearly dated. The dialogue between characters contained terms and references that were clearly of their time. But delving further, the novel presents a scathing, cynical and damning critique about the dark crevices of American culture - the racism, religious fundamentalism, political dogmatism, and the really messed up things that people will do for a dollar, no matter with whom or where they identify socially.
The author pulls no punches. He brilliantly employs satire to hold up a mirror to the worst of American society. Heavy on the sarcasm, burningly cynical, borderline crass and at times a bit morbid, this book is not for the soul who is unready for a massive dose of truth. But if you're like those of us who have long found ourselves jaded by the everlasting turmoil of America's darkest sins and who silently detest those who choose to capitalize on them, this book will be a balm for your soul.
The book goes by speedily, and if you can appreciate the humor, you'll enjoy this book tremendously. You will giggle and sigh at the painfully familiar characters, you will laugh at the absurdity of the scenarios, and you will shake your head at the sobering silhouettes of human (and particularly American) nature. You may also find yourself wondering at points: was this book really written in the 1930s? Because in too many ways, too many things have remained the same.
January 30, 2012
This outrageous, hilarious and insightful novel is one of the great masterpieces of satire and of black American literature. The subject matter is taboo even today. It is more than a satire of race; it covers much more ground, slapping around numerous deserving targets -- religion, politics, sex, and more. Ultimately it is about the great and endless gullibility of the human race. It would make a fabulous movie, if someone had the guts to do it. Spike Lee, maybe?
Schuyler, surely the greatest black journalist in American history, is a fascinating character who deserves a great deal more attention than he has received. He was a close friend and admirer of the great H.L. Mencken, and shared many of Mencken's views and salty style, so much so that Schuyler was sometimes called "the Black Mencken." Mencken in turn once described him as possible "the most competent editorial writer now in practice," strong praise indeed from America's greatest journalist. As a young man he was a socialist, but he became a conservative with libertarian leanings. His conservatism led to his being utterly shunned by the intelligentsia in the last years of his life. In recent years there has thankfully been more interest in the large and very rich body of work he produced.
Schuyler, surely the greatest black journalist in American history, is a fascinating character who deserves a great deal more attention than he has received. He was a close friend and admirer of the great H.L. Mencken, and shared many of Mencken's views and salty style, so much so that Schuyler was sometimes called "the Black Mencken." Mencken in turn once described him as possible "the most competent editorial writer now in practice," strong praise indeed from America's greatest journalist. As a young man he was a socialist, but he became a conservative with libertarian leanings. His conservatism led to his being utterly shunned by the intelligentsia in the last years of his life. In recent years there has thankfully been more interest in the large and very rich body of work he produced.
February 21, 2016
Although this African-American classic was written in 1939, many of the issues explored in this book are still relevant today. In this short comedy/satire, Schuyler takes on the race problem in America. A scientist discovers a means by which to artificially induce vitiligo - normally a hereditary disorder that causes white patches to appear on the skin. With just one treatment of Black-No-More his ebony and bronzed clientele are turned "pork-colored" forever, their coiled hair straightened and their African features erased. Could "science succeed where the Civil War had failed"? After all, "if there were no Negroes, there could be no Negro problem. Without a Negro problem, Americans could concentrate their attention on something constructive." Of course what ensues in this pithy little tale is sheer pandemonium. Schuyler has no problem spreading the criticism around - from Black academics, to scientists, clergy, community leaders, politicians, white supremacists, and working class whites - all play a part in exacerbating the race problem. Each is motivated by self-serving means that are fueled through either avarice or ignorance. Recognizable are many of the icons from our past and quite easily some in our present.
January 11, 2021
This book made me laugh out loud several times and satires rarely do that.
November 20, 2018
Super smart. Loved the content and idea. Didn’t love the writing. The humor did g translate for me 80 years on. Still relevant as far as the topic and conversations.
June 11, 2022
This is one of the sharpest satires that I have ever read. George Schuyler’s novel is built around the premise of a process being developed that effectively transforms the appearance of a Black person into that of someone who is white. When news of the inexpensive process is announced, millions of African-Americans rush to the Black-No-More clinics to undergo the change. Among the very first is Max Disher, a love-smitten insurance agent who, upon undergoing the process, assumes a new identity as Matthew Fisher and travels to Atlanta in search of a white woman he met in a New York nightclub. There he finds a way to profit off of the white backlash to the process while riding the enormous changes wrought nationwide by it.
Schuyler uses this premise to vivisect the issue of race in America. Little escapes his cutting wit, as he targets both sides of the racial divide. Contemporary Black leaders are satirized with the same degree of perceptiveness as are the white characters in it. Yet Schuyler’s novel is not just a critique of race in America, but American life more generally, as the author skewers such commonalities as politics, hucksterism, and the endless pursuit of wealth. This makes his book a biting critique of life in 1930s America; that his criticisms apply to our country today speaks to the enduring nature of the issues he addresses and the perceptiveness of his observations. It’s a book that, for all of the particulars of its setting (the slang, the settings, the tri-motor airplanes) it’s one that offers a perspective that is as relevant today as it was when it was first published.
Schuyler uses this premise to vivisect the issue of race in America. Little escapes his cutting wit, as he targets both sides of the racial divide. Contemporary Black leaders are satirized with the same degree of perceptiveness as are the white characters in it. Yet Schuyler’s novel is not just a critique of race in America, but American life more generally, as the author skewers such commonalities as politics, hucksterism, and the endless pursuit of wealth. This makes his book a biting critique of life in 1930s America; that his criticisms apply to our country today speaks to the enduring nature of the issues he addresses and the perceptiveness of his observations. It’s a book that, for all of the particulars of its setting (the slang, the settings, the tri-motor airplanes) it’s one that offers a perspective that is as relevant today as it was when it was first published.
July 18, 2018
This minor classic from the Harlem Renaissance (1927) is a satire about a guy who invents a serum that turns black people white. Everyone soon is, and we end up with the inevitable conclusion that "we're all n-----s." The prose is sometimes clunky, but the satire is well-crafted and effective. (Side note: this is the logical end point for a surprising number of books from the era about passing for white, including Nella Larsen's Passing and Jessi Redmon Fauset's Plum Bun.) I dug it pretty well, although I don't think its relegation to the margins is unjustified.
Theme but not plot spoiled ahead:
Theme but not plot spoiled ahead:
April 21, 2025
Reader's Digest Version OR, 'Those "Down In The Well" (Bevis Frond) of Book Reviews and Need to Catch the Fuck Up' Review:
Schuyler was a fucking brilliant man. Black No More, the literal coeval of Slaves Today (both 1931), should be seen as its sister novel in its complementariness to its sibling. Whereas Slaves is understandably bitter and hilarious (but honest as fuck), Black No More is the evidence that Schuyler had a warm, shaggy side too. A wag, meant as compliment rather than neologism. Surface reading may track as something that the novel very much is not. What, in my dismissible opinion, it very much is? A celebration/satire of being alive, Black, and American at a time (like now) when those things meant some pretty complicated shit. It is your honor to decide, should you ride this ride, to assign what that meaning is. Or don't. This isn't a test and I'm not taking attendance.
Schuyler was a fucking brilliant man. Black No More, the literal coeval of Slaves Today (both 1931), should be seen as its sister novel in its complementariness to its sibling. Whereas Slaves is understandably bitter and hilarious (but honest as fuck), Black No More is the evidence that Schuyler had a warm, shaggy side too. A wag, meant as compliment rather than neologism. Surface reading may track as something that the novel very much is not. What, in my dismissible opinion, it very much is? A celebration/satire of being alive, Black, and American at a time (like now) when those things meant some pretty complicated shit. It is your honor to decide, should you ride this ride, to assign what that meaning is. Or don't. This isn't a test and I'm not taking attendance.
March 5, 2023
Black No More tells the story of a man (initially) named Max Disher, and his experiences following his undergoing of a novel scientific procedure consisting of a machine designed to alter skin color, hair, and other racial identifiers so that one may become indisputably White. The inventor of the machine sees his creation as a net good for society–after all, with this machine, supposedly, racial discrimination would disappear and eliminate the “problem” of being black in the United States.
The premise is Langston Hughes’ fever dream/nightmare: in which an “urge to whiteness” is concomitant with reality. Hughes once wrote in an essay that:
“One of the most promising of the young Negro poets said to me once, “I want to be a poet—not a Negro poet,” meaning, I believe, “I want to write like a white poet”; meaning subconsciously, “I would like to be a white poet”; meaning behind that, “I would like to be white.” And I was sorry the young man said that, for no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself. And I doubted then that, with his desire to run away spiritually from his race, this boy would ever be a great poet. But this is the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America—this urge within the race toward whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the mold of American standardization, and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible.” (I will link the full essay in the comments)
Schuyler’s novel, by way of satire, is able to not only identify this “urge to whiteness” but expand this diagnosis into a broader critique of those who benefit from it. There is a blatant irony here, for Schuyler, who touted himself as a patriot, declared that it is "sheer nonsense" to speak of racial differences, and preferred to be considered an American above all else. While such views may have relegated him to the realm of conservatism, the novel nevertheless speaks for itself.
As the “Black No More” procedure becomes more pervasive, factory owners are no longer able to hire black laborers for cheap, and talks of unionization begin to surface. Our ex-Black protagonist, having undergone the “Whitening” procedure, gains the trust of white supremacist organizations and takes bribes from factory owners to give rousing union-busting speeches in what is a proto-Dave Chappelle sketch:
“He reminded them that they were men and women; that they were free, white and twenty-one; that they were citizens of the United States; that America was their country [...] that nothing should be dearer to them than the maintenance of white supremacy."
Here, Schuyler exposes the way class society sustains identity, for identity turns disparate things into identical things (the all-encompassing urge to whiteness) and in the same gesture, turns socially engineered categories into natural ones, and objective differences into subjective differences. Every iteration of identity is a reiteration of the labor contract where objective differences are recast as subjective preferences - the laborer accepts a wage that cheats him of the value of his labor - and is reprised each time some person internalizes subjective identity. Class society requires natural identity in order to naturalize the labor contract by which objective value is extracted and appropriated through an exchange that appears fair by the predominance of subjectivity in the positivism that is foisted on society as the official doctrine of nature.
The workers’ attachment to racial identity is a perfect example of whiteboyism. Even when the “problem” of race has seemingly been eliminated, they still insist on inventing boogeymen to justify their discontent which, in the end, is a function of their own domination. Schuyler’s critique is clear: whites identify with naturalized categories so that when they are exploited something must be wrong with the universe rather than the one they brought into existence. For who else can they blame for the shitty world they live in?
Following a glimpse into utopia, we are left with the insight that Black and White are ultimately indicators of a fraudulent society. Schuyler takes the hyperbolic hypothesis of race–a category becoming evermore naturalized, despite its consisting of exaggerated characteristics, and counters it with the contention that it falls short by its own metric. Society remains fraudulent, despite our ability to detect its ills—that, in short, is the space of satire, the perspective of truth.
The premise is Langston Hughes’ fever dream/nightmare: in which an “urge to whiteness” is concomitant with reality. Hughes once wrote in an essay that:
“One of the most promising of the young Negro poets said to me once, “I want to be a poet—not a Negro poet,” meaning, I believe, “I want to write like a white poet”; meaning subconsciously, “I would like to be a white poet”; meaning behind that, “I would like to be white.” And I was sorry the young man said that, for no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself. And I doubted then that, with his desire to run away spiritually from his race, this boy would ever be a great poet. But this is the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America—this urge within the race toward whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the mold of American standardization, and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible.” (I will link the full essay in the comments)
Schuyler’s novel, by way of satire, is able to not only identify this “urge to whiteness” but expand this diagnosis into a broader critique of those who benefit from it. There is a blatant irony here, for Schuyler, who touted himself as a patriot, declared that it is "sheer nonsense" to speak of racial differences, and preferred to be considered an American above all else. While such views may have relegated him to the realm of conservatism, the novel nevertheless speaks for itself.
As the “Black No More” procedure becomes more pervasive, factory owners are no longer able to hire black laborers for cheap, and talks of unionization begin to surface. Our ex-Black protagonist, having undergone the “Whitening” procedure, gains the trust of white supremacist organizations and takes bribes from factory owners to give rousing union-busting speeches in what is a proto-Dave Chappelle sketch:
“He reminded them that they were men and women; that they were free, white and twenty-one; that they were citizens of the United States; that America was their country [...] that nothing should be dearer to them than the maintenance of white supremacy."
Here, Schuyler exposes the way class society sustains identity, for identity turns disparate things into identical things (the all-encompassing urge to whiteness) and in the same gesture, turns socially engineered categories into natural ones, and objective differences into subjective differences. Every iteration of identity is a reiteration of the labor contract where objective differences are recast as subjective preferences - the laborer accepts a wage that cheats him of the value of his labor - and is reprised each time some person internalizes subjective identity. Class society requires natural identity in order to naturalize the labor contract by which objective value is extracted and appropriated through an exchange that appears fair by the predominance of subjectivity in the positivism that is foisted on society as the official doctrine of nature.
The workers’ attachment to racial identity is a perfect example of whiteboyism. Even when the “problem” of race has seemingly been eliminated, they still insist on inventing boogeymen to justify their discontent which, in the end, is a function of their own domination. Schuyler’s critique is clear: whites identify with naturalized categories so that when they are exploited something must be wrong with the universe rather than the one they brought into existence. For who else can they blame for the shitty world they live in?
Following a glimpse into utopia, we are left with the insight that Black and White are ultimately indicators of a fraudulent society. Schuyler takes the hyperbolic hypothesis of race–a category becoming evermore naturalized, despite its consisting of exaggerated characteristics, and counters it with the contention that it falls short by its own metric. Society remains fraudulent, despite our ability to detect its ills—that, in short, is the space of satire, the perspective of truth.
February 16, 2025
A scathing piece of satire that’s as funny as it is grim. The social and political commentary was sharp and unrelenting, truly a fascinating read!!
February 21, 2021
4 stars for a satire is very high for me, since it is not a genre I enjoy. However, this is very well done, indeed, so even though I liked zero of the characters and it was not "fun" (but it was very funny at times) this is such an important book that I wish I had read it back when I was a teen and I have to give it a good rating.
First published in 1930, Schuyler (Photo below) writes a story about Max Disher, who is one of the first blacks to turn white when a black physician, Dr. Crookman, returns from Germany where he has developed a method for turning blacks into whites, hair and all. Disher heads south to try and find a beautiful strawberry blonde who rejected him due to his race. Unable to find a job, he comes up with a scheme to get very rich by playing the two sides of the debate over this new process of Dr. Crookman's that is making Crookman and his cohorts extremely wealthy due to a smart price point.
But we don't just read Crookman's and Disher's POVs, but also a few other key characters in the book.
Schuyler was clearly a master at understanding human nature, because no one is spared being satirized. I think this book is just as important to read today as it was in the 1930s.
First published in 1930, Schuyler (Photo below) writes a story about Max Disher, who is one of the first blacks to turn white when a black physician, Dr. Crookman, returns from Germany where he has developed a method for turning blacks into whites, hair and all. Disher heads south to try and find a beautiful strawberry blonde who rejected him due to his race. Unable to find a job, he comes up with a scheme to get very rich by playing the two sides of the debate over this new process of Dr. Crookman's that is making Crookman and his cohorts extremely wealthy due to a smart price point.
But we don't just read Crookman's and Disher's POVs, but also a few other key characters in the book.
Schuyler was clearly a master at understanding human nature, because no one is spared being satirized. I think this book is just as important to read today as it was in the 1930s.
April 16, 2012
Although I abhor George Schuyler's reactionary political veiws(he supported Joe McCarthy), I loved his highly satirical "Black NO More." At times it is falling down on the floor funny;however, beware for you may end up laughing at yourself or at one of your icons. It seems that Schuyler didn't like any of the African American icons: DuBois, Garvey, James Weldon Johnson, or Walter White. He does point out the hypocrisy of segregation and racism.
His story line is quite imaginative: what would happen if someone could invent a process to turn Negroes white? There would be no more race problem, or would there? You will have to read this side-splitting novel to find out. I recommend it for anyone who has more than a passing interest in the Harlem Renaissance. Beware: if you know little about history or the period you will not understand the satire and humor.
His story line is quite imaginative: what would happen if someone could invent a process to turn Negroes white? There would be no more race problem, or would there? You will have to read this side-splitting novel to find out. I recommend it for anyone who has more than a passing interest in the Harlem Renaissance. Beware: if you know little about history or the period you will not understand the satire and humor.
September 22, 2015
I was really excited about this little book in the beginning...Then, I don't know, but it felt apart for me. I enjoyed Schuyler's very sharp wit and his critical eye. I laughed many times at the parodies and various "bigger than life" characters, especially Doctor Crookman, but somehow, somewhere along the last half of the book, I stopped caring. I think I should return to this book later in the year and give it another try.
Black no more is probably a brilliant book but it didn't live up to my personal expectations. I was anticipating more dept perhaps. I guess it's hard to be deep and satirical, and few authors succeed at it.
Black no more is probably a brilliant book but it didn't live up to my personal expectations. I was anticipating more dept perhaps. I guess it's hard to be deep and satirical, and few authors succeed at it.
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