Angry Black White Boy

by Adam Mansbach

From the acclaimed author of Shackling Water comes the first great race novel of the twenty-first century, an incendiary and ruthlessly funny satire about violence, pop culture, and American identity.

Macon Detornay is a suburban white boy possessed and politicized by black culture, and filled with rage toward white America. After moving to New York City for college, Macon begins robbing white passengers in his taxicab, setting off a manhunt for the black man presumed to be committing the crimes. When his true identity is revealed, Macon finds himself to be a celebrity and makes use of the spotlight to hold forth on the evils and invisibility of whiteness. Soon he launches the Race Traitor Project, a stress-addled collective that attracts guilty liberals, wannabe gangstas, and bandwagon riders from all over the country to participate in a Day of Apology—a day set aside for white people to make amends for four hundred years of oppression. The Day of Apology pushes New York City over the edge into an epic riot, forcing Macon to confront the depth of his own commitment to the struggle.

Peopled with all manner of race pimps and players, Angry Black White Boy is a stunning breakout book from a critically acclaimed young writer and should be required reading for anyone who wants to get under the skin of the complexities of identity in America.

Genres: Fiction, Race, African American, Hip Hop, Adult Fiction, Novels, Contemporary

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Adam Mansbach is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Go the Fuck to Sleep, as well as the novels Rage is Back, The End of the Jews (winner of the California Book Award), and Angry Black White Boy, and the memoir-in-verse I Had a Brother Once. With Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel, he co-authored For This We Left Egypt, a finalist for the Thurber Award for American Humor, and the bestselling A Field Guide to the Jewish People. Mansbach's debut screenplay, for the Netflix Original BARRY, was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and an NAACP Image Award, and he is a two-time recipient of the Reed Award and the American Association of Political Consultants' Gold Pollie Award, for his 2012 Obama/Biden campaign video "Wake The Fuck Up" and his 2020 Biden/Harris campaign ad "Same Old," both starring Samuel L. Jackson. Mansbach's work has appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times Book Review, Esquire, The Believer, The Guardian, and on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, The Moth Storytelling Hour, and This American Life. His next novel, The Golem of Brooklyn, will be published by One World in September.

Reviews

[Monique · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this book two days ago and am halfway into my next book it just took me a while to really process this book..there is alot going on and it is infuriating, hilarious and tragic all at the same time. The premise is a young white guy completely and totally enthralled and captivated by hip hop culture and the coolness exuded by his African American friends. This guy (his name is Macon) associates so closely with hip hop and its culture----one of my favorite quotes of the book is when he is reminiscing on his affair with hip hop and its influence on those who listen as the author says "A Hip hop motherfucker carries hip hop with him everywhere he went, and knows when to hold it on its shoulder or hide it in his heart."---but back to the story so Macon is in the midst of an identity crisis as the only white guy in his circle of friends and sicknened by the white oppression he witnessses at the sides of his friends. After high school and acceptance in a preppy school (funded by his own white oppressive parents) he gets a job as a cab driver to help out and stop being so hypocritical--but this is just after the Rodney King verdict and the ensuing riots so he is full of more animosity and misplaced anger and frustration than he can handle and starts to rob his white patrons out of anger and helplessness. In robbing them he hopes to familiarize them with the daily fear and mistreatment African Americans get however he never reveals his face and the media and victims assume he is black. After it is revealed that he was a white seemingly confused youth that thinks and acts as if he was black he is studied, hated and admired... so much that his celebrity finds it way to the television where he calls for a National Day of Apology for white people to black people..This is when the book got really tense, would a white person apologizing to you for slavery and racism make you angrier or more forgiving and is it too late? This book has a lot of words, hip hop quotables (mostly old school though) and even pages of poetry..it raises some really pertinent questions on white people listening to hip hop and our country's attitudes towards each other after all these years..great discussion book but only recommended for those who read for knowledge and to learn about themselves and dont mind being half annoyed and half intrigued as they do it..very controversial...

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is about a white kid who wants to be Black. That wasn’t evident to me upon picking the book up and reading the title. I probably wouldn’t have read it, if I knew.

There are some interesting racial dynamics as the books starts with an anecdote about some racialized history of which we later learn is the main character’s ancestor. What adds irony here is that this is all written by a white author. A white author who is obviously…"down” with the culture as he spits off several rap lyrics from not-so-mainstream rappers. He also recites his knowledge about the nation of five-percenters. He takes every opportunity to exhibit his intimate knowledge of so-called Black culture. I can’t help but question, is Adam Mansbach trying to show his “downess” through this character, or did he go down some black culture rabbit hole for this book?

It’s hard to tell whether this is a satire or not. about 90 pages in, it seems like it becomes less parody as Macon Detornay becomes somewhat relatable. However, the story itself is still wayward. There are multiple storylines as new characters are introduced…i.e. Nique and the dichotemy of he and Andre, and also the relationship between Nique and his father, which seems like some sort of incomplete tangent.

The main character Macon Detornay is white, but he feels that he’s “down” and is critical of other whites and even some Black people who are posing (i.e. the younger generation of hip-hop heads). The story actually starts to get interesting as it ventures into the rising action of the ill-fated “Day of Apology.” I actually feel that the title should be called day of apology rather than “Angry Black White Boy” which probably makes for better marketing. But the center of the action centers around the “Day of Apology” event.

The ending was somewhat mediocre, although surprising. I wouldn’t describe this one as a worthwhile read. It speaks to the racism that is apparent in American culture, but also the privilege, but what else is new about that conversation. It's reminiscent of those sidebar episodes of the second season of Atlanta, which I did like. This story is kind of like that, except the story angle is more predictable, and you don't have the added elements of humor.

[Dahlia Rosenthal · Rating 4 out of 5]

craaaaazzzzzy book. i still don't know if i like it. hate the characters. disgusting pigs. yet such a clear and concise description of them. i don't know if you can be a good person and write this book, but is anyone a "good person" anyway? i hated reading it, yet i enjoyed reading it, i felt myself wanting more, yet dreading every word. the beginning was pretty hard to get through, and the middle, and kinda the end lol, but by the end, i couldn't put the book down. it implored me to think about myself and my whiteness, i felt cringe, guilt, regret, and somewhat joyful at the end. it was a mindfuck.

[Jacob · Rating 2 out of 5]

A horrible mess of a book. Mansbach is no dummy, but he's grappling with a lot in this sprawling, juvenile mess, and it comes across as naive and disjuncted. Maybe worth reading for the sheer breadth of sputtering chunks of pop culture and social criticism, but probably not.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

i remember this book. back when i would go to the library and just pick out a few random books that had good covers and first paragraphs. this was one of them.

and it could of been a great book if not for the way it ended.

[Navneet · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know that "hey i have a ph.d. and i'm so smart let me tell you what i learned" genre of books (see Life of Pi)? This is one of them. ICK.

[TEMI · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the most interesting book I've read in a while. Bought this from a random book store and I never buy books but it was $5. I saw the book title and went hmm. I read the summary on the inside cover and I said no way. I googled the author and when I found out it was a white Jewish dude and it was written in 2005 I said this is either gonna be laughably offensive or peak. And I love me a good satire.

It wasn't peak but I think it delivered on the satire stuff. I'm way into the anthropology of wiggers and I appreciated this book giving me a very believable wigger character instead of the concept of a wigger. Like, Macon isn't just a white guy who wears a durag and recklessly says nigga. He is a white guy that developed a genuine interest in hip-hop. He seriously thinks he's completely down for what he believes in. He has fears and insecurities, like sometimes he's afraid his black friends don't even like him like that. And they probably don't! He's an actual person! Yet he still looks ridiculous and you can laugh at him and we have a good time we have a good time. A satire definitely doesn't need a layered and fully human character but for the things that happen in this book it really helps and reminds you that you've met this guy before.

Unfortunately this thing lost me one million times. There's chunks of pages that basically just read to me as Westside Gunn lyrics. Macon would be in the middle of a menial task like walking then there would be an essay worth of hip to the hop gibberish. There are sentences in this book that are a paragraph long and full of references to AZ songs or something then when you understand what the sentence means you're like okay so Macon was brushing his teeth and he wore a blue shirt. Okay. Whatever.

I did like the ending a lot that was a very interesting twist. It reminded me of the single good parts of every particularly bad black satire or surrealist film or movie I've seen. I could see it as a Jordan Peele movie even though I really don't want to.

[Sheehan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshingly enjoyable mix of hip-hop culture with well-written narrative examination of race in America. So many of the nuanced perspectives of race interactions, expectations and disconnects are portrayed by engaging characters, the book is a testament to signifying.

the whole book deconstructs the "expectations" of behavior based on race or status in life, and then re-injects those same stereotypes (plausibly!) in incongruous circumstances, making for very entertaining and educational reading.

I loved it...

[Phoebe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a hard time assigning stars to this one. It has passages that are both thought-provoking and wonderfully poetic, making it a worthwhile read. On the other hand, it's ultimately disappointing, and Adam Mansbach needs some serious editing help -- he has major point-of-view problems, for one thing. In the end, I liked the play version better.

[Johari · Rating 3 out of 5]

I REALLY wanted to like this...but i hated the ending.


The middle is the best part and some valid/ thought provoking points are made but it got muddled and (to me) lost in the last part of the book.

The writing reminds me of Paul Beatty's White Boy Shuffle.

[Sunny · Rating 3 out of 5]

i'd actually give it a 3.5
it's one of those books you want to pull apart with a few well-selected friends. the ending SUCKED though. but don't take my word for it...

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd give it three stars for the first half of the book.. but what a cop out ending. Not worth the time.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only managed to read part of this book. It started out great, then I got a bit lost, then it got great again and then I got lost again and didn't have the strength to persevere any further.

[Kevin Bertolero · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was honestly a struggle to get through, and the ending was just terrible.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

4.29.92.
Not sure what I was doing that day other than being a husband and father to two boys ages almost seven and five. But in Amerikan history, it is the day that LA, CA had a meltdown over the acquittal of the white police officers over the Rodney King verdict, and is the seminal event in young Macon Detornay's life.
I was not familiar with this book, or it's author but saw it on the bookshelf of an AirBnb that my wife and I stayed at in New Haven, CT, the weekend we met our future daughter-in-law's parents officially for the first time, and to attend a Yale Tailgate Football game - vs. Columbia, Macon's almost alma mater! It looked interesting and I know that you are not supposed to judge a book by its cover and this is not a particularly interesting cover, but it contained a word that I was not familiar with and had to look up - miscegenation - so look it up! I started reading it but did not finish before leaving on a three-week trip, and on my return, it was still on my nightstand so I jumped back in.
Yes, it is a searing indictment of Race in Amerika through the eye's of pop culture and I am not sure it did it justice. Heavy on satire, which I guess is a good way to address an issue that is too toxic in the current nightmare we are living in and I did not like the ending. You knew full well what was going to happen and I just had to finish reading it to get it over....at all. It was a cop-out.

[Demi R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

For starters, I was blown away by the worldly vernacular. Mansbach did a great job at helping you relate to Macons right hand men. The plot unfolded perfectly and I almost found this satirical. What WOULD happen if a world apology day commenced. I believe it would unfold as written to be honest. The ending had me absolutely on my feet and overall this was an eye opening read.

[M Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't finish
Mansbach has something interesting, maybe even important to work out on the theme of white relationship to black culture, and our separation, and appropriation and...
I just didn't want spend any more pages with the protagonist.
So I'm leaving.
May speak to others.

[Kevin Milton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Puts a lovely spin on the "Angry Black man living in a White man's world," as told through the perspective of a "woke" white boy. This is a MUST read with amazing wit, accuracy, and daring diction!

[A.D. Metcalfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast-paced, great characters, unique plotline. An all around fun read.

[Larisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got a lot of the satire and social commentary. I was with him for the first half. But the ending was dissatisfying and didn’t make much sense.

[Charlotte Sienkiewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a book.

[Violet Nichols · Rating 1 out of 5]

this isn’t even a one star book

idk how I finished this shit

brb throwing this book in the trash

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam Mansbach's fatalistic portrayal of a white suburban race-traitor makes no apology for itself as an ironic backpacker remix of Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison. Protagonist Macon Detornay, a self-proclaimed "white Bigger Thomas," spares no one in his all-out attack on whiteness. Macon makes talk show hosts admit to racist thoughts on national TV, yuppies walk home on the highway sans necktie, and ancestral baseball bigots turn somersaults in their tombs. His quick-witted critical overview of hip hop, from esteemed underground roots to overcommercialized schlock, assimilation and appropriation, pulls nary a punch in its scathing street-scholarly stance. The book's three sections—"Trader", "Traitor" and "Race"—echo Native Son's "Fear", "Flight" and "Fate", while the narrative journey is Invisible Man turned on its head, beginning in the hectic to-and-fro "we're-not-racist" tension of Manhattan and winding up in the serenely surreal backwoods of Alabama. There's even a Harlem race riot with women shouting, "Reinhart baby! Don't you know me?" Mansbach's race politics might be as good as an appropriative white American male is capable of today, though the book more than lacks a strong female voice and is overripe with chauvinism in its many male characters. This may not be the work of a true Renaissance Man—Harlem or otherwise—but Angry Black White Boy had me laughing out loud with freshly sharpened conviction.

[Bailey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Adam Mansbach’s Angry Black White Boy

Imagine growing up in the suburbs of Boston but being a white Jewish boy robbing, vandalizing, and harassing people/property and becoming a “celebrity” for it. Meet Macon, racial discourse has become one of his biggest problems. He solves his anger by committing crimes against white people, even though he is white himself, and getting away with it. Angry Black White Boy, a fiction novel by Adam Mansbach, tells a story about a “down white boy” who tries his hardest to fit in with the rest of the race around him; African Americans.

This book begins in Boston but then transitions to New York where Macon goes to college. When Macon finds that he doesn't really fit in, he decides to go to college and pick up a job as a taxi driver which then leads to Macon robbing his passengers to pay for his college fees. In the midst of his robbing sprees he finds he isn't doing it for the money, but for the anger he has geared toward white America. I believe the theme is don’t try to be something you’re not

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the racial issues in the twentieth century. I rate this book three out of five stars because the book is hard to follow. It jumps to different settings quickly with little to no transitions. This book also is indented for a mature audience due to vulgar/offensive language.

[Dalton Oligschlaeger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was absolutely phenomenal. Admittedly, at first, I was skeptical, simply because I wasn't used to reading books about this subject matter, and didn't know what sort of attitude to go into it with. The novel, at times, is very blunt, and very, no-holds-barred, if you will, in a way that has potential to offend some people. However, the issue the novel covered offends me more than any words that were used ever could. If you're looking for a book that is constantly high-action and suspense, this isn't the read for you. It is, save a few scenes, not a novel that will "have you on the edge of your seat." That aside, from the very first chapter, the narration that the novel opens with, you find yourself fighting the urge to never put the book down. Imagine living an alternate lifestyle, living the presumed, steotypical lifestyle of a different race, in a time period fueled by racist riots and hate crimes. Imagine becoming a hero and starting a revolution, fighting for the people that the entire world expects you to hate. Walking from place to place, being beaten and ridiculed by those society views as your own. Spending your life, promoting hatred towards the person you are expected to be....

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A satire, Mansbach's Angry Black White Boy follows the life and intellectual maturation of Macon Detornay, a Jewish kid from Newton, MA who goes to school at Columbia University. Detornay's goal is to be the downest white boy in history. Fueled by his ancestor's racist past, Detornay tries to immerse himself into black life and culture so much that his whiteness becomes irrelevant. He quickly learns that the social construct of race is much more complex than that, and sets off on a journey that begins with him robbing white folks in his NYC cab and ends with him becoming a racial demagogue on the run from authorities.

Once he begins fleeing his past crimes, the book takes a Dan Brown-esque turn and things become very unbelievable (not that the first 2/3 of the book are based in 100% reality, but still.) The story itself is riveting and kept me engaged the entire time; the satire, in my opinion, is hurt slightly by the whimsical events that take place once Macon finds himself in Alabama. Overall a good read, if you're up for an imaginative story.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

this story is a suspense thriller. it gets five stars because it really delves into the realities that teens are playing with fire when they get into hip hop without understanding history. the book criticizes these kids brutally but also loves them for their idealism. There is transformational and affirmational love of youth at work here; you've gotta read Hip Hop Wars if you want to know more about that!

also, i think this book is best for hip hop heads because Mansbach really gets into issues that we are hyper aware of: pandering to the media for celebrity, dollars over people (again, the Hip Hop Wars illuminates this), the frustrating good-bad presence of white people in black art, idealism butting up against structural racism.

this book delivers in sheer entertainment as well. the last section is so cinematic and terrifying you'll get a knot in your stomach. okay, enjoy!

[Rei · Rating 4 out of 5]

Angry Black White Boy is the classic rebellious young man who finds out that he is what he despises tale in a modern setting. Adam Mansbach has received quite a bit of recognition with regard to how this work addresses race relations. I would add that he has also woven one heck of a good tale. He sets different tones and paces to the main and back stories, so that they are two distinct stories, each in its own period, each equally compelling. It is evocatively written, so that the reader reacts emotionally to the characters' thoughts and actions, includes an interesting twist or two at the end, and the storyline itself unfolds in a believable way, with the exception of a somewhat fantastical character who appears toward the end. So yes, quite an important social piece, but also an impressive literary work.

[Izetta Autumn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good friend gave me this book - said I had to read it, she didn't know what to think. This book will make you think and if you know anyone like Macon, you'll also laugh. But there's a deeper message about identity, hip-hop and the siphoning of Black culture by white America. Mansbach explores how universal hip-hop is, yet how rooted it is in Black diasporic culture and that a love for hip-hop doens't necessarily mean a love for social justice. Mansbach also reflects the structure of hip-hop in his writing approach, using the beats and timing so familiar to those of us from the hip-hop generation. A provocative read - I'd suggest reading it in a book club or with a friend. You're gonna want to talk about it.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, vibrant, funny, satirical look at how we define race and what race means in America. Although, honestly, if you find anything in here shocking, it just means you haven't really thought about this stuff. I was pleased with the quality of the writing, although you can tell from the showiness of the prose (in particular, the rhyming sections) that Mansbach (who I've met, and who is a pretty cool dude) was pretty young when he wrote it, and I was especially glad that he didn't cop out at the end (I won't spoil). I guess, overall, I enjoyed the book, but it just didn't touch me the same way Mansbach's subsequent novel, The End of the Jews, did. A matter of taste, I suppose. Still worth checking out.