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    Black No More
    Black No More
    Black No More
    Audiobook5 hours

    Black No More

    Written by George S. Schuyler

    Narrated by Sean Crisden

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    According to Max Disher, an ambitious young black man in 1930s New York, someone of his race has only three alternatives: "Get out, get white, or get along." Incapable of getting out and unhappy with getting along, Max leaps at the remaining possibility. Thanks to a certain Dr. Junius Crookman and his mysterious process, Max and other eager clients develop bleached skin that permits them to enter previously forbidden territory. What they discover in white society, however, gives them second thoughts.

    This humorous work of speculative fiction was written by an unsung hero of African American literature. George S. Schuyler (1895-1977) wrote for black America's most influential newspaper, the Pittsburgh Courier, in addition to H. L. Mencken's The American Mercury, The Nation, and other publications. His biting satire not only debunks the myths of white supremacy and racial purity but also lampoons prominent leaders of the NAACP and the Harlem Renaissance. More than a historical curiosity, Schuyler's 1931 novel offers a hilarious take on the hypocrisy and demagoguery surrounding America's obsession with skin color.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 5, 2018
    ISBN9781977372062
    Author

    George S. Schuyler

    George S. Schuyler (1895 - 1977) was an author, journalist, social commentator and somewhat controversial figure. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Schuyler’s formative years were shaped by his time in the U.S. military. Enlisting at age 17, Schuyler rose to the title of First Lieutenant before going AWOL due to a racist encounter with a Greek immigrant. Sentenced to five years for the abandonment, Schulyer was released after less than a year for being a model prisoner. In the aftermath of his release, he lived at the Phillis Wheatley Hotel in New York City, coming to learn the teachings of Black nationalist, Marcus Garvey. Not fully convinced of Garvey’s teachings, Schuyler would separate himself from both Garveyism and socialism, contributing articles to the American Mercury and embracing capitalism. Embarking on a career in journalism, Schuyler would find success and acknowledgement for his editorial skills as he took on the role of Chief Editorial Writer at the Courier in 1926. That same year he would pen a controversial piece, “The Negro-Art Hokum" for The Nation which—combined with his advocacy for capitalism—further alienated himself from his contemporaries. The article, which argued that art should not be segregated by race and that Black artist had no true style of their own, would inspire Langston Hughes’ famous, “The Negro and The Racial Mountain.” Five years after this, Schuyler would try his hand at a long fiction form, producing notable novels such as Slaves Today (1931), Black No More (1931), and Black Empire (1936 - 1938); and while Schuyler would continue to produce work up until the point of his death, it was his public and expilicit conservatism and opposition to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s-70s that would push both he and his literary work into obscurity. At the time of his death, his legacy and talent as a writer were so overshadowed by his politics that no one within Black circles wanted to interact with his work at all. Despite this, Schuyler produced some of the first satires by a Black writer and addressed intra-community issues at a time when most Black authors appealed solely to the middle-class.

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    Reviews for Black No More

    4/5

    111 ratings10 reviews

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    • 5/5
      So many levels to this book. Satire yes, great satire. But it also shows the complexities of human beings. Self seeking decisions that compromise even yourself. Is good really good enough? Is the colour of our skin really the problem?

      I think I’ll re read because I enjoyed it so much.
    • 5/5
      A commentary on the human condition. We will always find something to cause division between ourselves.
    • 3/5
      American society has placed its citizens in the position of unavoidably considering the proposition, "What if I had been born a different race?" In 1931 George Schuyler imagined black Americans being able to move beyond idle speculation of this question to having a real option to become "white". His Harlem Renaissance novel, Black No More, posits this scenario as a mechanism to satirise American racism, politics, and avarice. In the novel a black entrepreneur invents a treatment that allows African Americans to become "white" resulting in their near disappearance from American society. The story outlines the disruptions this epoch change causes. As can be expected the primary target is white racism but politicians of all stripes, the black intellectual class, and the frustrations & illusions of ordinary blacks have their moments in Schuyler's cross hairs. The satire is very broad and stylistically displays its roots that are jarring to those accustomed to lighter touch. Santop Licorice is the Marcus Garvey-like Back-to-Africa movement. Walter Brybe is the Attorney General. Dr.Crookman is the inventor of the Black No More treatment. Schuyler scores some telling points invoking a racial fluidity that actually exists in contradiction to the imposed caste system.
    • 5/5
      A fine writer with tongue firmly in cheek start to finish. Schuyler tells a compelling what-if story with masterful command of dialogue. The fleshing-out of character with description and dialogue that pulls the reader along for the quite believable actions and reactions that logically follow.Totally fun read, but you may wince as much as you'll laugh, for the story would require only minor changes in the setting to read as if taken from today's news.I highly recommend this quick read.Os.
    • 5/5
      What a ridiculously ridiculous book, all the more ridiculous because by ridiculous I mean good, and by good I mean a scathing observation of the devilment of racial politics, and by all that I mean quite frightening because it is all quite true. Ugh. Unfortunately.I myself read a library copy published by Random House, but, if you can, I'd recommend purchasing a copy from the indie publisher Mint Editions, an imprint I believe of West Margin Press (where I initially got wind of Black No More through a LibraryThing giveaway).I have to say that I'm a fan of Schuyler, an ironic example of one these "real" blacks who preached on the construct of race, while being drowned (out) in a sea of half blacks, mixed blacks and no blacks who didn't even grow up amongst blacks preaching nothing but race, race, race! Get your race newspaper here!This is actually how I was introduced to Schuyler, his essay "The Negro-Art Hokum" juxtaposed against Langston Hughes' essay "The Negro and the Racial Mountain" when I was a college student. Hughes of course, the "face" of blackness and the Harlem Renaissance—even though he admitted at one point that he wasn't even black. (It is purported that Hughes' paternal great grandmothers were enslaved Africans, and his paternal great grandfathers white slave owners)And here we have the ridiculousness of Black No More, which I very much recommend. It was hard to keep concentration at times, but it is a very well-written satire, with a very clever plot that perfectly devolves into the inanity we have with racial politics. A black scientist who is so invested in the progress of blacks that he develops a machine to make them white (to get rid of the problem of race), which disenfranchises all the businesses making money off of keeping blacks angry and oppressed and looking white with e.g. lightening creams and hair straighteners. Throw in the Democrat and Republican parties that capitalize off of the mayhem by destroying each other's platform, and then working together to destroy the common populace. But wait for it ... the whites who were once black can't stop their offspring from being born black, and what we have in the end is a political grab bag of proving one's generational whiteness, but everybody's ancestry being all mixed up, and many scrambling back to black. (cue Amy Winehouse)Great book.
    • 5/5
      Extrapolating from the contemporary, pursued experiments in the 1920's by Dr. Yusaburo Noguchi, Schuyler satirizes American society envisioning the impact a widely-available, black-to-white physiognomic conversion therapy would have on said society. He burns us all, even I can feel the heat from 90 years later. Almost a century has not provided much societal progress towards skin color's irrelevance because, as Schuyler blatantly lays out, the mass obsession is just a convenient lie to distract from power grabs by a few individuals.It's just so absurd - and not in the almost comforting, obviously exaggerated, highlighting-the-ridiculous-end-of-a-current-path way (there's still time to veer from this madness!); but in the sickeningly palpable, this-is-our-reality scream that can only drive us more insane.Dark humor at its finest - staring at inconvenient truths. Revisit the dedication once you've finished.
    • 4/5
      The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s was an explosion of African American expression across a wide spectrum of arts. Unfortunately, that blossoming didn’t last because it had to exist largely outside the dominant white culture and many of venues for that expression either dried up or were on their way out by the time the stock market crashed in 1929. A personal favorite Zora Neale Hurston died virtually penniless when she should have been afforded the opportunity to write up to her last breath. There is a similar explosion going on today but this time the African American experience is saturating the culture at large and creating its own space—gaining more control over its content, distribution and profits. Within this new wave is the concept of Afrofuturism. The largely science fiction form re-imagining of the African American Past, Present & especially Future is quite a departure for a culture traditionally trapped into seeing the world one day at a time. If you are constantly being told your present has no value, then you don’t spend much time imagining your future. The term Afrofuturism was coined in 1993 and is generally considered to have germinated in the 1950’s but I’d like to make the case that its seed was planted with the Harlem Renaissance novel, BLACK NO MORE by George S. Schuyler. Noted essayist and scholar Schuyler presents a world where African Americans are given the option to be turned white and thus, be black no more. For the purposes of the novel, virtually every African American takes advantage of this offer and most of the novel is America trying to adjust to the new landscape during a presidential election year. Schuyler uses this gimmick to take shots at both sides of the racial divide. One point driven home particularly well and quite reminiscent of today is the cultivation of racism as a means to congregate votes. The often thin lines between the Klan and the Church, the Church and politicians, the politicians and the businessmen and businessmen and the Klan are explored throughout. Owing to Schuyler’s background, much of the BLACK NO MORE could be mistaken for an extended non-fiction article more than a novel. This is a mixture of strength and weakness—lending more credibility to the goings on but less attachment as a reader to the participants. This novel is thin in spots because it often rushes where it might linger a little longer in order to get to the next satire. It also glosses over any second thoughts about a community abandoning its entire history to make a satiric point but it does achieve a kind of brilliance in the end—the white culture is so twisted in knots over racial identity that eventually to be too white is to be considered suspect. Many shades of satire are shared here, much of it quite funny, including the darkest possible to necessarily remind the reader of the worst places racism can lead. I happened upon this by chance having never heard of it or the author before. Would be a shame if it could not be lifted up by the current rising tides of expression.



    • 4/5
      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 niggers." 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 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: Be ready for a shockingly violent conclusion; it's a pretty drastic shift in tone, and not really an effective one.
    • 5/5
      This is a smart and gracefully written read. For anyone interested in considering race theory or race relations in the United States, or for anyone who appreciates satire, this is a must-read. Both frightening and understandable, the book draws you in easily, and holds you almost despite yourself until the inevitable, and yet surprising, end result. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      This novel can be read equally as a satire and a classic science fiction novel. The premise is that an invention is created to make African-Americans appear to look 'white'. The novel follows the life of one of the first men to be transformed, Max Disher, who transforms himself into Matthew Fisher to marry a white woman who rejected him. This trajectory allows him to both marry the woman and become an important member of a white supremacist group. The novel explores the social, economic and political impacts of race by imagining the chaos that would occur if the racial binary was removed. Despite Schuyler's conservative reputation, the book emphasizes the role that race plays in the economic exploitation of capitalism. Perhaps the only element that reveals Schuyler's conservative streak is the fact that the novel seems to be fairly cynical about structurally transforming the world it describes. The novel is also a fairly open satire of many of the central figures of the Harlem Renaissance, including Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois. Schuyler's prose style is fairly pulpy, but it works well for the satire, and although this review doesn't necessarily reveal it, its a pretty funny, if occasionally disturbing, novel.