b bennett reviewed Black no more by George Samuel Schuyler
Review of 'Black no more' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
The premise alone made me pick up this book in half a second. What if there was a machine that could permanently turn a black person white? When I later learned that this was the first piece of black speculative fiction, I knew I had found something really worth reading. Schuyler truly understood that race was a social construct long before it became a "meme" to say such a thing. From Schulyer's perspective, there was no such thing as race. Race as we know it was made up by white people (and especially poor whites) to elevate themselves in society. In Black No More, the entire black population (minus a handful of "race patriots") opts to go through the conversion process, but Schuyler gives no real reason as to why, which I think is very indicative of how jaded he was. The punch line at the end, that there is …
The premise alone made me pick up this book in half a second. What if there was a machine that could permanently turn a black person white? When I later learned that this was the first piece of black speculative fiction, I knew I had found something really worth reading. Schuyler truly understood that race was a social construct long before it became a "meme" to say such a thing. From Schulyer's perspective, there was no such thing as race. Race as we know it was made up by white people (and especially poor whites) to elevate themselves in society. In Black No More, the entire black population (minus a handful of "race patriots") opts to go through the conversion process, but Schuyler gives no real reason as to why, which I think is very indicative of how jaded he was. The punch line at the end, that there is no such thing as a white person, is just as relevant today as it was in Schuyler's time.
