Black No More (Penguin Classics)

The landmark comic satire that asks, “What would happen if all black people in America turned white?”—featuring an introduction by Danzy Senna for the latest edition.

It’s New Year’s Day 1933 in New York City, and Max Disher, a young black man, has just found out that a certain Dr. Junius Crookman has discovered a mysterious process that allows people to bleach their skin white—a new way to “solve the American race problem.” Max leaps at the opportunity, and after a brief stay at the Crookman Sanitarium, he becomes Matthew Fisher, a white man who is able to attain everything he has ever wanted: money, power, good liquor, and the white woman who rejected him when he was black. Lampooning myths of white supremacy and racial purity and caricaturing prominent African American leaders like W. E. B. Du Bois, Madam C. J. Walker, and Marcus Garvey, this novel is a masterwork of speculative fiction and a hilarious satire of America’s obsession with race.

“No one is safe from Schuyler’s biting mockery. . . Each page unleashes a fusillade of gags and comic sequences, careening from slapstick to blood bath and back again. . . [Black No More is] unsparing on the madness of racial classification but frank, and very beautiful, on the lure of racial belonging.” The New York Times
“A clever and biting satire.” The New York Times Book Review
“This book is fascinating.” The New York Times Book Review (podcast)
“Extraordinary. . . A satiric tour de force that rips into myths of white supremacy, black nationalism and the American Dream.” NPR’s Fresh Air