Angry Black White Boy Essay

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Shikah Alebrahim
Prof: Jackie hymes
ANGRY BLACK WHITE BOY
The ANGRY BLACK WHITE BOY is an interesting novel presented by Adam
Mansbach. The novel has a subtitle The Miscegenation of Macon Detornay. The word
miscegenation means interbreeding of people of various racial categories. This misgenation
has occurred in Macon Detornay, the central character of the novel of Adam Mansbach
named Angry Black White Boy. The word miscegenation meant marriage across races in the
19th century.
In this novel, a white man named Macon Detornay have tried to fight for Black American
rights. He is a white boy from suburbs who has an anger for white Americans. He points out
the evil of white skinned peoples culture. He behaved, spoke, dressed and shared opinions
for the black Americans. He talked about the black culture. He attacked the white Americans.
He seemed to behave like a black man who has been trapped in a white skin. His motivated
changed after four days. He showed himself to belong to a different breed.
The marriage across races is generally known as miscegenation. This is a very touchy
subject. We can talk about miscegenation of culture and this is constantly going on. In the
book, Angry Black White Boy, the author has portrayed Macon as a strong personality
fighting for the black people.
In the novel Angry Black White Boy, the language of the Black Americans has been
adopted. The type of words used in the speech has been used here to give us a realistic
picture. The stereotypes are used to express identities of the black American. The
commentary has been used effectively through the speech of characters like Macon Detornay,

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Myers Clark, Keith Pinto and Tommy Shepherd. Macon is born with a Jewish origin family
in America. He is brought up in Boston. There is significant racial discrimination in America.
The speech of the characters shows exaggeration in order to create a dramatic effect. The
speech of Macon is rough and abusive showing the hatred of American culture. He used
tattoos in his body. The author wants to create awareness among the black Americans about
their culture. It shows how a Jewish kid has shown miscegenation in behaviour. He has
adopted the behaviour of his white Americans who misbehaved with the black people in
America. This is a mark of protest in order to support the black Americans and help them
gain prestige and power in America.
In this novel, Macon talks about himself when he was 13 years old wearing Malcolm X tshirt. He knows about the hip hop conference in Boston. There are theories of assassination
of government. He studied the life of Malcolm.
Mansbach, the author of this novel was quite influenced by cultural production of the
black people like Invisible Man, Native Son, Another Country, Flight to Canada. He also
went through the work of Gil Scott Heron.
The novel shows us how the rights of the Afro-Americans are deprived. Macon Detornay
is a character which creates sufficient interest among the viewers. He belong to Jewish
community and born and brought up in America. He had a grudge against the white
Americans. He wanted to wipe out racism from America in his own style. Macon wanted to
study at Columbia University for studying. He came in touch with Walker, a friend of his
grandfather. The grandson of Walker got admitted in Columbia University. He met Andre
who is the grandson of Walker. Andre and Macon became good friends. Andre introduced
Nique who is a drug dealer. So Andre, Macon and Nique were good friends. He gained

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confidence of them when Nique showed his tattooed biceps. The tattoo showed the king of
verdict. He gained faith among his friends circle.
Macon could not afford to pay his expenses. So he was searching for a part time job. He
took the job of a cab driver. He used this profession to search black Americans. He chalked
out a plan. He started to rob the White Americans. He stole their wallets, ornaments as well as
passport. Then he started a new project named Race Traitor Project. He gained a pseudo
fame in this way.
Macon went out in his first expedition. He caught the police van under fire. But this did
not create any furore even though the van turned into ashes.
Gradually he became a celebrity for his misdeeds in New York. His name was published in
various tabloids. He invited the white Americans in their neighbourhood at New York. He
observed a Day of Apology.and the whites were asked to say sorry to the black Americans
or Afro-Americans. They were asked to say sorry because they misbehaved with the Black
Americans. The white Americans deprived the black Americans of their status in society and
fundamental rights.
At this time, a professor played by Boyd Random in the film, Umamu Shamed Alma gave
lectures on black Americans. He talked about his identity as cademic Gangsta. He talked
about rappers. He said that they provide hip hop designers. Macon did not like any form of
brutality. He was sceptical about the motive of John Brown at Harpers Ferry. For this
reason, he became a down to earth person.
In the beginning of the novel, Macon Detornay is a white man living in the suburbs. He
fought against the black culture. He went to New York City. The incidents in the beginning of
the story showed Macon robbing white passengers as a cab driver. His notorious activities

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made him a celebrity and his name came in the headlines of newspapers. He protested
strongly against the oppression of the white people against the black.
Angry Black White Boy is a novel written in a smart way. The author thinks that race is
created in a culture. According to Percival Everrett, author of Erasure, Angry Black White
Boy is an insanely smart novel that pulls no punches. Adam Mansbach understands that race
is a cultural construct and that authenticity is, sadly, a commodity. His vision is wild, comic
and dark. This is a really funny book.
Angry Black White Boy is a novel that infuriates, hilarious and has tragedy too. The
white boy named Macon is fascinated by the hip hop culture. He was talking about the hip
hop culture in way as stated by the author :A Hip hop motherfucker carries hip hop with him
everywhere he went, and knows when to hold it on his shoulder or hide in his heart.
In the novel Angry Black White Boy, we see how Macon suffers from a crisis of identity.
He seems to be the only person who is irritated by the oppression of the white Americans. He
robbed the Americans as a cabdriver and this was the only way he can show them how the
white Americans ill treated their black counterparts. There was fear in the minds of black
Americans against the white people. The book discussed about the hip hop culture and talks
about the attitude of the country. This book has discussed the relationship among black and
white Americans in detail.
Angry Black White Boy has 352 pages was published in 2005. This book shows the
lifestyle of Macon Everett Detornay. From the book chapter 1, It was a little past rush hour
now, and Macon flipped on his radio and relaxed as the venerable voice of Kool DJ Red Alert
introduced an old school set on Hot 97 FM, the station whose tagline, Where hip hop
lives,had inspired more than one underground MC to declare himself dead. From this book
extract, we get a clear idea of the hip hop culture adopted by Macon.

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Adam Mansbach described the New York city in the book through his novel. From
Chapter 1, we observe how Macon views the city as a cabdriver: Macon switched lanes
without signalling, loving the order and chaos of Manhattan driving, and made an arbitrary
right turn. Hed learned his way around already, before hed even posed for his drivers ID; it
had taken him all of a week.
Macon had used abusive language against the white Americans. He spoke in this way,
Because youre an ignorant devil asshole, and you and everybody like you deserves to be
robbed every day of your life, he said. In this way, he criticized the Americans and showed
them how they misbehaved with the White Americans. So this book highlights racism
prominently and criticism has been shown through the speech of characters like Macon.
Angry Black White Boy is a novel written by Adam Mansbach who portrays politics of
race. It described the hip hop culture and how Macon adopted the black culture to protest
against the White Americans. It has been used as a drama and quite entertaining. The hybrid
of culture has been made in a theatrical way.
Macon had a collection of gangstas, riders of bandwagon, liberals who were guilty. He
wanted them to join Day of Apology. This is for the white people. This oppression has been
going on for 400 years. The book is really stunning as Mansbach worked as a professor of
literature at Rutgers University-Camden. San Francisco Chronicle awarded him Best Book of
2005. He wrote about hip hop culture in the book Angry Black White Boy as he was the
editor of a hip hop journal named Elementary.
There is a rhythm in the words at Angry Black White Boy. The vocabulary of hip hop
culture has been adopted wisely throughout the novel. This reflects the culture of Americans.
The racial reconciliation is the main issue of this novel. We can get a good idea of the racial

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discrimination. But we think that in post racial America, the way Macon Detornay chased his
goal, it is unlikely he will get any supporters.
been challenged by Twain and Fitzgerald. He criticizes outspokenly to the white
community. Adam Mansbach has worked as a race lecturer, novelist and journalist. He has
written on jazz and hip hop culture. He created awareness to make the whiteness visible. He
marked the whiteness is like an identity and a culture. Mansbach wrote this novel before the
invention of novel related to race, the emergency of movement for civil rights as well as the
advent of theories of race. The novel portrays the social nihilism of a young male having
white skin. He adopted the radicalism of the black Americans. Macon identified himself with
the hip-hop culture very well. The identity of Macon has become intertwined with the hiphop culture rather than his original Jewish culture.

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Works Cited
Macon, D (2008) Retrieved from: http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.in/2008/05/saturdaybook-rec-angry-black-white-boy.html
Mansbach, A., Angry Black White Boy, Retrieved from:
http://www.powells.com/book/angry-black-white-boy-9781400054879
Mansbach, A., Angry Black White Boy, Quoted from the excerpt of the book, Retrieved from:
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/107331/angry-black-white-boy-by-adammansbach/, Chapter 1.
Purdue University, (2007), The Crisis of White Imagination: Towards The Literal Abolition of
Whiteness, ProQuest

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