Racism as a Spokeperson

Paul Beatty uses racism as a way to speak about race relations in his novel, The Sellout. Racism appears in different ways and takes different forms throughout the course of the novel. Ultimately, all point to Beatty’s contention, expressed through his narrator and through the closing statement of Hampton Fiske. Beatty's contention is that dialogue about race relations and racism must be had.

The narrator himself believes that racism is nowhere near as prevalent as it used to be, despite the beliefs of his father and people like Foy Cheshire. Attempts to solicit a racist response from white gas station attendants by the narrator’s father fail, for example, only for the narrator himself to be denied use of the gas station bathroom unless he purchases a bottle of Coke at the “black price.” While local black and minority students are welcoming...