In many ways, Paul Beatty’s The Sellout is an
unconventional novel, particularly where African-American novels are
considered. One element which distinguishes The Sellout is its setting;
the racial tensions within the city of Los Angeles are a rarely-tackled topic
in media. Being set in Los Angeles, the novel is granted the authority to comment
on societal issues in a pragmatic manner, despite not necessarily doing this
through realistic means.
Due to its geographical position,
Los Angeles receives high rates of immigrants from Mexico and Asia. As a
result, diversity in Los Angeles is definitively higher than that in the south
and arguably higher that in progressive northern cities, such as New York.
Entitling an entire section of the book “Too Many Mexicans,” Beatty is
commenting on the distaste which minority groups have for one another, as well
as how this sentiment is internalized. Charisma, the vice principal of a
school, claims that there are “too many Mexicans,” despite being Mexican
herself (153). The prejudice being expressed on her behalf can be attributed
her class status, seeing as she is an educated individual with a middle-class
job. Although the opinion held by Laura Jane, that class outweighs race in
terms of determinants of lifestyle, is incorrect, the effects that race and
class have on one another are worth considering (108).
Despite
being regarded as a liberal city, racial issues persist in Los Angeles.
Throughout the course of The Sellout, instances of racism against the
narrator and his community are frequently identified, ranging from police
brutality to attempted gentrification of the neighborhood. Beatty ridicules the
idea that Los Angeles is a city free of racism through the narrator’s
recollection of his trip to the south. Beginning the story with “I’ve
experienced direct discrimination based on race only once in my life,” despite
this particular recollection being preceded by instances such as Dickens’
rejection by potential sister cities for being “too black” makes it clear that
the opening statement is insincere in nature (174, 147). The artificial
contrast which Beatty draws between the south and LA, one being a terrible
place and the other a safe haven from the perils of racism, highlights the
flaws of Los Angeles, and in turn highlights the flaws of contemporary
liberalism as well.
The notion that race outweighs class in terms of wealth is, by nature, controversial and difficult to prove. Do black people live in predominantly poorer areas because of deep-rooted economic inequality, or is it because poorer people tend to be black and remain black due to economic status being sticky? Beatty shows that it does not matter: the fact that black people live in places like Dickens in the first place is due to social injustices that have been around for hundreds of years, which are now disguised as modern-day stereotypes. The narrator is a poor farmer who grows weed and watermelon, and he never makes it out of his father’s economic class (64). In this way, Beatty acknowledges the danger of stereotypes because they perpetuate themselves across generations. Although the narrator seemingly rejects many of the other black stereotypes by saying, “[t]his may be hard to believe, coming from a black man, but I’ve never stolen anything” (3), this is an individual rejection, as he dismisses himself from the stereotype but confirms the reader’s initial belief that, yes, black people do steal. White people also believe black stereotypes, which further perpetuates black disparity. When the city of Dickens was removed from the map, the narrator claimed those living in Dickens were relieved by writing, “[i]t saved them the embarrassment of having to answer the small talk ‘Where are you from?’ question with ‘Dickens’, then watching the person walk apologetically back away from you. ‘Sorry about that. Don’t kill me!’” (58). Because Dickens is poor and black, the white middle-class avoids it and the plight of those in Dickens remains ignored. In this way, Beatty alludes to how black disparity continues in real life. The narrator writes, “[l]ike the entire town of Dickens, I was my father’s child, a product of my environment, and nothing more” (40). The people living in Dickens are subjects of the stereotypes enforced on them and the stereotypes that others believe.
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