Black No More

After Dr. Junius Crookman invents the "Black-No-More" process to make black people look white through a process of "electrical nutrition and glandular control," the United States of America is swept into social upheaval. Black Americans flock to Dr. Crookman's hospitals, wishing to escape the confines of racial stigma and segregation, while white supremacist organizations scheme to uphold the existing socioeconomic order. One of the first patients to receive Dr. Crookman's treatment is Max Disher, a black insurance agent who pines after a haughty white woman from Atlanta who rejects his request for a dance on account of his race. A picaresque novel, Black No More follows the misadventures of Max Disher and the ways in which he takes advantage of his new appearance in an unstable political climate. A biting satire of both white supremacist and black civil rights organizations, it has been identified as one of the first works of Afrofuturism, an aesthetic movement which explores the cultures of the African diaspora in relation to advances in science and technology. George Schuyler (died 1977) was a significant literary figure of the 20th century. Their work has endured across generations and continues to be read and studied worldwide. Satirical literature serves a vital social function, holding up a mirror to the follies and hypocrisies of its age. Black No More deploys wit, irony, and exaggeration to expose the contradictions and absurdities of the society it depicts.