The Sellout

About a week after putting up the fake road sign, Me heads to the meeting of the Dum Dum Donut Intellectuals to tell them about his plan to bring back Dickens. Since F. K. died, the think tank has centered on Foy Cheshire. Academics and middle-class Black out-of-towners come bimonthly to listen to him speak and try to impress him with their opinions on Black issues. Me has been attending the meetings, and there was talk about making him the leader, but he never speaks at them. Sometimes, Me brings Hominy, who calls out the members for speaking one way at the meetings and another way in their appearances on public television. Me thinks Foy used some of the millions he receives in royalties to buy the most racist Our Gang shorts. Hominy wants them—they represent his best work.

For this meeting, Foy boasts about how he edited Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). He replaced the n-word with “warrior” and “slave” with “dark-skinned volunteer.” He also changed Jim’s diction and the plot. The new title is The Pejorative-Free Adventures and Intellectual and Spiritual Journeys of African-American Jim and His Young Protégé, White Brother Huckleberry Finn, as They Go in Search of the Lost Black Family Unit.