White Writer Disguised Himself As a Black Man For Research, Gets Roasted On Social Media
A Canadian-American writer is getting flamed on social media for disguising himself as a Black man in researching American racism.
In announcing the release of his book, “Seven Shoulders: Taxonomizing Racism in Modern America,” on Tuesday (May 28), Sam Forster shared his process for gaining a first-hand account of the Black experience.
"Last summer, I disguised myself as a Black man and traveled throughout the United States to document how racism persists in American society," Forster wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
"Writing Seven Shoulders was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done as a journalist. It's out on May 30th,” his post continued.
As expected, many people chimed in and took Forster to task for his interesting research methods.
"Instead of buying this book from a white author who traveled the country in Black face, read and listen to actual Black people about our lived experience," wrote @JanelCubbage. "Profiting off of Black face and racism is nasty work."
“Seven Shoulders coming out in 2024 with Sam Forster having to dress up in Blsckface to prove racism exists is wild, when Black Like Me came out 63 YEARS ago and eventually lampooned in a skit “White Like Me” by Eddie Murphy in an all time great Saturday Night Live sketch,” @exavierpope wrote.
“Sam Forster doesn't know any Black ppl so he dressed up like what he thought a Black man looks like to see how racist the US is,” @ISASaxonists wrote.” This was his outfit.”
“If Sam Forster can do blackface to write a book, I am going to do whiteface to get a good credit score,” @ArmsteadVan added.
“Soul Man a** book,” wrote @MatthewACherry.
According to the description of the book, it follows "Six decades after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, award-winning journalist Sam Forster performs a daring transformation in order to taxonomize the various types of racism that persist in modern America. Seven Shoulders is the most important book on American race relations that has ever been written."
“Seven Shoulders: Taxonomizing Racism in Modern America,” will be available on Thursday, May 30.
