Race And Class In Percival Everett's Erasure

Race and class are often combined; which can result in the questioning of someone’s authenticity when they do not act like the stereotype of a particular class. In Percival Everett’s Erasure, the story depicts an African American novelist who is unrecognized for his literary work due to his lack of ability to carry himself in the mannerisms associated with being an African American man. This confined point of view of how a group should convey themselves, places the African American into a crowd where he or she is suppressed and cannot move forward in society. The view of being less authentic to one’s own race also raises questions within oneself of whether they are true to themselves. Often causing them to put on a show for others. Ultimately, …show more content…
Rachel Farebrother of Swansea University explains how “Erasure refuses to conform to the demand of a racially bifurcated publishing industry that trades in constructing notions of authenticity” (Farebrother118). The book demonstrates how although a person could be of a particular race, it is not necessary to place them in a particular class. The association of race and class can create mindset that someone is less authentic to their race when they are not behaving in the perceived way. Instead, they are just behaving in the manner of the personality they were born with. In the begin of the book Monk explains

I have dark brown skin, curly hair, a broad nose, some of my ancestors were slaves and I have been detained by a pasty white policemen In New Hampshire, Arizona, and Georgia and so the society in which I live tells me I am black; that’s my race. Through I am fairly authentic, I am no good at basketball. I listen to Mahler, Aretha Franklin, Charlie Parker and Ry Cooder on vinyl records and compact discs. I graduated summa cum laude from Harvard, hating every minute of it. I am good at math. I cannot dance. I did not grow up in any inner city or rural south. (Everett …show more content…
When Monk was offered three million dollars for his book to be a movie production .He goes to dinner to discuss the movie right. When the producer has a conversation with Stagg he tells him “”you know I would have paid for the dam novel even if you refused to meet with me” (Everett 217). The society enjoys these types of stories about black life they depict. When these stories are used they often reinforced the stereotype of being true or real to the race. These stories are a way for people outside of the race to get some type of insight into what it means to be black and the struggle black people go through on a daily basis. My Pafology is about an African American boy who commits crimes, is uneducated, angry, and poor. This is a portrayed view of how a stereotypical African American acts. This puts race and class in the same category because the story line is about a black boy living in a lower class. These stories make people believe that every African American would be aware of the struggle of the lower class people because there race is associated with the class. This is proven to be false because Monk comes from a family of doctors. “I grew up an Ellison. I had Ellison looks. I had an Ellison way of speaking, showed Ellison promise, would have Ellison success (Everett 151). Everett is trying to prove the point that it is not fair to hinder an author to only writing about a stereotypical life because he or she may not