Black Buck

By ending the novel with Darren in prison, Askaripour asks the reader to rethink the relationship between sales and success that Darren has promoted throughout the book. Though he claims to be free, he is, quite literally, “in a cage” (380). The context of his imprisonment—entrapment at the behest of a white man with law enforcement connections—is part of a long history of capturing and imprisoning Black men. From the Fugitive Slave Act during the days of chattel slavery to the anti-drug legislation passed in the 1970s, imprisonment of Black men—for the profit of white men—has been enshrined in law and actively enforced. As Darren puts it, he’s been incarcerated because Clyde’s family knows the judge who tried him, and because he’s “a young Black male who successfully bucked the system that was created to keep [white people like Clyde] in power and minorities like me subservient” (379). Darren claims that, nonetheless, he is “happy,” and that readers should still learn from him and his book and “understand the tactics that worked and the choices […] that didn’t” so that they can “fix the game” (380).

Askaripour ends the novel with a contrast between Darren’s message of empowerment though sales techniques and the circumstances of his incarceration. Though Darren states that he can teach readers how to “fix the game,” this assertion directly follows counterexamples of the ways that the game is already fixed: Clyde’s personal connection to law enforcement and a social structure dominated by white hegemony. This contrast poses the question of whether we should really do as Darren has prompted and learn the sales techniques he has proposed—or whether this is purely satirical novel, illustrating the futility of Darren’s actions. The novel seems to be walking a fine line between these two options: Under white supremacy, the challenges posed to Black men, and to other people of color, persist, but there is some hope for BIPOC individuals to build a network of empowerment. The letters Darren receives from “new Happy Campers and other admirers from around the world” (379), and his publicity on talk shows, support his optimism about the possibility of change.