American Fiction

In American Fiction, an embittered black author, who is sick of having his highbrow material rejected by publishers and neglected by readers, writes a lurid pastiche of urban black life called My Pafology. He submits the new manuscript under a pseudonym. His object is to needle the industry with its own bad taste. And so, following the logic of The Producers, it sells.

This much is made clear in the trailer, which features a pull quote calling the film a “cinematic stick of dynamite.” The advertising emphasizes jokes at the expense of gullible white people whose self-righteous endorsement of representation masks deeply ingrained feelings of racial prejudice.

In a way, the trailer is as lurid as My Pafology, and more perceptive than the satirical elements in American Fiction. White liberals in 2024 are quick to reject negative stereotypes about people of color—but they are extremely credulous when it comes to negative stereotypes about themselves. White self-mortification is used as bait. But the switch is worth the swindle.