By Jovonne Ledet
A white writer is facing backlash for disguising himself as a Black man for research for his new book.
On Tuesday (May 28), Sam Forster took to X, formerly Twitter, to announce the release of his book “Seven Shoulders: Taxonomizing Racism in Modern America.” Forster noted that he disguised himself as a Black man to gain a first-hand account of racism in America.
“Last summer, I disguised myself as a Black man and traveled throughout the United States to document how racism persists in American society,” Forster tweeted alongside a photo of the book cover. “Writing Seven Shoulders was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done as a journalist. It’s out on May 30th.”
Social media users blasted the white author for his research methods.
“U had to do blackface to understand the issues black ppl face….?” one X user questioned.
“Oh gtfoh….did it ever occur go you to maybe..idk TALK TO BLACK PPL?” another user chimed in.
One person pointed out that it would be impossible for the writer to fully understand the systematic nature of racism in America by simply “cosplaying” as a Black person.
“There’s no way that you believe that you could experience the full spectrum of racism without also having been condition by the systemic nature of it. It’s not just that we LIVE IT, we are conditioned to live in it, with it, accept it, etc. Your conclusion has to be that simply cosplaying as a Negro is insufficient to grasp the depths of US American racism as used against Black Americans,” the X user wrote.
See more reactions to Foster’s research below.
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