You can use your CLAMS card to borrow titles from these partner libraries:
1 of 1 copy available
In the summer of 2020, when the nation was erupting in protest over the murder of George Floyd, Chad Sanders was quietly celebrating for selfish reasons. Why? After years of struggling to get his footing as a writer, he'd finally landed a New York Times op-ed. He wrote an essay about the hollow messages of concern he'd been receiving from white friends and colleagues. It went viral, and in the years that followed, he built a solid career as a creator—of books, podcasts, TV shows, and films—by mining his most painful experiences of being Black in America.
Black pain for white money. For Sanders, this was a lucrative trade. One he thought he could work for the rest of his life. But it didn't take long for him to realize he, like so many other writers, was getting the short end of the stick.
In How to Sell Out, Sanders draws on his personal experiences to offer a wry, darkly comic look at the invisible realities of making a living as a Black writer who writes about race. He relays stories of his time in the tech business, his experiences in TV writers' rooms, his childhood participation in Jack and Jill, his family and relationships, and the struggles of sharing his racial trauma in exchange for cash. Combining meditations on historical and current events and the intersection of race and class with short creative essays, Sanders sculpts a freewheeling arc that is as funny as it is moving and thought-provoking.
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Release date
February 4, 2025 -
Formats
-
Kindle Book
-
OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781982190873
-
EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781982190873
- File size: 2700 KB
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
September 1, 2024
TV writer, podcaster, and author Sanders (Black Magic: What Black Leaders Learned from Trauma and Triumph) writes about Black authorship and the commercialization and profit made off of Black experiences and pain, reflecting in thought-provoking ways on trauma, race, class, and creativity. Prepub Alert.
Copyright 2024 Library Journal
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
-
December 15, 2024
A young Black writer offers a fascinating perspective about race, money, and freedom in America. If nothing else, this collection of experiential and observational essays about being a Black writer in America demonstrates that for podcaster, television writer, and author Sanders (Black Magic: What Black Leaders Learned From Trauma and Triumph), the unexamined life is certainly not worth living. Sanders analyzes his success after the publication of an op-ed about race and friendship in theNew York Times following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer and his triumphs and trauma as a well-renumerated employee of a renowned tech firm, a Black writer in the entertainment industry whose mentors include Spike Lee, and the son of successful parents living in a tony suburb of Washington, D.C. It would be unwise to dismiss this book by adopting an attitude that many would love to have the comfortable lives of the rich and famous that Sanders portrays in these pages. But stick with it. The last few essays are the sharpest, especially the piece in which Sanders describes how he altered his attitude and approach as a result of the Writers Guild strike of 2023. The blunt ruminations about his experiences, his internal struggles, and the ironic hierarchies he discovered within Black America itself show Sanders at his best and most insightful. His is a voice that should be heeded by anyone who strives to live up to his father's injunction to never let anyone take your freedom. A frank and arresting read.COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
-
January 1, 2025
Sanders, the author of Black Magic: What Black Leaders Learned from Trauma and Triumph (2021), is done writing about race. What began as an experiment in radical honesty soon became a lucrative financial endeavor. But at what cost? After years of speaking engagements, media appearances, and conducting corporate training sessions, Sanders has chosen to move away from dissecting American race relations and this collection of essays marks that turning point. Sanders writes with raw vulnerability, assessing both the rewards and the exhaustion that came with being the spokesperson for the Black elite. His decision to step away from writing as a ""trauma response"" is as impactful as his observations on race and identity. The essays are engaging, heartfelt, and reveal his talent for nuanced, universal storytelling. Sanders' honesty, once seen as radical in the corporate world, now emerges as a path to personal freedom. This first venture into broader themes reveals him as a versatile writer with something significant to say, regardless of topic. How to Sell Out is a powerful and distinctive reflection on ambition, identity, and self-preservation.COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
-