Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal

An incisive and unflinching study from the national bestselling author of Say it Loud! that tackles a stigma of America's racial discourse: selling out.

"Brisk and enjoyable, no small feat given the density of its ideas."--Los Angeles Times

Randall Kennedy explains the origins of the concept of selling out, and shows how fear of this label has haunted prominent members of the black community--including, most recently, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and Barack Obama. Sellout also contains a rigorously fair case study of America's quintessential racial "sellout"--Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. In the book's final section, Kennedy recounts how he himself has dealt with accusations of being a sellout.