How to Sell Out: The (Hidden) Cost of Being a Black Writer

In this candid memoir-in-essays, Yearbook podcaster Sanders (Black Magic) reflects on his ambivalence over staking out a career writing about racism. After quitting his tech job to try making it in Hollywood, he felt compelled by “market pressure to lean into pain” after noticing that most shows with Black protagonists centered on violent gangsters, and he recalls unsuccessfully pitching dozens of projects that never got picked up because they defied such stereotypes. Sanders offers a rueful account of how, hungry for success, he greeted the racial reckoning that followed George Floyd’s murder as a financial opportunity, rejoicing at his newfound platform after publishing a viral opinion piece in the New York Times asserting that he wanted his white friends’ money, not their condolences. Speaking engagements at Google and Target followed, as well as more op-eds, a book deal, and countless podcast appearances, but Sanders found that serving as the “voice of Blackness” reduced him to the traumas he had endured, leading him to vow that “this will be my last time writing about race.... Unless I need the money again.” Sanders pulls no punches in his self-criticism, offering a scathing assessment of how he “leveraged victimhood for money [and] clicks.” Readers will have a hard time putting this down. Agent: Eve Atterman, WME. (Feb.)