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Natalie Viscarra
Prof. Jacklyn Hymes
English 114B
24 March 2015
Angry Black White Boy Essay
African American Generalizations
A stereotype is a widely held judgmental statement or an oversimplified image of a type
of person or thing. Many stereotypical statements and ideas along about African American
people are brought to the surface in Angry Black White Boy by Adam Mansbach. Along with the
stereotypes performed in the book. Particularly in this book the stereotypes revolved mainly
around an African American males. The main character is a Jewish boy named Macon, who is
used as an example to show many of the themes portrayed in this book are mainly revolved
around the concepts of, racism, stereotypes, performance, and identity formation of an African
American person.
Macon is a Jewish young boy who attends Columbia University in New York, he drives a
taxi cab throughout New York City for a job and wants to be a rapper. Macons characteristics,
actions, and physical appearance had a lot to do with his performance. He wore a Malcom X
shirt, baggy pants and Timberland boots. His outfit was the typical clothing males would wear in
New York. Macon also smokes marijuana with a few of his friends Andre, Dominque and Logan.
Macon and Andre bonded over weed and music when they were first getting to know each other.
Macons roommate Andre is an African American male who is from Los Angeles, California.

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The author briefly describes Andre appearance, he wears a lot of LA based gear like, Raiders,
Lakers and Kings Sports gear. Macon has a tattoo that is a number on his bicep. For those of you
that do not know about the Jewish culture, having a number tattooed, is against Judaism. The
reason for that is because back in the concentration camps, Jews were given a number and were
called by their number instead of their name. If a Jewish person gets a tattoo of number and it is
not in remembrance of a family member of some sort, it is like a big No no for Jewish people
to have. The vulgar language he uses is not how a Jewish boy would talk like. He says words
like, Nigga, stupid white people, fuck, bitch-ass nigga, bastard, (Mansbach 136-137). Since
Macon raps or at least tries to rap, he incorporates much of his vulgar language in his versus.
Macon is a perfect example of a race traitor; a race traitor is someone who performs a different
race than what their actual race is. He dresses like a black guy that lives in New York and talks
like one too. Based off of his appearance it is clear Macon does not perform none of the typical
ways of a Jewish boy, but instead performs all the stereotypes of an African American male
instead.
The characteristics of Macon made him ignorant, shameless, morally wrong and
disrespectful. Robbing passengers in the taxi was something Macon did daily to prove a few
things. He wanted to prove that not only Black people rob, white people rob as well too. Look
at me. What color am I? Y-youre white, he stammered (Mansbach 112). As seen here, Macon
made a man that he robbed in the taxi cab look at him in the face and asked him multiple times
what his skin color was, to prove that he was white and robbing him. As he says, when Macon
did this it showed how he had no respect for white people, he was shameless of his actions and
had no morals. He did not care who the person was, where they came from, or where they were
headed to all he knew was that he hated every white person that rode in his taxi cab. Someone

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who has morals does not treat people because of their race how Macon treated his passengers. He
was very disrespectful to his passengers and did not have any shame about the language he used
with the people. Hurting and threatening an innocent person is showing no morals.
Based off the physical appearances Adam Mansbach listed in the story, Macon and Andre
portray several stereotypes about black people. Starting off with how black guys always rap,
smoke weed, and sell drugs is one of the several judgments made in the book. Since many times
black males who smoke also want to be rappers as well and the ironic part here, is how Macon
also is a rapper therefore automatically the author mentions how he also smokes marijuana. That
connection made between weed and rap music or Hip Hop in other words, is a stereotype that
people make when they think of a black person who is a rapper.
The description of both characters Macon and Andre are stereotypes that are made as
well. Since Macon is performing all the stereotypes of a black person, he uses the language that a
black person would use. Like the words White cracker, Fuck you, Nigga. Usually a person
who uses cuss words sounds not as educated and in this case the author wants to show that
stereotype about how black people are not as educated through Macons dialogue. From reading
the book as a whole, the words Adam Mansbach writes in the beginning of the book is extremely
different compared to the end of the book. Observing the text alone proves his stereotype of how
black people are not educated. Towards the end of the book Macon gives up and wants to forget
all about New York and being a rapper. So as he leaves New York, Macon slowly begins to not
perform the stereotypes of a black person anymore. It begins with the language he uses, reading
the text, he starts to sound a little more educated as he travels farther away from New York. So
by looking at the text in the end of the book proves the less Macon acts like a black person the
more educated he starts to sound with his dialogue. For instance, Macon at the beginning of the

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book refers every male as a Nigga whether they were black or not. Towards the end of the
book Macon refers Johnnie and Burl by their own names, showing how he actually had more
sense by not categorizing them all as Niggas. The significance of Macon and Andres
appearance with their clothing is to demonstrate that black people cannot afford name brand
clothing. Macon wears similar clothing everyday so that shows how he is playing the role of not
having money to buy different clothes. Andre only wears stuff to represent LA to show he is
always representing where he comes from. Similar to how a gangster wears a certain type of tshirt or color to represent where they are from. All in all, the purpose of Adam Mansbach making
Macon and Andre perform these stereotypes is to show how a person categorizes a group of the
same race instead of categorizing the individual by their personality. People form their own
opinions and views whether it is gender, race, class, or age, stereotypes play a role in
determining who or what goes where in society.

One important thing about Macons appearance is that he wears a Malcom X T-shirt.
Malcom X was an African American, religious and political leader; he was a huge icon and idle
for the black culture. According to the online article, around the 1950s Malcom X was a minister
that attracted to the Religious groups which categorized whites as devils, he began reading
extensively about world history and politics, particularly concerning African slavery and the
oppression of black people in America. The connection between Malcom X and Macon was
how they both strongly disliked white people. In Angry Black White Boy Macon also refers to
white people as evil, White people arent evil, evil is white people (Mansbach 18). Malcom X
was also a very angry and hostile person, he was sent to prison for theft of personal property. It is
ironic how Macon acted just like Malcom X; he hated white people, robbed people, and was an

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angry person just like Malcom X. There is a lot of similarity between Macon and Malcom X. It is
clear that Macon idolized him so much and it almost seemed like he wanted to be the next
Malcom X. He always had to make it known to other people by always wearing Malcom X Tshirt that he knew a lot about him. Every time a black person would ask Macon what he knew
about Malcom Xs life. He was respected after he proved to all the black people how much he
knew about Malcom X. As shown when some Bald-headed old schoolers pointed at his chest,
demanding, Whatchu know about that man? Which was exactly what hed wanted, whyd hed
worn it. He ran down Malcoms life for them, watched them revise their expressions with inward
elation, nodded seriously at their government assassination theories, rhymed when the chance
presented itself (Mansbach 17). Macon knew his facts which was why when he came in counter
with black people they accepted Macon, he was respected since he knew a lot about the African
American culture.
Given the fact that this book revolved around the culture of Hip Hop. Macon fitted the
stereotypes of a Hip Hop rapper. He was a MC and was into graffiti. Anthony Ratcliff explains
the five elements of Hip Hop which are, the MC, DJ, BR, GR and knowledge. Macon performed
three out of the five elements of Hip Hop. He was a MC, he was into GR which stands for
graffiti and he definitely had a lot of knowledge. Anthony Ratcliff describes graffiti as An art
used to represent Hip Hop out on the streets. Knowledge is important, all Hip Hop conveys some
type of knowledge whether it is good or bad. Anthony goes on to say, Hip Hop rappers come
with all sort stereotypes for example, all rappers wear baggy clothes, have tattoos, used crude
language, talk about drugs in their lyrics. All those stereotypes come with the Hip Hop culture
and as well as in this book. It is easy to correlate Angry Black White Boy with the Anthony
Ratcliffs discussion Hip Hop culture because both involve the racism and stereotypes that come

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with rappers. Hip Hop is usually blamed for violence and crime because that is what we see on
the rap music videos and hear about in rappers lyrics. Of course it is easy to blame Hip Hop for
these stereotypes but what people do not understand is Hip Hop is not to blame, all Hip Hop does
is it normalizes those things. Here we see the novel doing the same; blaming Hip Hop, for
Macons characteristics; the slang vocabulary, drug selling and criminal actions. Not only did
Macon perform the stereotypes of an African American but also he performed and relied on the
stereotypes of a Hip Hop rapper.
All in all, the novel revolved around the generalizations made about the Hip Hop culture
and African Americans. By doing this every person seems to make assumptions about a race or a
culture as it was shown through Angry Black White Boy. People that believe these stereotypes or
blame a culture for the generalizations, make themselves think that they can distinguish and
categorize a person by how they dress or by their skin color. The read showed this through the
characteristics of Macon and how he solely relied on the stereotypes of an African American
male Hip Hop rapper.

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Work Cited
American National Biography Online: Malcolm X." American National Biography Online:
Malcolm X. Oxford University Press, 2000. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.

Adam Mansbach. Angry Black White Boy. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1976. Print

Ratcliff, Anthony. "GE Social Justice Path Presentation." Cal State University of Northridge.

Whitsett Room, Northridge, CA. 12 March 2015.