White Canadian writer self-publishes book on race after traveling US in ‘Afro wig and Mocha shade foundation’
The IndependentThe latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A white Canadian writer who travelled the US in blackface and published what he has described as “the most important book on American race relations that has ever been written” has been met with swift backlash. A blurb for the book on Amazon called it “the most important book on American race relations that has ever been written.” In a copy of the book sent to The Independent, the author describes donning a blackface disguise in September 2023 that included a “synthetic Afro wig, colored contact lenses” and copious amounts of Maybelline foundation in the “Mocha” shade. “Option B:.” The book features interviews with Black leaders, including a “sitting US congressman” and the “mayor of a major American city,” though their names are redacted in the work, and Mr Forster says he didn’t tell them about the blackface aspect of the project. “If people are looking for a minstrel show, they should look somewhere else.” He added that people on social media seeking to see the image showed the “crude and corrupting impulses of the masses” and suggests “more about the masses than it says about me.” The “seven shoulders” of the book’s title refers to highway shoulders where the Canadian journalist hitchhiked both with and without his disguise.
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