This is a short, satirical story that imagines a black man ‘appropriating’ the white culture of the American South, playing ‘Dixie’ with full-throated passion and driving a pickup truck adorned with the Confederate flag – or, as he calls it, “the black power flag,” drawing the attention and confusion of his white compatriots:
‘What are you doing with that on your truck, boy?’ the bigger of the two asked.
‘Flying it proudly,’ Daniel said, noticing the rebel front plate on the Chevrolet. ‘Just like you, brothers.’
It’s a very funny story, propelled forward by its commitment to the bit – which it takes to a maximalist conclusion – but the humour is underpinned by a cool hardness and a realist style the keeps the story grounded in the social reality it satirises.
First published in Callaloo in 1996 and collected in Damned If I Do, Graywolf Press 2004, reissued by Influx in 2021. Available to read here
A Personal Anthology 