We talked briefly in class about how Mansbach references many key works of African American literature and I want to analyze one reference to Native Son by Richard Wright in a bit more detail. This post might be more interesting if you were in the African American Lit class or have read Native Son on your own, but I’ll give brief summaries so hopefully the post is understandable even if you haven’t (although there might be spoilers if you think you will read the books). In the prologue, Macon brags about his news coverage and says “I was hoping someone would call me the white Bigger Thomas, but nobody had the nutsack even though it’s an obvious comparison, what with Bigger being a chauffeur and me being a cabbie. I talked a lot more shit than Bigger ever did, though. And I did what I did on purpose. And I got away.” Bigger Thomas is the main character in Native Son by Richard Wright. In the novel Bigger (a black man) accidentally kills a white woman, tries to run away, and is the