The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s was an explosion of African American expression across a wide spectrum of arts. Unfortunately, that blossoming didn’t last because it had to exist largely outside the dominant white culture and many of the venues for that expression either dried up or were on their way out by the time the stock market crashed in 1929. A personal favorite Zora Neale Hurston died virtually penniless when she should have been afforded the opportunity to write up to her last breath. There is a similar explosion going on today but this time the African American experience is saturating the culture at large and creating its own space—gaining more control over its content, distribution and profits. Within this new wave is the concept of Afrofuturism. The largely science fiction form re-imagining of the African American Past, Present & especially Future is quite a departure for a culture traditionally trapped into seeing the world one day at a time. If you are constantly being told your present has no value, then you don’t spend much time imagining your future. The term Afrofuturism was coined in 1993 and is generally considered to have germinated in the 1950’s but I’d like to make the case that its seed was planted with the Harlem Renaissance novel, BLACK NO MORE by George S. Schuyler. Noted essayist and scholar Schuyler presents a world where African Americans are given the option to be turned white and thus, be black no more. For the purposes of the novel, virtually every African American takes advantage of this offer and most of the novel is America trying to adjust to the new landscape during a presidential election year. Schuyler uses this gimmick to take shots at both sides of the racial divide. One point driven home particularly well and quite reminiscent of today is the cultivation of racism as a means to congregate votes. The often thin lines between the Klan and the Church, the Church and politicians, the politicians and the businessmen and businessmen and the Klan are explored throughout. Owing to Schuyler’s background, much of the BLACK NO MORE could be mistaken for an extended non-fiction article more than a novel. This is a mixture of strength and weakness—lending more credibility to the goings on but less attachment as a reader to the participants. This novel is thin in spots because it often rushes where it might linger a little longer in order to get to the next satire. It also glosses over any second thoughts about a community abandoning its entire history to make a satiric point but it does achieve a kind of brilliance in the end—the white culture is so twisted in knots over racial identity that eventually to be too white is to be considered suspect. Many shades of satire are shared here, much of it quite funny, including the darkest possible to necessarily remind the reader of the worst places racism can lead. I happened upon this by chance having never heard of it or the author before. Would be a shame if it could not be lifted up by the current rising tides of expression.