During an early scene in acclaimed new film American Fiction, the protagonist Monk – played by Jeffrey Wright – wanders into a reading at a literary event by fellow author Sintara Golden (Issa Rae) of her new best seller We’s Lives in Da Ghetto.
Monk, who has just left his own sparsely attended panel, watches as a packed, mostly-white audience sit enraptured by Sintara’s words. “Yo Sharonda!,” Sintara begins, switching abruptly into a comically 'hood' drawl. “Girl, you be pregnant again?!” The camera slowly zooms into Monk’s face – his eyebrows crinkle, the sides of his mouth turn down. His disdain is silent, but evident.
