Black Buck

Part 1, “Prospecting,” establishes Darren’s backstory, introduces the important characters in his life, and highlights the moment when his life changes and he gets the opportunity to interview at Sumwun. Askaripour presents Darren’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood as a place that its residents are loyal to yet also aspire to leave—and may be forced to leave, given the encroaching gentrification that manifests in the hipster bars and condos being constructed after long-time residents sell and move. Askaripour sets up a sharp contrast between the forms of selling, investing, and work that occur in Bed-Stuy and those that take place at 3 Park Avenue, the office building that houses Darren’s Starbucks location and Sumwun. Darren’s mom, who, by neighborhood estimation, has a “good job” at the Clorox factory and is a dedicated worker, develops fatal cancer in the course of her work that is hinted at by her coughing in these early chapters. Mr. Aziz works hard to maintain the bodega. Wally Cat has never left the neighborhood, and he still uses coupons, but he also has accumulated several million dollars by betting on horse races and by investing in companies after getting information about them from the janitors who work there. Though his work selling drugs may not be legal, Jason is also a salesman, driven to hit his sales counts and motivated by the pursuit of a better life for himself and his mother.

The glossy world of 3 Park Avenue, however, is far different. The Starbucks customers who work in the building—Darren deems them “clip-clops” after the sound their shoes—don’t have any real relationship with the workers who serve them coffee, as Darren realizes when he goes to Sumwun and no one recognizes him, despite the fact that they see him every day. Though Darren may be the boss at Starbucks, in terms of the larger ecosystem of the office building, he is a faceless server. This contrast between the world of Bed-Stuy, where people know, recognize, and have time-tested interpersonal relationships with one another, and 3 Park Avenue, where selling is remote from the location in which it occurs, illustrates key differences in the kind of businesses, and the form of sales, that take place in these respective locations. The businesses in Bed-Stuy are firmly embedded in the community and provide employment for the residents of that community; Sumwun, by contrast, is a virtual business whose contractors, corporate clients, and individual customers reside and operate in far-flung locations across the globe. The contrast between selling virtual tech services at the scale of global capitalism and operating local, face-to-face businesses is a dynamic that the novel will continue to explore.  

The idea of “opportunity” first comes up as a key theme in the novel early on in this section. Soraya and Ma both critique Darren’s claim that he’s “waitin’ for the right opportunity” before leaving Starbucks (16). Soraya, in particular, sees his reluctance as fear of change. His friends and family are united in their belief that Darren should seize this opportunity because he “owe[s] it to [him]self” to learn more about Sumwun (21). These statements reflect a tacit belief in the doctrine of self-improvement and progress: Individuals should always be working on themselves and looking to get ahead relative to their starting point. Darren questions this logic, thinking, “But I don’t want to play their game” (21). From the Author’s Note, we already know that he will alter his position on these topics: His stated goals become helping Black people and other people of color get ahead by “fix[ing] the game” (x). Part 1 sets up Darren’s initial reluctance in order to show how his thinking alters during the events that follow. Darren’s reluctance to get involved with Sumwun in Part 1 prompts the reader to think critically about what is at stake when playing “the game.” As the plot unfolds, and Darren’s life changes radically, his initial concerns seem justified, even as he moves past them.