Black Buck

Part 3 digs into the question of identity and who Darren really is after three months of working as an SDR at Sumwun. It also explores the question of loyalty to one’s roots. Ironically, Darren works for a company that connects people across the world with advisors who help them work through their problems, but he refuses to listen to the advice of people whom he has known and trusted for years. Darren, called Buck by his coworkers at Sumwun, increasingly identifies with his work self rather than the Darren that his family and friends have always known.

The crack in Jason and Darren’s friendship that began in Part 2 deepens into a complete, and violent, break: Jason betrays Darren on television, and Darren retaliates by beating him severely. Significantly, Darren restrains himself from punching Clyde in Part 2 when Clyde performs a racist impersonation of a Black client during roleplay; he is “tempted to splatter his brains against the dry-erase wall” but instead focuses on “keep[ing his] eyes on the prize and all of that other Rocky ‘Eye of the Tiger’ bullshit” (100). Immediately after swallowing his anger to further his career goals, he wonders, “Is this what Ma really wants? What was so wrong with who I was last week?” (101). Conformity with corporate culture comes at the price of his pride and identity, and, in Part 2, Darren questions whether that price is worth the reward. In Part 3, however, Darren evinces a very different attitude toward Sumwun and his past self. Though he swallows his anger when provoked by Clyde, he shows no such self-restraint when Jason’s comments anger him and goes out of his way to seek Jason out and beat him.

The contrast between Darren’s restraint in Part 2 and his violence in Part 3 reveals the change in his personality and values in his first three months as an SDR at Sumwun. When Clyde provokes him, he strategically suppresses his rage to get the job. By contrast, when Jason provokes him, he doesn’t hold back; Jason doesn’t hold any sway over Darren’s future the way that Clyde does, and though the beating itself is bad publicity, the fact that he seriously injured Jason does not, from a career perspective, really matter. Darren allows himself to express his feelings openly because he isn’t being incentivized to suppress them. Here, Askaripour develops the connection between anger and sales that he set up in previously. Midway through Part 2, after his first morning at Sumwun, Darren witnesses the SDRs angrily chant “EVERY DAY IS DEALS DAY” (67). This scene links sales to anger in a significant way; similarly, throughout Part 2, Clyde is perpetually enraged during sales trainings. Darren’s anger in Part 3 seems to be in some way related to engaging in the act of selling. Though the exact relationship between sales and anger remains opaque, it’s a notable connection to trace as the novel unfolds.  

Even more important than the beating itself, however, is the motivation behind it. Jason’s main statement when interviewed is that Darren is a different person now that he’s been working at Sumwun. He accuses Darren of “think[ing] he’s better than everyone around here” and being “on his Hollywood ever since he gotta job wit’ those white people in Manhattan” (164). Darren’s perceived change in personality and shift in loyalty from Bed-Stuy to Manhattan, which Jason first alluded to in Part 2, takes center stage in Part 3. Though Jason is most explicit in denouncing Darren’s new affiliations, he is not alone in noting how Darren has changed since working at Sumwun. When Darren is more interested in the latest news about Sumwun than having sex at the spa, Soraya tells him, “I honestly don’t even know who you are, Darren” and advises him to “get the hell away from Sumwun” (180). Likewise, Ma criticizes the hard-partying lifestyle that Darren has led since working at Sumwun and questions whether Darren is being manipulated by being asked to do things like the TV spot with Sandra Stork: “I just know how these people use us,” she worries (183). Mr. Aziz, too, thinks that Darren should sever ties with a company that “has done more harm than good” and that he should seek work elsewhere (189).

After Ma’s death, Soraya continues to express her desire for the “real” Darren instead of “someone Mrs. V wouldn’t know” (207), but Darren rejects her appeals and breaks up with her. Throughout Part 3, Darren rejects the advice and support of his friends and family and instead embraces the new identity he’s been given at Sumwun: “I’m Buck,” he claims after his fight at the spa with Soraya. His personality also undergoes a shift towards violence, most notable in the beating he gives Jason, but also evident in the barely suppressed rage he feels towards Soraya when she critiques his decisions. He breaks his phone and smashes items in his mother’s house, actions that seem far removed from the Darren of Parts 1 and 2. When Darren beats Jason, Wally Cat criticizes Darren for playing into media stereotypes that portray Black men as violent.

Part 3 explores a seeming paradox about the shift Darren’s identity has undergone since working at Sumwun: He seems both more white, according to Jason and Soraya, who notes changes in the way he speaks, and more Black, according to negative stereotypes depicting Black men as violent thugs, as the headline “YOUNG THUG HITS BACK” describes him after Jason’s beating (171). In moving away from the identity and values he had prior to working at Sumwun, Darren ends up conforming to narrow presentations of self that seem far removed from the person he used to be. He exhibits a meanness and lack of consideration for others in Part 3 quite different from his behavior in earlier sections. His unwillingness to listen to formerly trusted friends and family when they critique Sumwun, and his new penchant for violence, are paired with what seems like an intentional rejection of compassion. Yelling at his mother when the property management company comes by and yelling at Soraya during their breakup—not to mention beating Jason—are acts that seem out of character. Darren’s refusal to help Brian, and the insults he directs at him, are in stark contrast to the Darren who nurtured his staff’s abilities at Starbucks. The most notable refusal of compassion, however, is when Darren evicts Mr. Rawlings. This act, which Darren pays for later, exemplifies how far off course Darren has gone. His depriving an elderly man, practically a relative, of housing to satisfy his anger shows that Darren has been changed for the worse by working at Sumwun.

Part 3 concludes with Darren closing Barry Dee, a wish-list client that he had little likelihood of persuading to purchase Sumwun licenses, especially during the fallout from user Donesha Clark’s death. This successful deal not only illustrates Darren’s sales prowess, but also further enmeshes him in the startup world: “you own me, Barry. I’m yours” (218), Darren assents when agreeing to work for Barry. This language of ownership of a human being and their labor alludes powerfully to the themes and metaphors of enslavement present throughout the novel. In Darren’s phrasing, he has sold not just his work, but himself, to Barry.