From Deflection to Deconstruction

Satire as a reaction to stereotypes of African Americans has regularly been at the center of Ishmael Reed’s novels and, as such, has become the object of much of Reed scholarship. ¹ Yet, Reed’s interest in media-circulated stereotypes of African Americans has attracted less scholarly attention despite it having become a dominant theme in Reed’s oeuvre, as the titles and content of his post-1992 non-fiction books show. ² This chapter seeks to contribute to the existing Reed scholarship by examining the link between his contemporary satire—as shown in his 2011 novel Juice!—and the US media’s misrepresentation of African Americans. ³ Throughout the chapter I argue that Reed’s post-1992 satire has changed significantly from his early satire, which I demonstrate by comparing the sardonic humor of Juice! with that of his early novels, Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down (1969) and Flight to Canada (1976). ⁴