Abstract
In 2008, Randall Kennedy, the Michael R. Klein Professor of Law at Harvard University, published Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal. In this work, Kennedy provided both a historical and a contemporary discussion of the term “sellout” as well as a defense of its usage among blacks. In this essay, I critique Kennedy’s work and argue that the rhetoric of “selling out” functions as a mechanism of social control meant to keep blacks on “their side” of the color line.
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