We Cast a Shadow

Most of us are familiar with “you have to love yourself before you can love someone else” cliches. We Cast a Shadow explores a similar concept. The book is narrated by a Black man married to a white woman. He is determined to have their biracial son Nigel undergo an emerging medical procedure to turn him white.

At face value (no pun intended), this seems cut and dried. It is wrong to endanger your child by subjecting them to a painful and dangerous operation that teaches them who they are is bad.

But Ruffin creates a tug-of-war by showing the many life-altering and in some cases life-ending consequences of racism. What enables someone to hate themselves so deeply that they become desperate to expunge traits inherited by their only child?

Ruffin provides convincing and disturbing answers to that question. He exaggerates familiar racist ideas to show how ridiculous racism is, but also to show the immense psychological toll of racism, no matter how absurd the ideas internalized. And it messed me up. I am messed up. I thought it was really well done.

I understand comparisons to Get Out, and I could also see some Sorry to Bother You in here. The corporate aspects reminded me of Ling Ma's Severance. I will say, Ruffin's writing is quite descriptive. Sometimes it worked for me, and other times it didn't at all. Maybe I'm fickle. Point is, I would go into We Cast a Shadow expecting strange and flowery phrasing. And to finish the book with your mind reeling.