Racial Identity, Corporate Capitalism, and Institutional Discrimination in Mateo Askaripour’s Black Buck

Abstract

The intersection of race and corporate power remains a critical concern in contemporary social and literary discourse. Despite increasing attention to diversity and inclusion in corporate environments, structural racism continues to shape the experiences of racial minorities within professional spaces. Mateo Askaripour’s novel Black Buck (2021) provides a powerful satirical critique of corporate culture by portraying the journey of Darren Vender, a young Black man navigating a predominantly white corporate environment. This article examines the representation of racial discrimination, identity crisis, and institutional power in the novel. Drawing on Critical Race Theory (CRT), the study analyzes how corporate institutions reproduce racial hierarchies while simultaneously commodifying diversity. Through qualitative textual analysis, the article explores themes of workplace racism, psychological transformation, cultural assimilation, and resistance. The findings suggest that Black Buck not only exposes the systemic nature of racism in corporate America but also critiques the neoliberal capitalist structures that exploit marginalized identities for economic gain. By situating the novel within broader scholarly debates on race, labor, and identity, this study contributes to contemporary discussions on African American literature and the politics of representation in twenty-first-century fiction.

Keywords: African American literature, corporate racism, Critical Race Theory, identity crisis, workplace discrimination, capitalism