interview | mateo askaripour
Ascent of a salesman After learning what it takes to make it in the corporate world, Mateo Askaripour spins that knowledge into gold in his riotous first novel, Black Buck.
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they’d look at me strangely. Years later, I began to understand what those initial looks meant. They were saying, I gotta listen to a Black person? Especially this dude? Some of them never had to listen to a Black person in their life before, or even a person of color.” As Darren climbs the corporate ladder, some of the racism he encounters is overt, while other forms are stealthily inscribed into the culture of the company. Reflecting both his empirical understanding of the problem and his writing talent, Askaripour does an incredible job of showing how companies often use Black culture as a source of inspiration and mobilization while at the “I think we need to realize that until same time generwe’re in a position where Black and brown ating an internal people are giving other Black and brown culture of intolpeople those life-changing opportunities erance for Black at such an exponential rate, there is going people. to be an obvious disparity, and there is “They have this going to be an imbalance. And that needs cognitive dissoto change,” Askaripour says. “The ‘each nance where they one, teach one’ mentality is definitely a will take Black way to change that.” culture and use it to For Askaripour, Black Buck is a form of energize and further service, an intentional attempt to positheir interests, but tively affect the material circumstances how many Black of Black and brown people. “I wrote this people do they book so that anyone who reads it, espeBlack Buck know?” he says. cially Black and brown people, would be HMH, $26, 9780358380887 “And how willing able to take away a few gems on how to are they to sit back advance their own lives and the lives of Satirical Fiction and ask themselves those who they love,” he says. “It doubles whether they are as a sales manual for that very real reason. helping or hurting these people that they never I feel hopeful that if someone reads this book and really think about?” understands its journey, they would be able to Despite its grounding in racial strife, Black better their lives and probably get an entry-level Buck is not a pessimistic novel at all. The Afrisales job. Yeah, man, ‘each one, teach one’ is not can diasporic philosophy “each one, teach one” just essential to the book. It’s at the core of my undergirds the book. Brought to America from life right now.” West Africa, “each one, teach one” suggests that —Langston Collin Wilkins African Americans who have effectively navigated racial subjugation should guide and open doors Visit BookPage.com to read our starred for others in their community. review of Black Buck. © ANDREW “FIFTHGOD” ASKARIPOUR
“You’re likely in for a wild ride, and you will make mistakes,” says author Mateo Askaripour via Zoom from his home in Brooklyn, New York. “But as long as you learn from them and don’t judge yourself too harshly, you can retain a sense of self and still succeed.” Askaripour’s comments reflect the central message of his debut novel, Black Buck, in which a young Black man named Darren attempts to navigate the punishingly racist corporate tech world without losing either himself or the love of his friends and family. With a complex yet accessible plot, rich characters and Askaripour’s sharp wit, Black Buck is a page-turning satirical examination of corporate racial struggle. And with its tips and tricks for achieving success in white-dominated spaces, the book also acts as an instruction manual for Black and brown corporate climbers. Askaripour’s professional life began in the same corporate tech world that he thoroughly deconstructs in his novel. The Long Island native was a prodigy of sorts, moving from intern to director of sales at a tech startup within a year. When he needed an outlet from the fast-paced and ruthless world of sales, he turned to the written word. His first two attempts at a novel fell short of the mark. Then in late 2017, he decided to write from experience. “I realized that writing something that felt true to me meant that I couldn’t shy away from the things that were closest to me in my life,” he explains. Namely, sales, race and startups. In Black Buck, Darren’s quest to establish himself in sales causes internal and external turmoil. Forced assimilation, intrusive demands on his time and the stresses of racism create rifts in his relationships, self-identity and sense of control. There are moments when the reader struggles to determine whether Darren is a hero or a villain. That’s not a sign of any misstep on Askaripour’s part, though. Rather, it reflects the existential battle that Black and brown people face in these environments. “There were times when I felt like I was mad powerful,” Askaripour says of his sales days. “I was 24 years old, managing 30 people and making over $100K. I had all these people looking up to me. In those moments, it’s so easy to forget that you’re Black. It was so easy to forget because you have some money and people are looking up to you. But then there were times when I’d hire a new person, a white man or woman, and I could tell that the first time I would ask them to do something or tell them to do something,
