Authentic Blackness Real Blackness explores and explains the idea of authenticity of keeping it real as it relates to the multifaceted meanings of blackness in the United States and the world. Including reflections on hiphop comedy literature intellectual history and autobiography the collection gives both a broad overview of and intervenes in the debates concerning blackness. A comprehensive introductory essay outlines the history of the idea of authentic blackness while other chapters examine the contours of blackness in Canada and Jamaica the relationship between middleclass status and real blackness the link between blackness and hiphop culture Dave Chappelles comedy and the work of James Baldwin Countee Cullen Clarence Major and John Edgar Wideman as it comments on authenticity in relation to race.