NEW YORK — Rob Redding’s new book, “Graphic Graphite: Bucking as a Challenge to Racial Narrative,” reached No. 1 on Amazon on Friday, Juneteenth, despite the book being blocked from Amazon’s search results.
The book does not appear when users search Amazon for Redding’s name, the title or related terms including Black art, Black history, racial narrative or Juneteenth. Readers can only access the book through ReddingNewsReview.com, RobRedding.com or the direct Amazon link.
Redding said the book’s rise to No. 1, where it is ranked No. 1 in Psychology Reference and No. 1 in Conceptual Arts in the Kindle Store, was driven by listeners of his talk show, “Redding News Review Unrestricted,” and by supporters on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms in the United States and abroad.
“My loyal listeners and fans came to the rescue,” Redding said. “They refused to let this book be buried. They shared the link, they downloaded the book and they made sure the work was seen.”
“Graphic Graphite: Bucking as a Challenge to Racial Narrative” examines how Black bodies, masculinity and identity are framed in American culture, including the suppressed history of the brutal rape of Black men by their male slave masters in a process known as bucking. The book combines art and analysis to challenge long standing narratives about race and representation.
Amazon’s automated systems appear to have flagged the book’s graphite drawings as adult content. The images, which are based on slave narratives and depict the human form through negative space, were classified in a way that restricts visibility in search results. Similar misclassifications have been documented on the platform, where automated filters have restricted visibility for works on slavery, Jewish Holocaust documentation, classical art and academic studies that include depictions of the human body.
A drawing featured in the book is also on view at SoHo Project Space in New York, where Redding is exhibiting his pencil and graphite-based method, which he says is an extension of what he calls Constructive Expressionism. The ConEx technique uses negative space to form the image, including a rendering of Richard Baker and Olaudah Equiano drawn from historical accounts of their lives. The reverse side of the work includes a second piece, a ConEx painting titled “Colonization,” also executed in negative space.
Redding is an award winning talk host, independent journalist, artist and media entrepreneur. He is the founder of ReddingNewsReview.com and host of “Redding News Review Unrestricted.” His work has appeared on CNN, Fox News, C SPAN and NPR, and in newspapers across the United States and internationally. His artwork has been shown in galleries across the country.
This is Redding’s nineteenth book and his tenth consecutive bestseller. Redding said the book’s success on Juneteenth carries symbolic weight.
“This happening on Juneteenth means something,” he said. “It is a reminder that independent Black voices still have to fight to be seen, but we also have the power to win.”
