Is your goodness performative or real?

Karim Dimechkie’s "The Uproar" asks that we pick our poison: hypocrite, poseur, do-gooder — or hero

Sharif, the anti-hero of Karim Dimechkie’s The Uproar, wants you to know he is a good person. He’s chosen to be a social worker, employed by a nonprofit providing “economic development services” to low-income New Yorkers. He does this knowing that his pregnant wife Adjoua would love for him to do something more lucrative. Sharif is white, and Adjoua is Black—another progressive box ticked for him. Though the couple is struggling to make the rent on their Lower East Side apartment and barely making ends meet, they refuse financial help from their upper-middle-class parents—a source of pride.

So here’s the question: Is Sharif a poseur who’s just doing what makes him look good? Has he shaped his entire identity around hypocrisy? Or does he get credit for good intentions, even if the road to hell is paved with them? Does the distinction matter?

And would you rather deal with someone who’s outright bad — or performatively good?

Let us know in the comments below.

As you consider, think about how we’ve been witnessing the masks come off. If billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg once felt some responsibility to be do-gooders—to respond to their extreme privilege by giving back—whatever motivated them then appears to have evaporated. Shame is so passe.

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How to participate in the Book Club

We’ll post questions — our discussion guide — every Sunday and Wednesday, and each Wednesday, we’ll meet for a discussion with the Club, host a chat thread, or have a visit from an author or other special guest. Look out for posts each week with further details.

Since not everyone has had a chance to get a copy of Karim Dimechkie’s The Uproar, we won’t be hosting a Live discussion today, Wednesday, July 2. We’ll return next week. As always, Book Club meetings are open to paid subscribers to The Ink.

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Photo by Sascha Kilmer/Getty Images