Frederick Joseph is on a roll and doing it on his own terms. The award-winning author, philanthropist, and cultural critic just landed his third New York Times bestseller with his YA fiction debut, This Thing of Ours.
The book, which follows a Black teen navigating identity, injustice, and activism at a predominantly white prep school, is being hailed as a powerful, timely story—and it’s resonating with readers in a big way.
But behind this success is a deeper story: one of resistance, conviction, and speaking truth even when it costs you.
“This is now my third New York Times best-selling book and… I was just on the phone with my editor crying because I couldn’t believe it,” he said in a video shared on Instagram. “When I came out months ago and said I didn’t want my book to be in Target, despite Target usually accounting for about 40 percent of my sales, everyone told me it was a bad decision, but I wanted to stand for something because the book stands for something. And I was right.”
Despite skipping a book tour, receiving zero major media coverage, and being shadow-banned on social media for his outspokenness about Palestine, the book still soared.
“The book is still selling. Y’all did that,” he said
Joseph made headlines earlier this year when he publicly asked readers not to buy his books from Target, following the company’s decision to scale back its DEI initiatives.
“When it was like, oh, well being ‘woke’ makes money, ‘Let’s partner with Black people,’” he said in a video on Threads. “Now that Trump is in office, and there’s this anti-Black, anti-woke agenda sweeping through… they’re like, ‘Okay, Black people, brown people, queer people don’t make money anymore—so we’re off it.’”
Joseph’s relationship with Target goes back to 2020, when the retailer prominently featured his first bestseller, The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person, with in-store promotions and exclusive editions. But when the political climate shifted, so did corporate priorities—and Joseph wasn’t having it.
In a follow-up essay on Substack, he reflected on the cost of walking away:
“I know that the weight of this decision is not abstract. It is financial. It is logistical. It is the difference between a book moving thousands of copies in a single week and one that struggles to find its audience.”
But still, he stood firm:
“This is not easy. But it is necessary.”
Set in Yonkers, New York, This Thing of Ours centers Ossie Brown, a teen whose dream of becoming a basketball star is shattered by a career-ending injury. As he tries to find himself beyond the court, Ossie joins a writing program run by a beloved Black teacher, only to watch that program come under fire when the teacher is accused of pushing a “woke agenda.”
With themes of book banning, systemic racism, and the power of youth-led resistance, it’s no surprise that This Thing of Ours is hitting home.
Joseph shared what makes this one feel even more personal than his past titles:
“This is the first best-selling book about Yonkers, New York. A book that centers my hometown, a kid from the projects, a family that was just like mine,” he shares. “I just I can’t thank y’all enough.”
Get your copy of This Thing of Ours here.
Photo Credit: Instagram – FredTJoseph
