Thelonious "Monk" Ellison is a struggling author in American Fiction. Frustrated by the media consumption of "Black" books that focus on offensive stereotypes, he writes a novel that plays into these tropes under a pen name. However, his book takes off, much to his chagrin, and he is thrust into a world full of hypocrisy as his outlandish book becomes his most popular.
https://screenrant.com/american-fiction-movie-cord-jefferson-interview/