It’s a little deeper than Paper Boi just being a fukkboi and leaving Earn high and dry.
Donald Glover has said on numerous different occasions that a lot of his frustrations in the industry stem from him having to make White Gate Keepers comfortable to allow him to do what he wants. It was an issue with his record label when he was trying to put out his second album. It was an issue with the series when he had to lie to FX and tell them the show was something it wasn’t. It’s been the BANE of his existence as an artist.
The encounters between PaperBoi and Clark County are a VERY subtle nod towards the gross imbalance of power in the entertainment industry. Season 1 touched upon it in the first episode where Earn had to go through back channels and bribery to get Paper Boi on the radio. Season 2 is showing you, that once you get to a certain point. You HAVE to have a white gate keeper in your corner to have access to the type of career you want.
The point isn’t that Paperboi is turning down endorsements, it’s that the endorsements he WANTS are out of his grasp. Clark County straight up said “They aren’t trying to make opportunities for Black People” it’s a one at a time thing. And Clark’s white manager has the connections to make it happen. These are connections that Earn wouldn’t have access to, because the SYSTEM is designed to keep white people in charge.
Look at the EP credits for Atlanta. You have two white people in addition to Donald and his brother Stephen. Paul Simms and Diane Mcgunigle. They are the white gatekeepers that were necessary for Donald to even get in the door to make Atlanta possible.
On Paul Simms involvement
No black people talk to each other like that, or need to. It’s all for white people.” (“Black-ish”’s audience is about one-fifth black; “Atlanta” ’s is half black.) FX told Glover to avoid the N-word in his pilot; the network’s compromise position was that only a white character who says “Really, nikka?” and “You know how nikkas out here are” could use it. Recalling the dispute, Glover exclaimed, “I’m black, making a very black show, and they’re telling me I can’t use the N-word! Only in a world run by white people would that happen.”
On the phone call that finally resolved the matter, it was a white executive producer, Paul Simms, who argued successfully for the authenticity of the show’s use of the word. Glover had brought in Simms, the elder statesman on “Girls” and “Flight of the Conchords,” to serve as what black creators call “the white translator.” “You need the translator for the three-minute call after the meeting,” Barris explained. “It’s for when the execs call the white guy to say, ‘What exactly did Kenya mean there?,’ and to be reassured.” Since then, “Atlanta” has used the N-word unself-consciously, in a profusion of ways.
Diane Mcgunigle is Donald’s long time Manager. Who was his talent agent beforehand. Guess who her husband is? Spider Man: Homecoming Director Jon Watts. You think It was a coincidence that Donald ended up having a role in that movie? Think again
The filmmaker happens to be married to former talent agent Dianne McGunigle, who repped Glover at CAA before becoming the actor, producer and rapper's manager and is currently an executive producer alongside Glover on his award-winning FX series, "Atlanta."
So when Glover's Spider-Man campaign was in full force in the summer of 2010, Watts was well aware. "I've known Donald for a really long time, so when that was all going down I was right in the middle of it," he explained to The Time
"One of the very first things I said to Kevin [Feige] when I got the job was, 'We've got to put Donald Glover in this movie. I don't know who he's going to be, or what he's going to do, but we have to figure out a way,'" said Watts.
The industry is one big Good old (White) Boys Club. What Clarke’s manager represents is that white gatekeeper who is going to REMAIN a Gatekeeper by making it all but an impossibility for someone like Earn to really put Paper Boi “on”.
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I wasn’t ready for that race at the end.. I had to look like 
is that really Mike Vick??i gotta be sure since the Justin Bieber episode that had everybody including Lil Zane at the celebrity basketball game but not the actual Beiber(which was well done in a very crafty way, Donald writing skills around that is phenomenal) And is he really about to race him??? Low key I was hoping he won but it wouldn’t be Atlanta if Earn has won. I like that it’s honest in the fact that you have a period i life when you stay taking L’s. He hasn’t taken this many since the strip club.
disgusting nikka. fukk mike vic.
There's alot to be said about Paper Boi this season too. The only reason he even knows Clarke County is cuz earn got him into FuzzBeed, doing the same shyt as CC, and he walked out. Deal on the table with Rap Snacks and he turns it down, etc.
mortified by Reparations/Kaepernick BARZ
