text of article:

For as long as she can remember, Damali Ayo has had white strangers come up to her without warning and ask the oddest questions.

Questions like: do black people get tanned? And: when you wear black, can anyone see you? And: why are you always talking about racism? Can't you just relax?

Now ayo (as she is known, eschewing the initial capital), a performance artist from Portland, Oregon, has come up with the perfect satirical response to this unrelenting bombardment. She has started a website, provocatively called www.rent-a-negro.com, in which she offers herself as a conversation partner to answer all questions about her blackness, and as the ultimate chic accessory to take along to gatherings of would-be trendies who wished they weren't so unrelentingly white.

"We all go out for ethnic food every once in a while," runs her wonderfully deadpan sales patter. "Why not bring some new flavour to your home or office ... for all your friends and colleagues to enjoy!" The site includes advertising slogans ("She fits right in even as she stands out!") and spoof testimonials from satisfied customers ("My friends still ask, how is that black friend of yours?").

For a price, she offers added extras, like touching her hair - a constant source of fascination, apparently - or "dance lessons for the rhythm-challenged". "Challenging racist family members" costs $500 a time. The rental form asks whether the customer has "used black people before" (the "yes" box is ticked in advance) and, if so, whether the services were paid for (the "I did not pay" box is also checked in advance).

Depending on your point of view, ayo has either found a hilarious way of unmasking American liberal cant on the ever-explosive subject of race, or she has demeaned herself and all black Americans by offering herself for sale.

Either way, she has unquestionably touched a nerve. Newspapers and radio stations want to talk to her. People have written to heap praise and to denounce her. Meanwhile, so many people have applied for her services that her online mailbox, with room for 500 messages, ran out of space a long time ago.

"I thought the internet was going to explode from all the traffic," ayo said. "I started sending some people messages saying 'You've been denied because of outstanding debts to black people through your life', but that didn't deter them. They kept resubmitting their rental form again and again, thinking they just needed to improve it. They were very persistent."

She hasn't decided yet if she really will hire herself out. That was her initial intention as a piece of performance art in itself, but she is worried about safety, especially now she is so well known. "I've had a lot of lynching threats [from black and white people] ... black people saying they hope I'm the first black person lynched by other blacks. What that says to me is, people want to act like racism is a thing of the past, when it's not."

Which is, of course, the underlying premise of the whole stunt. For ayo the point is to generate dialogue and make people see the race issue in ways they have never thought of before. And it has been liberating to find a funny way to address a deadly serious issue. "If I didn't have a sense of humour," she says, "I really would be dead."