Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in So You Want to Talk About Race, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism, Privilege, and White Supremacy
Confronting Racial Pain
Intersectionality, Oppression, and Social Justice
Cultural Appropriation
Summary
Analysis
Oluo is at an airport terminal, frazzled and hungry, and she finds a food spot called “Africa Lounge.” She’s excited, hoping they serve Ethiopian food. But as she gets closer, she notices chairs with zebra patterns on them, a mural depicting cavemen, and menus for burgers. She realizes that it’s not an African restaurant, but an American restaurant dressed up like something else. She grows sad thinking about the few amazing African restaurants she does know, which evoke memories of eating delicious West African fufu for dipping in stew, hearing music that reminds her of Nigerian family gatherings, and being happy. She’s disappointed to see a “caricature of [her] culture” at the airport.
Oluo now addresses the exploitation of black and brown culture. She’s going to unpack this idea using two central examples: the music industry and the food industry. Juxtaposing her warm memories of eating West African food with a bland, superficial “caricature” of an African restaurant enables Oluo to symbolize how appropriation strips the soul out of meaningful cultural practices, which is one of her central concerns.
Themes
Oluo sees cultural appropriation as something that happens when a dominant culture exploits or uses an oppressed culture. Examples of appropriation by dominant white culture include using Native American headdresses and Indian bindis as accessories. Many people find cultural appropriation confusing because they think of the United States as a multicultural place and where it might help fight racism to embrace other cultures’ practices. Oluo argues that these practices become a problem when there’s a power imbalance between the two cultures.
Oluo explains here that if all cultures were equally valued in a society, there would be no problem with sharing and borrowing cultural practices. However, when there’s a power imbalance—meaning that one culture is systematically privileged over others—taking cultural symbols from the marginalized culture can have a damaging economic impact that increases the oppression of the marginalized community.
Themes
Take music, for example: Oluo argues that music has been an important way for black Americans to process the pain of their oppression. But blues, jazz, and rock (which evolved from African musical traditions) were all deemed dangerous until white artists began imitating the sound and garnering fame, money, and respectability. Today, many talented black rappers remain in obscurity, while “okay” white rappers have tremendous success. This white-sounding rap becomes legitimized, and black artists struggle further because their rap sounds different. To Oluo, there’s also a problem with rappers who can’t connect with rap’s history as a source of strength for black people facing adversity.
Oluo unpacks her claim about the economic impact of appropriation using the example of rap: she argues that in societies set up to privilege white culture, white artists find it easier to gain success in the marketplace. (even if they’re just “okay”). Their whitewashed sound becomes normalized and changes what people expect to hear when they buy rap albums, which makes it harder for black artists to gain the same success. Thus, appropriation is more like stealing than borrowing or sharing.
Themes
The biggest problem, for Oluo, is that cultural appropriation betrays a society that “prefers its culture cloaked in whiteness.” In a society where all cultures are equally appreciated, an imitation is just an imitation, but in American society, attempts to borrow from marginalized cultures become exploitative. Things get complicated, Oluo notes, when one thinks about who defines what belongs to a culture, especially when practices have been shared for a long time and play an important role in the dominant culture too. In the end, Oluo says that if your biggest concern is whether or not to wear a geisha costume to a party, you should count yourself lucky.
Oluo qualifies her argument to say that cultural appropriation isn’t a cut-and-dry issue, especially as there’s already lot of cultural crossover in the world. But she concludes that when in doubt, the best thing to do is err on the side of caution. Antiracists should always consider if their actions increase the oppression of marginalized people. If there’s a chance that their actions will, they should steer clear, even if doing so is—at worst—an inconvenience.
Themes
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