Sorry to Bother You was horrifying to watch. Cassius’ “white voice” seems almost funny at the beginning of the movie. He puts on a little act to succeed, that’s something almost everyone can relate to in some way or another. But this is obviously wrong. The audience realizes it, Detroit realizes it, the other workers realize it and even the protestors realize it. Cassius, himself, doesn’t realize it, however, until the party. The party was just plain disturbing. From the rapping to the ‘bathroom’ scene, I was incredibly uncomfortable. It only gets worse from there. The riot was terrifying, and the end was the cherry on top.
What was most terrifying about the film, however, was how it parallels reality. Yes, it takes place in an almost alternate universe, but it reflects the social situation we live in today. It is sad that Black people have to disguise their own culture and characteristics just to make it in a predominantly white world. That shouldn’t have to happen. The strongest people are not the ones mutated into horses, they’re the ones that stay true to themselves and their culture, despite the pressures of society.
I thought the class-race intersectionality in the movie was really thought-provoking. In the party scene, we see Mr. ________ acknowledging that the demands for black people to assimilate into white culture in order to gain success is wrong, but suggests Cash would benefit from submitting himself to the corrupt system. Most of the class insurgents in the film are people of color, while most of the people in power are either white or behaviorally “white-passing” people. In this movie’s critique of capitalism, I think it portrayed race in this way to suggest that people of color are the system’s primary victims.