Nina G. African American Lit.

Recently, I was thinking about all the different themes, references, and general interesting facts about Sorry to Bother You . But one of the things I was thinking about throughout the entire film were references to the title. The first time we encounter the phrase “sorry to bother you” is when Cassius calls his first client at Regal View. The last time is when Cassius is an Equisapien and bursts into Steve Lift’s house (his last customer). When he says it the first time, he is very timid and shy. He is genuinely sorry that he is bothering them and has to continue with his message. The second time, he says it sarcastically and mockingly. How Cassius says this phrase shows his progression as a character throughout the movie. He goes from just trying to get through life one day at a time to having opinions on issues and wanting to make an impact. I also did a little research on why Boots Riley chose this title. According to Riley, it has a double meaning. The first is referencing h

As we reach the halfway point in our latest novel, I wanted to ask, what is the significance of the white boy shuffle? That is obviously the title of the book, but it was mentioned for the first time in chapter 6 during the dance: “After a few moments I’d relax and settle into a barely acceptable, simple side-to-side step, dubbed by the locals the white boy shuffle” (page 123). In class, we have been talking about Gunner’s transition from white culture to black culture. In the white culture, he was known as the “funny cool black kid” who was smart but got into occasional minor trouble. Then (initially) in black culture, he was known as a “white” nerd, based on the way he speaks, acts, and looks. In the latest couple chapters however, we saw him move out of the nerd crowd and into the gangster one. He is still smart (we can tell from his sophisticated use of language), but he has a new group of friends and a different look (he talks about how people know from his look that he play