African American

Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts) Fri Aug 3, 2018, 03:11 PM Aug 2018

Sorry to Bother You. Genres: Comedy, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

"Sorry to Bother You, the wily satirical debut feature from Boots Riley, Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) lands a job at a telemarketing company, where the first rule is 'Stick to the script.'

In doing so, Mr. Riley offers a zany twist on the performance of whiteness by black actors, a tradition stretching back hundreds of years: As long ago as the New World, enslaved and free blacks participated in dramatized communal appropriation of 'white-identified gestures, vocabulary, dialects, dress, or social entitlements,' as Marvin McAllister writes in his book Whiting Up: Whiteface Minstrels and Stage Europeans in African-American Performance. These performances were in public and private spaces, sometimes on a theatrical stage or in the form of a leisurely stroll in the street alongside white people.

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In his 2000 comedy special Killin’ Them Softly, Dave Chappelle uses observational humor to point out how whiteness translates to an exclusive version of freedom. He describes how his friend Chip manages to get out of a speeding ticket — or potentially worse fate — because he is white. Mr. Chappelle has two distinct voices for Chip and the police officer who pulls them over: The officer gets a high-pitched, nasal Southern drawl reminiscent of cinematic small-town sheriffs. Chip, on the other hand, evinces a calm, if slightly nerdy, demeanor when he tells the officer, 'I didn’t know I couldn’t do that.'

Chip embodies Langston’s definition of the white voice in Sorry to Bother You. That voice, he explains to Cassius, isn’t so much about timbre as it is about a feeling — a carefree nature that comes with having your bills paid. 'You’ve never been fired,' Langston says. 'Just laid off.'

Once Cassius taps into his inner 'white voice,' he quickly becomes a power caller, negotiating deals with the world’s wealthiest people. At the office, power callers must use their white voices at all times. But this begins to take a toll on Cassius as he becomes privy to the company’s evils. The affectation becomes a symbol of conformity, and worse, a betrayal of self."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/10/movies/when-black-performers-use-their-white-voice.html?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=quora

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/02/movies/sorry-to-bother-you-review-lakeith-stanfield.html