Thinking Piece 3: African diasporic technoculture in Sorry to Bother You film

Sorry to Bother You tells the story of Cassius Green, an unsuccessful telemarketer who
gets promoted after using his “White Voice”. Set in an alternate present-day version of
Oakland, Cassius, popularly known as Cash, discovers the pitfalls of capitalism and how the
Blacks are still oppressed in the present day corporate world. For instance, although
telemarketing is booming in America’s marketing industry, only the Whites are the biggest
beneficiaries. However, his quest to get rich and establish a new narrative for himself and the
black community is soon tested when he realizes his position as a “power caller” stands
against the interests of regular employees. Further, the use of synchronicity to reprioritize
technologies is constantly seen in the movie, where there is constant switch between the
kinds of technology used by different characters. For instance, Cash uses different technology
tools such as a wireless earbud for calls and a tablet in his new office compared to the wired
headphone sets he uses as a regular telemarketer.
The switch between the kind of technology that is disposable to people in the “power
caller” group and that which is available to people in the regular telemarketing department
brings the question of what tools are valued by whom, and to what ends, similar to Alondra’s
analysis of Mumbo Jumbo. Using Alondra’s theme of African diasporic technoculture in
technologies of the present, the connection between technology and cultural assimilation,
racism, and capitalism in the scene is advanced by the fact that Cash lives in a totally
different technological realm. Capitalism in the film is advanced by a seemingly racist and
power-hungry CEO, Steve, who runs a giant company WorryFree to offer workers a false
perception of security while abusing their rights. In this scene, Cash has already discovered
that WorryFree is RegalView’s biggest client but does not backdown from the position. It
largely becomes clear that technology is rife with “digital divide” phenomenon when the only
lift in the workplace is at his disposal while originally it was not.