Sorry to Bother You is a 2018 satirical science fiction comedy written and directed by Boots Riley. It follows Cassius Green, a struggling black telemarketer in an alternate-present Oakland who discovers that using a polished "white voice" lets him close sales and climb the corporate ladder at RegalView. Success pulls him into his employer’s secret world of extreme labor exploitation, including genetic experiments that turn workers into horse-human hybrids for better output. The story uses absurd humor and a union-organizing subplot to examine racial code-switching, selling out for personal gain, and corporate power over working people. The central "white voice" device and explicit anti-corporate satire make identity and class themes audience-visible throughout.
Community feedback
Was our 87% Woke rating accurate?
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Sorry to Bother You.
Woke representation / casting
Black protagonist and diverse supporting cast (including Tessa Thompson as activist artist Detroit and Steven Yeun as union coworker) fit the Oakland setting and story logic; the "white voice" device makes racial identity and assimilation an explicit, audience-visible plot engine rather than incidental background.
42%
Woke political dialogue
Frequent satirical exchanges mock corporate doublespeak, highlight the personal cost of code-switching for black workers, and frame union resistance as moral imperative against exploitation.
68%
Identity-driven story themes
The narrative ties Cassius’s black identity directly to economic betrayal and solidarity; success requires suppressing racial self for "white" performance, while resistance reclaims community and class consciousness.
72%
Western institutional / cultural critique
Sustained satire depicts American capitalism as a machine that demands identity erasure, rewards complicity, and reduces humans to livestock-like labor; corporate success is shown as moral rot that harms workers and communities.
78%
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant — original story with no established source material or historical figures altered.
0%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Scattered viewer and critic notes call the political messaging heavy-handed or propagandistic against capitalism; no major organized anti-woke campaigns, widespread "DEI agenda" accusations, or identity-politics outrage dominated coverage.
22%
Creator track record context
Boots Riley’s decades of communist activism, Occupy involvement, and anti-capitalist music with The Coup directly fuel the film’s explicit left-wing satire; several producers bring multicultural or representation-focused track records that align with the project’s themes.
78%
Production
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