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Author Ijeoma Oluo compares oppression in U.S. society to various forms of cancer. In symbolizing oppression like this, she makes two important claims: first, that there are many forms of oppression in U.S. society, just as there are many forms of cancer. She uses the idea of treating cancer to symbolize remedying inequality in U.S. society. If a person has brain cancer and breast cancer, for example, both cancers have to be treated for the person to heal. Treating their brain cancer is a step in the right direction, but it won’t cure their breast cancer. Similarly, Oluo argues, if people are oppressed by race and class in the U.S., both issues need to be addressed for social justice to be achieved. Oluo also uses the metaphor of cancer to explain that trying to change every racist person’s mind in the U.S. is like trying to treat the nausea that cancer causes. In order to heal the person, Oluo argues, the cancer—the system that creates racists—needs to be treated. Otherwise, the underlying cancer will just cause more nausea (the system will create more racists). The systems that Oluo is talking about are forces of society that encourage and perpetuate racist behavior. She lists the following mechanisms as examples: educational curricula that privilege white history, news and media that depict people of color as violent “thugs,” legal and justice systems that disproportionately target people of color, and politicians (like Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump) who manipulate these tools to increase the wealth and power of rich white men at the expense of others in society.
Cancer Quotes in So You Want to Talk About Race
The So You Want to Talk About Race quotes below all refer to the symbol of Cancer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 2
Quotes
If we have cancer and it makes us vomit, we can commit to battling nausea and say we’re fighting for our lives, even though the tumor will likely still kill us.
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Cancer Symbol Timeline in So You Want to Talk About Race
The timeline below shows where the symbol Cancer appears in So You Want to Talk About Race. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Is it really about race?
...multiple causes for hardship, and a wide range of effects. As Oluo puts it, brain cancer and breast cancer are two illnesses that require two different treatments. Similarly, race and poverty...
(full context)
Chapter 2: What is racism?
...police brutality, racial income disparities, food insecurity, or mass incarceration (it’s like treating nausea from cancer instead of the cancer itself). Oluo argues that changing individual people’s mindsets also unfairly puts...
(full context)
