Powell !

Andersen Powell

Dr. Sandosharaj

English 104

27 Oct 2016

Atlanta is for Everyone

Although Nussbaum, a television critic for The New Yorker, gives a positive review of the

show Atlanta, produced by Donald Glover, I do not believe that her review is completely

accurate. This show is about down and out Earn who returns back to his hometown in Atlanta to

manage his cousin Paper Boi, a local rapper trying to make it to the next level. In The Slo-mo

Specificity of Atlanta, Emily Nussbaum claims that Atlanta is not for everyone; I, however,

believe that this show was created for all people to enjoy equally.

Even though this show was written by black writers and features an all black cast, it is not

just for black people. It is to be enjoyed by people of all races. The sheer nature of the show

makes it a conversation piece for people of all ethnic backgrounds to address social and racial

issues in our communities. Atlanta brings up issues like cultural appropriation and others such as

the conundrum of a society that fetishizes ghetto cool, and the imitation of black masculinity

(Nussbaum 1). These issues are things that are being perpetuated in various black communities.

Black people are already aware of these problems. In my opinion, Atlantas goal is to bring

awareness of these issues to people who are not experiencing them. If Atlanta was a show for

only black people, specific scenes that raise awareness of our issues would not need to be seen.
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Trying to educate black people on black issues is like preaching to the choir. The content in the

show is for everyone.

A main topic that Atlanta discusses is the hot topic of cultural appropriation

interconnected with the fetishization of a cool black masculinity. The appropriation of hip hop

culture is becoming more and more prevalent in todays society. Even though people are

appropriating black culture, they do not care about black issues. In Color-blind Ideology,

Rodriguez says whites who pick up on African American styles and music do not necessarily

want to be black; they seek to acquire the characteristics of blackness associated with being

cool (Rodriguez 649). In agreement with Rodriguez, Miles White says in From Jim Crow to

Jay-Z: Race, Rap, and the Performance of Masculinity, that cultural appropriations of

masculine identity...typically occur in the absence of any real information or context regarding

African American life and culture (White 127). Atlanta seeks to expose this issue and bring

light to the racial problems in our society. Bringing up racial issues that occur in America

reinforce the idea that Atlanta is for everyone. As American citizens these problems affect us all.

Although Atlanta speaks about black issues, these are racial problems that should concern

everyone. The show talks about cultural appropriation and fetishization as a way to advocate for

its discontinuation. Contrary to what Emily Nussbaum stated before, I believe that Atlanta is a

show for everyone because it educates about the social and racial issues that occur in our

communities.
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Works Cited

Nussbaum, Emily. "The Slo-Mo Specificity of Atlanta." The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 12

Sept. 2016. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.

Rodriguez, Jason. "Color-blind Ideology." Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 35.6 (2006):

645-65. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.

WHITE, MILES. Epilogue. From Jim Crow to Jay-Z: Race, Rap, and the Performance of

Masculinity, University of Illinois Press, 2011, pp. 127134, http://www.jstor.org/stable/

10.5406/j.ctt1xcr8s.10.