Cultural Appropriations and the Adjustments Made Through Socioeconomic Changes, by Christina Woodson, no use of this work allowed without written consent

Christina Woodson

Professor Saunders

English 380

19 April 2023

Cultural Appropriations and the Adjustments Made Through Socioeconomic Changes

Percival Everrett’s work The Appropriation of Cultures presents an interesting perspective on how economic value functions, primarily in the South, and how it moves around race, even when least expected. The protagonist of the story, Daniel, is put in the circumstance to purchase a truck with a racist adornment from a, presumably racist white couple. Through the course of the story, there are multiple examples and instances where it is implied that, if not for Daniel’s access to wealth, the juxtaposing white couple’s absolute lack of wealth, and economic need, the situation would not be able to present itself or advance further in the actual sale of the truck. Considering these ideas, seeing how the functionality of economic status prevents and hinders this white couple from being able to have more access or say in who they are selling their truck to, and how Daniel’s eventual reclamation of the confederate flag can be seen as an act of defiance that is only available and presented to him through being financially well off are main contenders for what this essay is looking to prove. Ultimately, this story functions strangely, as it challenges an average reader to think about how racism functions differently based on economic values, which holds a much stronger weight in the South, than it does in the rest of America, thus forcing the reader to determine if this story only truly functions and can be realistic due to its setting above all else. These ideals fall in line with what Marx argues is the oppressive function of capitalism above all else, and how it influences writers and their works. 

To understand how economics takes precedence over race in the South, added context should be applied. During the civil war, Abraham Lincoln and the rest of the North understood that to defeat the South was to cut off all economic input from their docks, and all output from their crops. The civil war was fought on the sanctity that the Southern states believed it was their right to continue violent American slavery, while the North believed that slavery was no longer an okay option for the growing country, especially seeing that black Americans could be of use to the economy if they were utilized as people. Not the North nor the South had more racism than the other, racism existed thoroughly throughout the country no matter where one was situated, but it was more so the demand for committing inhumane acts against black people that instigated the disagreement, as well as pinning it more on the fact that cheap or free labor done by enslaved people cut production costs down for the income of the south. The income they made based on free labor was insane and had not been seen before in the world, making it an incredible boom for the country, and the first really solid example of capitalism and its exploitation. To hurt the South and their efforts in the war, Abraham Lincoln decided to shut off all the capital resources they had. “On April 19, Lincoln responded by declaring a blockade of Southern ports with the intent of preventing cotton, tobacco, and sugar from being exported and military equipment and supplies from coming into the South from abroad.” (Andrew F. Smith) In doing this, Lincoln, and what would become the (re)united states set off a precedent of how economics would function in the South. To this day, there are obvious results of the North using capital as a way of disarming and disabling the South in the war, since the ports were only the first methods. Eventually, the South paid restitution for losing, which ultimately advanced the northern states of the country and set a precedent to the South that they would not be able to easily come back from that loss. What the North essentially did was make an example of the South, and though racism was a real thing throughout the country, the disabled economy of the South put both white and black people of the South within the same rank economically. Even now, it is possible to examine and see how the South was never able to fully recover. Understanding this huge and rich history of the south, how their economy functions, and its cultural relevancy to the current day is important to note, as it serves for why Percival Everrett chose this setting for his short story The Appropriation of Cultures and why it functions so well as a plot point. 

In Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, his first chapter introduces the idea of humanization and dehumanization and how it functions within each person to individually oppress themselves. The humanization process is one that Freire argues is the drive within each person to do better for themselves, whereas dehumanization is the process through which years of systemic oppression have robbed an individual of being able to yearn or want for this process. “But while both humanization and dehumanization are real alternatives, only the first is the people's vocation. This vocation is constantly negated, yet it is affirmed by that very negation. It is thwarted by injustice, exploitation, oppression, and the violence of the oppressors; it is affirmed by the yearning of the oppressed for freedom and justice, and by their struggle to recover their lost hu­manity. Dehumanization, which marks not only those whose humanity has been stolen, but also (though in a different way) those who have stolen it, is a distortion of the vocation of becoming more fully human.” (Freire, 43) This notion Freire has presented represents the people who have consistently been harmed, as he states by “injustice, exploitation, and…violence.” Recalling the previous paragraph that understood what the North committed against the South, all of these traits of an oppressor can be found within the time reflecting acts committed during and after the civil war. To think the South ever fully recovered from the oppression that the North so willfully committed is to rob one’s self of understanding and truth. What this means, is essentially that the new South after the war was built and functions as a result of the oppression, since the North never gave it any opportunity to gain strength back in fear of another secession. 

In Percival Everett’s The Appropriation of Cultures, the owner of the truck that causes such a stir, Travis, is a white man of a lower economic status. Daniel is described as a man who does not work and does not pretend like he has to work, as his mother left him a large sum of money and he has also gone to Brown University to be educated. Daniel is black, but that fact gets pushed aside and is only ever implied towards the middle half of the story. Travis is very obviously white from his descriptors and his selling truck is adorned with a confederate flag. Though the two are white and black men, their first interaction goes on to prove that they are not functioning based on that, but rather based on their economic statuses. “...The ad in the magazine said two thousand." "Yeah, but I'm willing to work with you." "Tell you what, I'll give you twenty-two hundred if you deliver it to my house." Travis was lost, scratching his head and looking back at the house for his wife who was no longer standing there. "Where about do you live?" "I live over near the university. Near Five Points." "Twenty-two hundred?" Travis said more to himself than to Daniel. "Sure I can get it to your house." "Here's two hundred." Daniel counted out the money and handed it to the man. "I'll have the rest for you in cash when you deliver the truck." He watched Travis feel the bills with his skinny fingers. "Can you have it there at about four?" "I can do that...” The function of race and presumed economic status that functions here very obviously switches within one paragraph. Travis assumingly feels the need to offer a bargain with Daniel, who not only shuts it down but ends up offering the original and then some. Upon the offer, Travis is written to be confused, looking for his wife out of what can be assumed as a shock. The offer is too good for Travis to turn down and shows how economic oppression is serving in this instance. Though Travis would be a white man, driving into the city with a Confederate flag and having a truck, he is willing to do so for twenty-two hundred dollars. An amount of money that is written as nothing to Daniel, and is written as worthy of possible attack or uncomfortably for Travis. Travis is essentially allowing himself to be oppressed because the South relies on economic status to advance or disadvantage a person. In this case, the shift in how the conversation could of gone shows just that. It also goes on par with what Freire writes as the process of dehumanization. The process which is brought on by “injustice, exploitation, and…violence.” is being acted out here, as Daniel is unknowingly exploiting Travis to the dangers of driving this truck for the chance of what can only be a few month’s worth of mortgage payments, with the chance of violence possibly being committed against Travis. The injustice that serves here is the fact that Travis, at first assumes that Daniel would not be able to work with his asking price. The oppression that Travis is facing in his poor economic status is far more than just Travis as well. In the journal entitled The White Working Class and the Legacy of the 1960s Ku Klux Klan in the 2016 Presidential Election. In the ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the researcher concludes how Donald Trump was able to win the presidency due to the white working class specifically. “support for Trump is an expression of resentments among working-class whites who have lost long-standing privileges that have formed the foundation of their ethno-racial identity at the expense of ethnic and racial minorities.” (Smångs, M.) This just shows the mental perspective Travis is displaying is deeply rooted in the history of the South and the way economics has functioned within it. This is the injustice of racism, which Daniel is quickly able to overcome through the use of money and capital, falling into the individual advancement that Marx argues someone can only attain for oneself rather than a group of others. 

In understanding how impactful a man of Daniels’s wealth is in the South, it is important to look at recent historical studies that examine just how poverty black people in the South are. While all presidencies fail someone somewhere by nature, an important one that highlights the disparity of black people was Clinton’s presidency. In the nineties, Bill Clinton made a welfare reform bill that was not as punitive in favor of poor people, which was supported and liked by Republicans. Because of these drastic changes, democrats began to leave the party, either they became Republicans or voted for Republicans. This was the result of Clinton expertly using politics to bring a very centered approach to the nineties and by the end of his term, the parties were evenly divided. Republicans were now being represented by and for the upper working classes while Democrats were represented by and for the college-educated citizens. In contrast with Travis and Daniel, it is important to note that Travis is most likely a white man who is Republican voting, and Daniel is a black man who is most likely Democrat voting. The impact that Clinton’s presidency left upon people in the South is drastic. In a study conducted by Elgie C. McFayden Jr that looks at the economic impact of the Bill Clinton presidency on African Americans (people of the black race) in the South, the study writes “There are several important factors to consider when reviewing the policies and programs implemented by the Clinton Administration and the ineffectiveness of the programs at reducing poverty and economic disparity between African Americans and the general population… First, improving the economic condition of African Americans in the United States and Delta region was not a stated goal of any policy or program implemented by the Clinton Administration. Second, the literature suggests the Clinton Administration did not fully understand the structural dynamics of poverty and economic disparity specific to African Americans.” If a president, who managed to make both parties happy and seemingly split the same can not economically advance black people in the South, how does one manage to trust in capitalism at all to do so? Capitalism and its system of oppression, which are both interconnected by Marxist theory and Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, continue to prove that it will trump above all other outcomes. The system of oppression the North used against the South was committed over two hundred years ago, and still affects the black folk that lives within the South, it should be implied that the effect was able to perspire in white communities as well. Not only this, but the economic disparity goes to show how a character written like Daniel would be an anomaly within his community. The only reason a study of this kind was even projected, was because the lack of understanding of the severity of the socioeconomic standing of individuals in the South is severely undermined and not discussed enough. Under capitalism, all are supposed to suffer or at least not be able to prosper, and when one person lucks out and can acquire wealth, they use it to in turn not face the community that still suffers from the results of the capitalistic venture. 

Daniel’s economic status versus all other characters in the story is also a poignant indicator of how viewing economics in the South is different from the function of economics anywhere else in the country. In the southern states, when it comes to people who are presented as black, the way they use and show their wealth is drastically different from people in similar professions. For example, some trends that come out of the Southern hip-hop scene are things like overly gaudy chains, durags under baseball camps, extreme wealth poured into strip clubs, and so on. The difference is that in the South, this culture reigns supreme in who can flaunt it most extravagantly. This sets the cultural aspect of black wealth in the South apart from any other part of the country. Arguably, there are many cases where they intersect and someone from the north or west side can show off their wealth in the same, but it is not integrated into a culture as much as it does within southern states. This is something that Marx comments on about the separation of wealth and how it causes class inequality. “Marxism sees progress as coming about through the struggle for power between different social classes. This view of history as a class struggle (rather than as, for instance, a succession of dynasties, or as a gradual progress towards the attainment of national identity and sovereignty) regards it as 'motored' by the competition for economic, social, and political advantage. The exploitation of one social class by another is seen especially in modern industrial capitalism, particularly in its unrestricted nineteenth-century form.” (Barry, 156) In other words, Daniel and how he chooses to carry himself throughout the rest of the story, is a direct reflection of economics functioning differently within the South. This proves to be especially true when examining the author of the story, Percival Everett; he is an author of renowned work now and also grew up in Georgia, having gone to Brown University just as the character of Daniel did. He “is an American writer and Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California.” He now resides in Southern California. Within this fact and the modeling of Daniel’s character after seemingly the author’s whole life, his transparency in how he is written to act surrounding finances drastically changes. The Marxist theory argues that “All the same, Marxist literary criticism maintains that a writer's social class, and its prevailing 'ideology' (outlook, values, tacit assumptions, half-realized allegiances, etc.) have a major bearing on what is written by a member of that class. So instead of seeing authors as primarily autonomous 'inspired' individuals whose 'genius' and creative imagination enables them to bring forth original and timeless works of art, the Marxist sees them as constantly formed by their social contexts in ways which they would usually not admit.” (Barry, 157) Though Percival Everett was born and raised in poverty or the lower class, the monetary and materialistic gain that he now gets to advance from is evident and a driving force for his works. The end of The Appropriation of Cultures results in Daniel finally having the confederate flag adorned truck and feeling safe enough to drive around town in it. Daniel is only able to do this because the stark political statement is protected by his economic advantage, whereas it leaves other black folks confused: “They were admiring our flag," Daniel said, pointing to his truck. The teenagers were confused.” There is something to note in the fact that Percival Everett has based this character on his experience and is only writing a character that can slither through such a stark political statement because he had the access to do so through his funds. And though relatable, it should be noted that instead of choosing to set the story within southern California, Everett decides to set it in the south, presumably because of the function that money and capital have within the south that was previously stated. The passage entirely proves Marx’s idea that writers can only function within their economic status and the influence it has. 

In conclusion, the Marxist critical theory argues that above all else, in literature “All the same, Marxist literary criticism maintains that a writer's social class, and its prevailing 'ideology' (outlook, values, tacit assumptions, half-realized allegiances, etc.) have a major bearing on what is written by a member of that class. So instead of seeing authors as primarily autonomous 'inspired' individuals whose 'genius' and creative imagination enables them to bring forth original and timeless works of art, the Marxist sees them as constantly formed by their social contexts in ways which they would usually not admit.” (Barry, 157) Percival Everetts’s unique short story The Appropriation of Cultures provides a niche intersectionality that examines Marxist theory in both the author’s actual life which is relevant to the setting and function of the material world in the literature itself. The story can not function as properly if not for the setting of the South, as its rich cultural history is a severe crutch within it. The story functions to show the purpose of how when a black man has access to monetary value, he can transcend the racism of the south and be able to take part in confederacy pride because he can afford to, as well as he is fortunate enough to do so. Throughout the story, the idea of taking back the flag is seen as a political statement of defiance on the surface, but when examining the story’s events and doubling it with the title The Appropriation of Cultures, Everett’s focal-point changes. To appropriate Confederate culture means that Daniel had to understand that his economic status and his conditions of life mirrored that of white people who lived off of the benefits of oppression for years. His possession of the truck can be seen as a mockery of the culture that could have had the chance to oppress him if he had not been so fortunate. In the same way that the story starts with white folk taunting Daniel to play the racist song, Dixie, he ends with a laugh at the fact he bought and displays a truck with a confederate flag on the back “...Power to the people," Daniel said and laughed.” Though Daniel’s action was a reclamation, it was only sparked as an idea after seeing how the white folk treated him within the bar in response to his playing of Dixie. The Confederate decal in question is really not worth the twenty-two hundred dollars he spent to get it, but his financial stability and lack of poverty, cause him to let Sarah know it is all he is buying the truck for. In all, how economics function within the South shows some of the most heightened oppressions that capitalism can cause, as it supersedes any intellectual thoughts or prejudices, and allows for the material world to take the highest form of power due to the old and intense history that capital has had within the region. 

Works Cited

"Percival Everett." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Apr. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_Everett. Accessed 10 May 2023.

Smångs, M. (2021). The White Working Class and the Legacy of the 1960s Ku Klux Klan in the 2016 Presidential Election. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 694(1), 189–204. https://doi-org.csulb.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/00027162211019679

Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. second ed., Manchester University Press, 1995. 

“‘Starving the South: How the North Won the Civil War’ by Andrew F. Smith.” The Denver Post, 4 June 2011, www.denverpost.com/2011/06/03/starving-the-south-how-the-north-won-the-civil-war-by-andrew-f-smith/#. 

McFayden, Elgie C. “The Bill Clinton Presidency: Economic Impact on African Americans in the South.” Race, Gender & Class, vol. 15, no. 3/4, 2008, pp. 85–99. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41674652. Accessed 19 Apr. 2023.

Freire, Paulo, 1921-1997. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, 2000.