Instagram user accused of capitalising from Ijeoma Oluo’s anti-racist book

The white woman behind the popular Instagram account @soyouwanttotalkabout has apologised after claims that she has co-opted the black author’s brand

The white woman behind an Instagram account with almost three million followers has apologised for the “harm” she caused to bestselling black author Ijeoma Oluo.

Oluo’s examination of race in America, So You Want to Talk About Race, was published in 2018, and hit the bestseller charts in the wake of the killing of George Floyd last summer. Jessica Natale’s similarly-named Instagram account @soyouwanttotalkabout was launched in February 2020, tackling topics such as voting rights, gun reform and the sentencing of Derek Chauvin, laying out information in a series of slide-shows in muted tones. By April this year, Natale had landed a book deal with Little, Brown, and revealed her previously-concealed identity.

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