Ijeoma Oluo/Photo courtesy of The Conferences For Women
After months of allegations that she was profiting from another person’s work, Jessica Natale, a white woman, has finally apologized for using a title similar to Black author Ijeoma Oluo’s bestselling book on race for her own Instagram page.
Oluo’s book, “So You Want To Talk About Race,” was published in 2018, and after the George Floyd murder and mass protests and conversations about race in America, it made bestseller status.
Natale began an Instagram page in Feb. 2020 called @soyouwanttotalkabout that talked about voting rights, Derek Chauvin, and other relevant things to race. The page has nearly three million followers. The page contained various graphics similar to slides that contained tidbits of information, The Guardian reported
.In true Columbusing fashion, Natale landed a book deal in April 2020 off of an idea that was at the least inspired by Oluo’s book and a page that she never made clear was not associated with the author in any way.
Oluo said in an Instagram story that she first became aware of Natale’s page last year and called Natale’s method of profiting off of her work shady and duplicitous.
“Last summer, in the middle of this global uprising for black lives, the popularity of my work … skyrocketed. And so in the middle of this, while dealing with the trauma of being a black person in America … I’m getting these messages from people saying … is this you?” Oluo said.
She sent a message to the page, but her inquiry as to who the page owner was went ignored. Meanwhile, a disclaimer that the page was not affiliated with the book was added.
Natale has now renamed her Instagram page “So Informed.” She has also apologized and said her own book’s publication is on hold.
“I recognize that once again people of color have had to carry the burden of education, and I regret that my actions have increased that burden,” she wrote on Instagram.
For Oluo, it was not just Natale profiting off of her book but how pages like Natale and others present the information.
“I am not interested in the meme-ification of anti-racist and social justice work. I am not interested in making this over-400-years complex system simple for white people to digest,” Oluo said.
The author’s complete Instagram story is unshareable, but she did save it to her highlights reel upon requests to make her response to Natale’s page permanent.
At some point, there won’t be anything left for them to steal.