The primary theme of Jewell Parker Rhodes’s Sugar is cultural empathy. River Road plantation in Louisiana brings together three distinct cultures: the Black workers who were recently freed from slavery, the white plantation owners who are still in charge but no longer own anyone, and the Chinese immigrants who come to fill the jobs the younger Black workers left behind. Each of these groups is represented by a child or young adult in the novel. In her author’s note, Rhodes writes that “Billy, Beau, and Sugar represent the best of America” (278) because of their willingness to listen to each other, despite their differences. It is the trio’s friendship that best embodies the theme of cultural empathy.

At the beginning of the novel, there are clear boundaries in place to keep each of the three groups separated: “‘Each to their own place’ Mister Wills says. ‘God didn’t intend for the races to mix’” (25). Sugar remembers the warnings of her Ma before she died, who told her not to play with Billy. The Beales try to keep Sugar away from the Chinese workers, and Billy is likewise banned from interacting with them.