So how long has this been going on? This…
This thang?
How long?
Get Out is written and directed by Jordan Peele and has gained a lot of attention and praise for its portrayal of racial relations in America
of racial relations in America
In this brief discussion I want to focus on one issue in particular
and that is the issue of White Fragility and the role of movies like Get Out in challenging it.
White Fragility was coined in 2011 in an academic paper by Robyn D'Angelo to bring attention to American white people living in social environments that protect and insulate them from race-based stress providing them with racial comfort but also lowering their tolerance for racial pressure, leading to what is now known as white fragility
environments that protect and insulate them from race-based stress providing them with Racial comfort
But also lowering their tolerance for racial pressure leading to what is now known [as] white fragility?
There's a footnote to this which adds some nuance about a mediating role of social class with Working-class whites being less racially
Insulated than those living in the suburbs nevertheless the larger social environment still contributes to the racial
insulation and protection of whites as a group in many ways one [of] which is through movies [a]
Great source for understanding the relation between white fragility and movies. It's a recent documentary
I am like your [negro] based on the writings by change Baldwin like get out [iron] [out] your negro doesn't just address the more well-known
forms of Racism and Racial prejudice
But also focuses on the more progressive well-meaning liberal whites and how they contribute [to] silencing voices from people of color
Leaving them trapped in the sunken place as Jordan Peele explains the sunken place means
We're marginalized no matter how hard we scream the system silences us
unlike classic examples of blatant racism in movies white fragility seems to be more insidious
[this] is because black actors and racial issues tend to be included but they are
Distorted wrapped in a comfort blanket to lower the amount of racial stress for white people this is Done by [D]
sexualizing black characters
emphasizing how well-meaning the leading white character is towards the racial issue and Perhaps most importantly by including a moment of
Reconciliation to assure white people they have nothing to feel [bad] about a great example of this is the defiant ones
About which James Baldwin writes in suddenly jumped off the train
The white Liberal people downtown were much relieved and Joyful
but black people saw him jump off the train they yelled
Get back on the train you fool
the black man jumps off the train in order to reassure white people
To make them know that they are not hated
And though they have made human errors
They don't nothing for which we hate it and get out the fragility [of] white people does not receive this Mercy
even in the final scene which hints at a [possible] moment of reconciliation
here Jordan Peele stays for [lentes] and
I think that in his disregard of white fragility he actually gets an important message across an
Authentic perspective of black people in America that doesn't get it to the comfort of white people and can actually contribute to the better
Understanding of racial issues even if it feels challenging at first
For there's exactly this inclusion of authentic voices and movies not just in front of the camera
But behind it as well that can help us to better
understand each other to conclude with the words of the great film Critic Roger ebert
When I go to a great movie, I can lift somebody else's life for [a] while
[I] can walk in somebody else's shoes
[I] can see what it feels like to be a member [of] a different gender a different race a different economic class
We live in a different time to have a different belief. This is a liberalizing influence on me
It gives me a broader mind. It helps me to join my family of men and women on this planet
It helps me to identify with them, so I'm not just stuck being myself day after day the great movies enlarges
They civilize us. They make us more decent people