Wait, Jordan Peele - the Oscar-winning writer/director - started his career in AMSTERDAM?
Get Out!
Hurray for Jordan Peele! The writer and
director of "Get Out" won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
As Dutch NOS News reported:
"2 years after #OscarsSoWhite chances are growing for black Oscars."
Oh! How racially aware. But they left out an interesting detail:
Jordan started his career here in the Netherlands!
Why would they leave something like that out?
Well, having worked alongside Jordan for 3 years
here are 3 reasons I think it's possible
the inspiration for the racism in the movie GET OUT
was partly the Netherlands - a country so deep under sea level -
it may as well be called the sunken place.
Now, if you don't know the movie 'GET OUT'
it's all about a black guy who goes to visit his white girlfriend's parents.
He's invited to leave his home, go be surrounded by a bunch of white people,
and feel like he's on stage the whole time...
..which could fairly be a decent description of Jordan's life here in Amsterdam.
Jordan Peele joined us in the cast of Boom Chicago in the year 2001.
Like many of us, it was his first time living outside the US and it was a real eye-opener.
Jordan writes: "Being there in the Netherlands, I found I was an outsider in
a different way than I was used to."
And that is so true! Onstage, Jordan's
characters were all about stretching expectations. He played Rodrigo the Latin lover.
He played - right after 9/11 - Ahmed the Stoned Terrorist. And his favorite
character was Ute, the Swedish supermodel. But it was always Dutch guys
after the show who asked him "when you going to play the angry black man?"
At first, the closest he came was this guy.
Footnote: in 2002 Boom Chicago hired Colton Dunn -
also African-American. And Jordan at the time said he feared for his job,
because he assumed no comedy group could want 2 black guys
at the same time.
Funny to us Colton ended up as a writer on Key and Peele, where they made this sketch
"Hey man, why the cat gotta be black?"
"Man, I guess I gotta put my d*** away!"
So, in retrospect, I suppose the first part of Jordan's inspiration was us.
Now, the twist of the movie 'Get Out' is that it's progressive white people who turn out to be racist.
And Dutch people are super progressive, which is why it's all the more shocking
when you see graffiti
Dutch people are so open and progressive, but
they still have a way of not letting you forget you're an outsider.
A poster for 'Get Out' says:
Or as we like to say at Boom Chicago: just because Dutch people tolerate you,
doesn't mean they like you.
Or to put it in the words of this campaign ad from the Dutch prime minister
Hmm... let's see how would I translate that...
Um: "Just act normal - or GET OUT."
On the same day Jordan Peele won his Oscar came this ad from the Dutch Prime Minister saying
"just because you celebrate Sinterklaas doesn't make you racist."
Now, I agree: it's not meant to be racist.
But I have observed certain of my colleagues,
who do seem to find it a bit insensitive.
In 'Get Out' the main character finds himself in armed conflict with his hosts,
And at Boom Chicago, Colton and Jordan made this video - written by Pep Rosenfeld -
about Zwarte Piet rising up in armed revolt
against Sinterklaas.
So there you have it Nederland: all you need to do to claim credit for winning
an Oscar is admit that Zwarte Piet could be considered insensitive by some people -
which I know you'll never do.