Hey Wisecrack, Jared again. Pour yourself a cold glass of milk, cuz today we’re talking
about Jordan Peele’s social thriller Get Out. While many films explore race in America,
what makes Get Out so unique is that it doesn’t go after the usual targets but instead takes
aim at an unlikely mark: white liberals. Welcome to this Wisecrack Edition on Get Out.
And, of course, spoilers ahead. But first, a quick recap: Get out follows Chris Washington as
he meets his white girlfriend’s parents for the first time. While the first half of
the film explores white liberals awkwardly attempting social interaction with a black
man; the second half of the film takes a pretty horrific turn. After we find out that the
party hosted by Rose’s parents is, in fact, a slave auction of sorts, we learn an even
more terrifying truth: An old white man wants his brain implanted inside of Chris’ body.
"You have been chosen because of the physical advantages you enjoyed your entire lifetime.
With your natural gifts and our determination, we could both be part of something greater. Something perfect."
Writer/director Jordan Peele said the story came to him after reflecting on how many Americans
thought the Obama presidency signified a ‘post-racial’ era. The film argues that so-called post-racial
liberalism is something more terrifying than most would imagine.
Throughout the film, Chris is confronted with “totally not racist” white people who
have ‘moved beyond’ racism. It explores how this disavowal seems to reinforce a relationship
with black people that is, at its best, suspicious and at its worst... well, we’ll get there.
But the first act shows us how the attempts of people to show Chris just how ‘not racist’
they are only serves to further alienate him.
"So how long has this been going on? This... thang."
The Armitage family seems unnaturally eager
to bring up “black people stuff” around Chris- as if this proves that they’re not racist.
"By the way, I woulda voted for Obama for a third term if I could. Best president in my lifetime, hands down."
This tendency to over-perform the “acceptance” of all things black only
further cements the difference between them, and makes Chris extremely uncomfortable.
Chris just wants to to get through the weekend and take some pictures, but everyone around him
can’t help reminding him that he’s black, thus only making him feel more “different”.
"Gordon was a professional golfer for years!"
"Oh, you kidding?"
Well I can't quite swing the hips like I used to though, but I do know Tiger."
This also leads to a situation where any actual racism can be excused as long as one can show
how “down” they are with black culture and anti-racist ideas.
"Cmon, I get it. White family, black servants, it's a total cliche."
"I wasn't gonna take it there."
"Well you didn't have to, believe me."
The second act exposes Chris to a bunch of white people all fascinated with Chris’s blackness.
Party guests want to know what it’s like to be black in America, and even
feel compelled to tell him that "black is in fashion." There is a term for white fascination
with black culture that can help us better understand Get Out: negrophilia. The term
emerged in 1920’s Paris to describe the craze for black culture amongst the hipsters
of the day. Writer Petrine Archer-Straw writes that, for these Parisians, blackness was a
sign of young Parisian “modernity.”
"Such a privilege to be able to experience another person's culture, ya know what I'm sayin?"
But this had a problematic flipside:
“Black personalities were either lionised or demonised in a manner that denied normality.”
In other words, they could never be, you know, actual people, and instead existed as one of two
stereotypes: brilliant artists or uncultured animals. Throughout the film, we see both
sides of this. Chris is celebrated for his cultural background, yet as the creepy brother
reminds us: "if you really pushed your body -
you'd be a f***ing beast."
To paraphrase Archer-Straw, in both cases, it’s the white perspective that decides
how black people are defined. And this negrophilia isn’t just confined to the desire for black
culture, it can be the desire for the black body itself both sexually;
"So, is it true? Is it better?"
and athletically.
"So Chris, what's your sport?"
And while you might be tempted to think “is it so bad to be desired because you’re sexy and strong?”,
well the answer is, yeah. Negrophilia isn’t about truly understanding black people
and their culture, it’s about using them to satisfy your own desires. This is not understanding
humans, it’s collecting them. And while Get Out exemplifies classic Negrophilia, we
see it take a leap forward to the literal colonization of the black body in the third act.
Early in the film we learn about Grandpa Armitage’s experience of being bested by
a black athlete.
"My dad's claim to fame was beat by Jesse Owens in the qualifying round for
the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Those are the ones where-"
"Owens won in front of Hitler."
Yeah, what a moment, what a moment.
Hitler's up there with all this perfect Aryan race bullshit and this black dude comes along
proves him wrong in front of the entire world. Amazing."
"Tough break for your dad though."
"Yeah... he almost got over it."
Well it turns out that his inability to get over it lead him to have
his brain implanted into an athletic black body.
And Grandma Armitage? Well, it turns out her brain was placed in Georgina so she could
spend her golden years playing dress up as a beautiful black woman. And of course Chris
is set on track for a similar fate when he is auctioned off to a blind man who
wants his award winning photographer’s eyes. And in an extreme version of liberal racism,
Chris’ new owner refuses to attribute his purchase to racism: "Please don't lump me
in with that, I don't give a s*** what color you are. What I want is deeper.
I want those things you see through." While a white person wanting to literally
transform into a black person might sound preposterous, there is at least one American
who wishes this was a reality: "Well, I don't identify as African American, I identify as
black, so I'm part of the pan-African diaspora."
The film also offers insight into the psychological experience of black Americans navigating white America.
Before the title screen, we see a black guy lost in white suburbs-
a metaphor for what’s to come:
"They got me out here in this creepy, confusing a** suburba.
"Gosh, I'm serious though. I feel like a sore thumb out here."
The physical maze
of white suburbia sets a clear parallel for the emotional maze that Chris will have to
navigate. Many of Chris’ interactions seem modulated specifically for his white audience,
like during interactions with the police, Rose seems content to make a scene while the
only thing Chris wants to do is not piss off a cop.
"No, no, no fuck that. You don't have to give him your I.D. because you haven't done anything wrong."
"Baby, baby. It's okay, c'mon."
Or when he suspects someone's
been tampering with his phone, he quickly drops the issue to not make a scene with Rose’s family.
"Forget it, nevermind."
"No, no, no, stop. Don't do that. Don't-"
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry, it's all good. Right?"
Even something as simple as meeting his girlfriend’s parents leads Chris to worry:
"Do they know I'm... do they know I'm black?"
And being one of the only people of color at the party leaves Chris anxiously trying
to navigate this overwhelmingly white space.
"All I know is sometimes, if there's too many white people I get nervous, you know?"
Philosopher Frantz Fanon described his own,
similar, experience as a black man living in 20th century France. Fanon describes meeting
“the white man’s eyes” as placing a burdensome weight upon him, one that left
him feeling uncomfortable in his own body, and out of place in a world dominated by whiteness.
Like Fanon, Chris is burdened by the weight of trying to fit in a world from which he’s
fundamentally excluded.
"Good to see another brother around here."
"Hi."
He's caught trying to integrate into Rose’s world, while at
the same time trying to retain his identity.
"It's like they haven't met a black person that doesn't work for them."
This forces Chris to be two people at the same time:
a black man with his own identity, and, Rose’s black boyfriend who is nice to everyone
no matter how absurd their questions.
To navigate this, Chris has to silence his own identity, a process made literal during
a late-night chat with Rose’s mother: eventually viewing his own reality through a screen.
"Now you're in the Sunken Place."
This is the name for a hypnotic state in which one’s mind is separated from their body,
and they are left to passively view their own experiences through a screen. When asked
about the meaning of the Sunken Place, Jordan Peele tweeted that “The Sunken Place means
we’re marginalized. No matter how hard we scream, the system silences us.”
According to this logic, any society built upon inequality will inevitably leave those on the outside
without a voice, or at best, with a tempered version of their voice. One’s true identity
has the remain in the background for the sake of going with the flow. We can understand
the sunken place better with some help from sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois, who coined the
term double consciousness. According to Du Bois, double consciousness is the internal
conflict experienced by African Americans living in a structurally racist society. These
societal conditions lead black people to see themselves through the perspective of the
dominant societal force, in this case, white people. Chris is repeatedly evaluated by the
measuring tape of white society, and in particular, certain forms of white desire. The experience
of being constantly examined leads to what Du Bois calls a “two-ness” in the black soul:
This imposition leads to confusion about the authenticity
of one’s experiences,
"She got in my head and I don't think that was fucked up shit that I don't want to think about."
and for Chris, this double consciousness has left him feeling
like a helpless spectator.
If you were wondering why Chris seems to be haunted by the deer he and Rose killed it
may not because he’s some kind of PETA activist, but because watching helplessly as a living
thing died probably reminded him of his mother’s death.
In other words, the sunken place seems
not only be a hypnosis technique, but a metaphor for his own life as a helpless spectator.
This fear of losing oneself is made literal in the Coagula procedure, in which black consciousness
is literally pushed to the background to make room for the white mind; thus he risks being
permanently cast into the sunken place. Chris is able to avoid this fate by plugging his
ears with cotton picked from his chair which brings to mind poet Audre Lorde’s famous
insistence that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”
For Lorde this meant that it was futile for the oppressed to use the logic of the oppressor
in their attempts at resistance. Instead, Get Out suggests the opposite: Chris uses
a type of labor associated with slavery, picking cotton, to assert his own identity and avoid
a type of slavery. Chris not only uses cotton to avoid bodily colonization, he re-purposes
a bocce ball, arguably a symbol of the white elite, to take out Jeremy. Not to say that
bocce balls are blatantly white objects, but, the only thing whiter would be playing hacky
sack at a Fish concert. And, calling back to the symbol of Chris’ spectatorship,
Chris takes a mounted deer and goes straight for Dean's jugular with it, a sign
he’s overcome the powerlessness he once feared. Chris’ emancipation from this near-enslavement
can be seen as a radical assertion of his black identity.
While Chris is able to escape the Armitage plantation of horrors, the real hero of Get Out,
and the film’s comic relief, is his best friend, Rod. Throughout the film Rod
serves as the voice of reason.
"White people love making people sex slaves and shit."
And eventually goes to the police once he puts together a theory for why Chris has gone missing.
After a, um, revealing conversation with Rose
"I know you think about fucking me, Rod."
he decides it’s time to come to Chris’ rescue.
"Lyin' b*tch. She is lying like a mother f*cker. I know that."
But before Rod saves the day, the film’s most terrifying scene comes from an unexpected source.
We all know what is likely to happen if the police show up and see a black man
kneeling over the bleeding body of a white woman. While the film’s intended ending
was this devastating worst-case scenario.
Peele opted for a more triumphant conclusion in the final cut. But the moment between the
police sirens and Rod getting out of the car is a stark reminder that the real monster
of Get Out isn’t a fictional boogeyman, but rather, the horrors of the system itself,
something that cannot be heroically defeated at the conclusion of a film. And the other
lesson of Get Out? Well that one is more obvious:
"I'm T.S. mother f*ckin' A. We handle shit. That's what we do. Consider this situation f*ckin handled."
Thanks for watching, guys. Peace!