Losing Control

Posted on May 24, 2017 by Depy Karalis

Dean Armitage preparing for surgery

A very common horror trope is the trope of losing control. This has been done through a variety of things including mind control, curses, ghost or demon possessions. In Get Out the trope is there to create social commentary.

The Armitages employ racist science to excuse their taking control of black people’s bodies.They hunt down and trap black people because of their fetishization of the black body. They and their white clientele believe that while black bodies might be superior, it is because black people are animalistic in nature. That means that they are less than human with animal like brains. To them, that is enough of a justification for their actions. They are removing the “inferior” black brain, leaving just enough for the person to still be conscious in everything they experience, and replacing it with the “superior” white brain, basically enslaving those black people. This enslavement is the real source of horror, the real life example of loss of control that back people are afraid of becoming true once more. The Armitages would agree that slavery was horrendous and claim that they are not racists, being oblivious to how their actions are recreating a new scientific slavery and their choosing black people for their perceived advantages is racist.

The Armitages use science as an excuse to be racists. They believe that race is genetic is because of science saying that we evolved from lesser animals to be the dominant top animal now. The Armitages think that white people are the top animal and black people the bottom animal, so white people have a right in re-enslaving them and using the “resources” black people have to offer, namely their bodies. They are not racist: it’s just science. The painter uses similar “colorblind” racist science by claiming that he does not care for Chris’ skin, only his skills, and employing the brain surgery which promises to undue the issue of race by making black people the puppets of white people who will make them act “white” like they are supposed to act. They all forget, however, that race does not come from genetics but it actually comes from racism. Race comes from practice and exploitation of group-differentiated vulnerability and premature death.

Inspiration taken by Dorothy Roberts and Denise de Silva. Roberts best discusses this phenomenon of racist science in “The Politics of Race and Science: Conservative Colorblindness and the Limits of Liberal Critique.” De Silva best discusses the concept of othering and fetishizing the black body in “No-bodies: Law, raciality and violence.”

Isolated Location

Posted on May 24, 2017 by Depy Karalis

The Armitage House

A lot horror films begin with a peaceful, ideal, happy group of white people planning a visit to a remote location. That could be a cabin in the woods, an abandoned house, a distant sorority, etc. While those could also be imagined destinations that people of color would be fearful in under the right circumstances, there are more realistic locations that actually exist and cause real fear and pain for people of color. There is also the logic that is lacking with those imagined locations and remaining there which, Peele, wanted to avoid, as we would be expecting our black hero to not remain in a house/situation such as a haunted house or a cabin in the woods where a mass murdered is lurking.

One realistically scary remote location that black people have a cause to dear is a plantation inhabited by white people with no neighbors nearby, and especially no black people nearby. Armitage’s house is this remote location. It even has black slaves, that are acting odd or scared, on its properties.

This fear is a realistic fear based on historical precedent. There is a history of violence against black bodies associated with plantation-like houses and, for Chris, living in such a house run by a white family that tries very hard to appear not racist (and which he is trying to impress since he is dating their daughter), far away from anyone, and the only black people around him appearing hostile, is a stressful and terrifying situation.