Writer and director Jordan Peele’s debut film, Get Out, surprises viewers as a wide-reaching, culture shocking two and a half hour experience. Get Out resides in the horror genre of films with obvious social commentary, but its key moments that provide historical perspectives on racial politics while also touching on embedded racism in white, progressive communities tend to be overlooked in discussions. The layered themes in Get Out begin with the pronounced conversation of interracial relationships, the complex idea of white fragility, a view on double consciousness, and lastly the value of the black body.
The earliest on-screen moment displaying an interracial relationship was D.W. Griffith's 1915 highly controversial film, Birth of a Nation,…show more content… DiAngelo’s writings bring attention to white Americans living in a comfort zone to protect themselves from unsettling discussions and interactions about race relations; this space provides them with racial comfort, but also lowers their tolerance to racial pressures which causes white fragility (DiAngelo). Get Out’s storyline strays away from visible forms of racism--confederate flags and white hoods--and focuses on the narrative of more progressive well-meaning liberal whites and how they contribute to silence marginalized voices of people of color leaving them trapped in the sunken place where, “no matter how hard we scream the system silences us,” (Peele). Peele addresses white fragility head on by steering away from a movie where black actors and racial issues tend to be distorted to lower the amount of racial stress for white people. Instead of producing a moment of reconciliation between white people and the marginalized actor, so white people leave the theater reassured “that they are not hated,” Get Out allows no mercy for white viewers (Baldwin). Peele’s actions portray an important message of an authentic perspective of black people in America. The depiction that black America does not cater to the comfort of white people can contribute to the better understanding of racial issues which changes the world of…show more content… The plump, vivacious lips remain too intense for black skin, but look sexy on Kylie Jenner. Black women who possess a large butt seem fat; however, once a white woman obtains the hourglass figure, her frame becomes a trend. Get Out provides an incentive of how American society comprehends black people, while also making the “everyday co-optation of black traits and black bodies,” into a “horrifying literal,” experience (Weatherford). Chris’s white counterparts interact in a friendly manner and marvel at him. During the movie, no racial epithets are conjured and no Confederate flags appear. Peele’s cleverness in this decision create the aurora that white characters love almost everything about black people. The dazed, white characters in Get Out mimic how American society views the black body as a “shiny car granted emotional, human value only after there’s a white driver at the wheel,” (Weatherford). Peele’s work damages the belief that gaping black bodies parallels with valuing black life. His work also emphasizes the element of dehumanization when people only see someone’s color and not the whole person. Peele’s direct attack on the extremist view of cultural appropriation creates a storyline long overdue for the lives of blacks like Henrietta Lacks, men in the Tuskegee Syphilis experiments, and Sarah Baartman whose bodies were commodities