I Went To High School In The Suburb From ‘Get Out’ - But I Got Out
Discovering and becoming comfortable with one’s identity is arguably our most arduous undertaking as human beings. In a world that is obsessed with categorization, becoming content with our individual abnormalities can be exceedingly difficult.
This journey is further compounded by race – an illegitimate construct that was, according to Professor Barbara J. Fields of Columbia University, created by Americans of European descent during the era of the American revolution as a way of resolving the contradiction between a natural right to freedom and the fact of slavery. As a result of this creation, Black identity has suffered tremendously, as identity issues and inferiority complexes have seeped deep into the Black psyche. But thankfully, efforts to shed light upon these previously under-discussed and painful topics in our society’s culture have become increasingly common.
Jordan Peele’s Get Out was a brilliant depiction of contemporary components of race in America – whether in regards to the complexities of interracial relationships or white supremacy or Black identity [in white environments]. The film used the concept of “the sunken place” as an exceptional metaphor for limited [social] consciousness and the power of racism and white supremacy.
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