THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF GET OUT
Get Out explores and satirizes the many facets of racism in American society. The themes that Jordan Peele deeply analyzes are the post-racial illusion and the fetishizing and commoditizing of blackness in America.
In Get Out, Chris is being auctioned off to a crowd of wealthy white buyers, and others have been auctioned off before him. In the movie, “black is in fashion.” The black body is bought and sold like a commodity for use like slaves were sold in Antebellum America. This fetishization is a recurring theme in Western history. For example, Sarah Baartman, a Khoikhoi woman from South Africa was exhibited in freak show attractions all across Europe for her large buttocks.
Get Out also tackles a more recent racial development. It shatters the deceptive but comforting “Post-Racial Illusion”. Post-Racial America is defined as a theoretical environment in which the U.S. is free from racial preference, discrimination, and prejudice. This idea really emerged when Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 and is a problematic way of thinking because it denies the experiences of many in the country.
We can see the effect of the faux Post-Racial mindset on our way of life right now. In 2013 in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court invalidated parts of the monumental Voting Rights Act of 1965, most troublingly, a section that had required nine states with extensive histories of racial discrimination to obtain federal approval for any change to their election laws. The justification for this ruling? Chief Justice Roberts said: "Our country has changed."
How does Get Out break down this illusion? It does so by shedding light on the implicit (and sometimes explicit) racism of seemingly forward-thinking people like the Armitages who are introduced as educated, elite, liberal professionals who would have “voted for Obama for a third term.” Later on, the Armitages are shown to not see blacks as equals but as fashionable suits to be bought and sold.
The events of Get Out would never happen in real life, as it is scientifically impossible. However, through eerie symbolism it shows us that America has changed but still has a long way to go.
-Tyra
Learn more about Sarah Baartman and the Hottentot Venus here.
Learn more about Shelby County v. Holder here.
Learn more about the Voting Rights Act of 1965 here.
In Get Out, Chris is being auctioned off to a crowd of wealthy white buyers, and others have been auctioned off before him. In the movie, “black is in fashion.” The black body is bought and sold like a commodity for use like slaves were sold in Antebellum America. This fetishization is a recurring theme in Western history. For example, Sarah Baartman, a Khoikhoi woman from South Africa was exhibited in freak show attractions all across Europe for her large buttocks.
Get Out also tackles a more recent racial development. It shatters the deceptive but comforting “Post-Racial Illusion”. Post-Racial America is defined as a theoretical environment in which the U.S. is free from racial preference, discrimination, and prejudice. This idea really emerged when Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 and is a problematic way of thinking because it denies the experiences of many in the country.
We can see the effect of the faux Post-Racial mindset on our way of life right now. In 2013 in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court invalidated parts of the monumental Voting Rights Act of 1965, most troublingly, a section that had required nine states with extensive histories of racial discrimination to obtain federal approval for any change to their election laws. The justification for this ruling? Chief Justice Roberts said: "Our country has changed."
How does Get Out break down this illusion? It does so by shedding light on the implicit (and sometimes explicit) racism of seemingly forward-thinking people like the Armitages who are introduced as educated, elite, liberal professionals who would have “voted for Obama for a third term.” Later on, the Armitages are shown to not see blacks as equals but as fashionable suits to be bought and sold.
The events of Get Out would never happen in real life, as it is scientifically impossible. However, through eerie symbolism it shows us that America has changed but still has a long way to go.
-Tyra
Learn more about Sarah Baartman and the Hottentot Venus here.
Learn more about Shelby County v. Holder here.
Learn more about the Voting Rights Act of 1965 here.