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The Double Entendres of Dean Armitage

When I rewatched Get Out for this class, I was taken aback by how every single piece of dialogue built up to the climax of the Armitage kidnapping and brainwashing ring. Of course on my first watch, being unaware of this reveal, I didn’t pick up on many of these lines. So, in this blog post I want to specifically analyze the double entendres said by Dean Armitage.

The first example of this dialogue is when Dean relishes in the killing of the deer in Rose and Chris’ car accident: “one down, a couple hundred thousand to go… I do not like the

 deer, I’m sick of it. They’re taking over. They’re like rats. They’re destroying the ecosystem. I see a dead deer on the side of the road, I think to myself, that’s a start.” Here, Dean expresses his disdain for black people thinly veiled through the symbol of a deer. He clearly believes that the American black population, which exists as a result of white people forcibly bringing people from Africa to enslave and terrorize, is too large and has grown too powerful. When he says “they’re destroying the ecosystem,” he is not talking about the environmental system but rather the order of society. Dean celebrates the murder of black people as “a start” of restoring the white supremacy of the antebellum period and denounces the relative freedom of contemporary black people. Rose and Missy’s reactions both show that they see through the deer substitution while Chris awkwardly smiles, unaware of the true meaning of this tirade. 

Dean then describes himself as a traveler who “[keeps] bringing souvenirs back.” Knowing the true business of the Armistads, these souvenirs likely include human bodies. He then shows Chris his father’s portrait, describing his father’s loss to Jesse Owens, “Hitler’s up there with all of his perfect Aryan race bullshit.” To Chris this may seem like Dean attempting to validate the equality of black people, but in reality, this is Dean plotting to exploit black bodies for their mythologized athletic superiority. 

The pair then move to the kitchen. As they pass the basement Dean states: “we had to seal it up. Some black mold down there.” Here, Dean again uses a symbol as a stand in for black people. This statement reaffirms his belief that the black population is too numerous, and by comparing black people to mold he also reiterates the belief that black people reproduce too much and too quickly. This basement of course is used for the brain transplant procedure, which again shows that he regards the black captives as a hazardous infestation. When they reach the kitchen, Dean states: “my mother loved her kitchen, so we keep a piece of her in here.” The camera then pans to Georgina, marking an immediate tone shift. The “piece of her” is of course her brain which has been transplanted in a black body, effectively colonizing it. Georgina is immediately off, she does not speak or carry herself like a black woman. 

When the pair exit to view the backyard, they see the black groundskeeper. Dean states: “I know what you’re thinking… white family, black servants… we hired Georgina and Walter to help care for my parents. When they died, I couldn’t bear to let them go… But boy, I hate the way it looks.” Dean attempts to make Christ comfortable with the fact that the Armistads are a “white family” with “black servants.” The camera capturing the massive mansion only reinforces the image of a white planter family exploiting the labor of black “servants.” Knowing the outcome of this movie, the “hiring” of Georgina and Walter was kidnapping, and the “care” provided by them is simply the use of their bodies as vessels to hold the white consciences. When Dean describes how after his parents died he “couldn’t bear to let them go,” Chris surely believes the family had formed a connection with their workers. On the contrary, Dean is describing how he could not bear to let his parents’ end with their natural life, and artificially extended their lives by exploiting black bodies. He concludes by stating that he “[hates] the way it looks.” To Chris, it seems like Dean is expressing an awareness of the history of black laborers benefitting white families while in reality, Dean is actually expressing the disdain for his parents inhabiting black bodies. 

When Jeremy recalls the story of Rose biting a boy’s tongue in highschool, Dean tells Chris: “you better be careful.” Dean masks this threat as a joke. When Jeremey fixates on MMA, Dean sniffles, which seems to be some kind of signal. Through this doublespeak, Dean simultaneously attempts to make Chris feel comfortable while he expresses his disdain for black people. This concept can be applied to the way white liberals and corporations performatively attempt to express solidarity with black people while often repackaging racist rhetoric in the process. 

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Beloved and the Slavery’s Hauntings of the Black Family

Reading Beloved as a 16 year old in a public high school in California was a formative moment for me. I had never learned anything in my education that focused on black narratives, and despite the horrors of the novel I became entirely immersed in my reading. It showed me how my blackness allowed me to understand and catch details that my nonblack peers missed, and I wonder what it must be like to have that advantage in every section of every class for your whole life. I’ll admit I was a bit anxious about watching the movie because of the horrific events that take place in the book. Upon watching, I think the book is more horrifying than the movie, maybe because I was already prepped going into the movie viewing. 

The most prevalent theme in this story is slavery’s hauntings on the black family. Beloved, like slavery, separates a mother from her children when Howard and Bugler are forced to run away due to their sister’s violent tantrums. As Sethe and Paul D attempt to find joy in their present as freed black people, the traumas they endured during their enslavement stifle their relationship. Sethe’s traumas are materialized in the form of Beloved, who drains her of her life force. Their traumas have left them emotionally unavailable, yet they gravitate towards each other because no one else could understand their experiences. 

Though the movie does capture imagery from the novel, I don’t think a work like Beloved from an author like Toni Morrison can be adapted and maintain the same impact without Morrison’s voice. Unlike in other works, Morrison as an author is as important to any of her writings as any character or scene is, so seeing the story retold felt thin. I also found many of the acting choices to be distracting. 

I truly believe that the gender and racial ideologies stemming from the chattel slavery period are continuously reproduced in many interpersonal dynamics to this day. As a person born out of an abusive interracial relationship between my black mother and white father, I saw and experienced many of these legacies throughout my childhood and into my adulthood. I’ve also seen it reproduced in my extended family. In many black families, pain and suffering at the hands of relatives are pressured into being kept secret. I understand that in my grandmother’s time, familial connections literally meant survival, even if those connections had intense secrets and complications. Of course, there are people who have progressed past these dynamics, but that requires effort and compassion (in order to be allies) that many refuse. On the other hand, black people must come to terms with difficult experiences and acknowledge where the precedents for those experiences came from, which can be an excruciating process that many refuse as well. Though I love members of my family, as a person who struggles pretending I often feel like I have no space within it.

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Thoughts on The Girl With All the Gifts

When I began watching this movie, it seemed very familiar. During the scene where Sargeant Parks put his arm up to the kid’s face, I realized that I actually had previously watched this movie. This movie managed to spur lots of thoughts even the second time around. I remember being very confused on why Melanie decided to open the pods when I watched it some years ago, but this time I saw it through a different lens. 

The children in this army base are extremely restricted and are not referred to or treated as humans. I think the author of the book wanted their condition to be an allegory for the treatment of people of color. They are criminalized for how they are born and presumed guilty. The orange jumpsuits harken to current prison uniforms as do their cells. There is an intense dehumanization from those with authority around them. The army officers refuse to refer to them as anything other than “it.” When Melanie asks Ms. Justineau for reassurance that there are no bad things in the base, it’s clear her teacher reflects upon the way these children are treated by said authorities. Ms. Justineau serves as a representation of an ally. 

When the hungries topple the fence of the base, their revolution begins. As they do this, they increase their own numbers by converting people into their own kind. Despite the chaos, Melanie is still subjected to fears and dehumanization from those who she has been aiding and protecting. This is something we see in real life tragedies, the racism from Ukrainians fleeing their country is a prominent example of this. Unlike WEB Dubois “Comet,” in real life chaos does not mean that people become blind to other’s gender, race, or other vulnerable characteristics. 

The “human” characters see the hungries’ revolution as an end to humanity, but Melanie does not. When she sets the pods aflame she tells Sergeant Parks, “it’s not over, it’s just not yours anymore.” This land really stood out to me this watch. When people say that the world will end with climate change, the same principle applies. If we eradicate our own species in the process of degrading nature around us, the world will not end. It just won’t be ours anymore. 

After finishing the movie, I immediately went online to do some more digging. I found a lost chapter of the book that is several years after the revolution which fascinated me. A third generation emerges, and they are more efficient than any human. They don’t really need to eat or sleep. The second generation takes care of the first generation by feeding them (I of course wonder what they’re feeding them with all of “humanity” gone). Ms. Justineau continues teaching the kids, and notes that the third generation’s minds are so sharp that she can barely keep up herself. This chapter really made the evolution perspective of this story clear to me. 

I did enjoy that this movie ended the way it did. I thought it was really interesting to show the role reversal between Melanie and Justineau. In the start of the movie, Melanie is incredibly restrained and probably has never seen the sun or smelled fresh air. In the end of the movie, Melanie has earned her freedom while Ms. Justineau needs to remain in the airlocked pod.

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Jordan Peele’s Support of Israel

Though his films all have a central theme of oppression and the right for the oppressed to rebel, to many peoples’ surprise Jordan Peele signed the letter addressed to Joe Biden thanking him for funding the Israeli genocide of the native Palestinian peoples. When Chris fights back against the Armitages’ in Get Out, his violence is not only depicted as necessary but triumphant. In Us, the violence against the tethered is painted in a similar narrative. Yet, in the real world oppressor and oppressed dynamic between the subjugated Palestinians and the oppressive, apartheid Israeli state, Jordan surprisingly aligned himself with the state that is carpet bombing civilians.

The destruction occurring in the Gaza strip is far more horrifying than any Hollywood thriller could possibly be. Entire families are being wiped off the earth, entire neighborhoods turned to rubble. Food, water, internet, fuel and electricity are all absent in the Gaza strip and the aid from neighboring countries is currently blocked from entry. A people with no organized military are being subjected to the equivalent of the atomic bomb in one of the most densely populated zones in the entire world. 

As a racial peer of Jordan’s, being half black and half white, the intertwining of the Palestinian struggle and the black American struggle is blatant. We are both presumed guilty and police states follow a policy of shoot first, ask questions later. Our parents and grandparents, like the Palestinians, know what it is like for “your” state to bomb your people. Israel would not be able to carry out the decades of subjugation without the billions of US aid, which Israel then uses to develop new war technology that is then shipped back to the US (and around the world). One example is the facial recognition tech that cops use to target organizers.

Like in the 2020 Candyman, Palestinians also remember their martyrs. They hang posters of them and keep their memories alive. It's how they cope with the fact that this happened, that it's still happening. Undoubtedly, many of these posters have been lost in the brutal bombing of the Gaza strip. As black Americans we have immense pain in our histories, as do the people of Palestine. Stolen from our homes, subjugated for our race and humiliated we share a common struggle. 

A few years ago, I adopted a policy of not deifying celebrities. I think 2020 showed many that their biggest allegiance is not to their race, where they came from or to the same moral systems that many of us hold dearly; it’s to their class. Their class of being the ultra wealthy, ultra powerful. It’s a shame that someone who has created thought provoking works centering oppression would support the genocide of an entire people. Frankly to me, it’s more confusing than anything else. But we do know that people who have spoken for Palestine have lost connections to major companies. Perhaps this motivated Peele, perhaps we will never know why he signed the letter. As human beings, I believe we have the responsibility to call Israel what it is: a colonial apartheid state. Protest, use your voice, donate, and boycott Starbucks, McDonald’s and Disney. Free Palestine.

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The “Mole People” of Las Vegas and Us

When I first watched Us I was fascinated with the story. Years later, I learned about a group of people who refer to themselves as the mole people. The mole people are a group of unhoused Americans who live underneath the Las Vegas strip in tunnels and sewers. These tunnels and underground structures provide a form of shelter as opposed to being on the street. Here, they are both sheltered from potential violence and harassment from the general population as well as from the elements. Many have created relatively intricate shelters for themselves with furniture and other goods. There are actually a good number of videos of outsiders going into these societies, often with members of this community as guides. The people in this community seem to be rather friendly, and even crack jokes about their situations to make light of it. Though these tunnels may provide some advantages to living on the street, these people live without sunlight, access to emergency services, and experience flooding when it rains. When rewatching Us for this class, I couldn’t look at this story the same knowing that people living underground is a reality. 

This time around, Us became a metaphor for homelessness. Some parts of the condition of the tethered is a reality for people today. Both groups go long periods without being exposed to the sun or wind, eat whenever possible and lack the freedom that those of us who live above ground in shelters have. 

Despite this, just like the tethered, the mole people are Americans just as you and I. I think Red and Adeline reveal an important truth about humanity: our conditions shape us greatly. Where previously tethered Adeline finds her voice above ground and assimilates into society, Red’s voice weakens greatly and is hardened by a  desire for revenge. I think with these two characters Peele is making the point that if you take one person and put them in a scenario where they have a comfortable life, they will be “regular” members of society. On the other hand, if someone is forced into a lack of resources leaving them to struggle for survival, it will impact their behaviors and health. 

In a previous course I took, a scholar expressed frustration that so many saw mental illness as a cause of homelessness rather than a possible effect. I think when people see the homeless population, they struggle to acknowledge how the realities of being unhoused may have led people to have particular struggles. Of course not knowing where your next meal will come from and when it may be would be bad for your mental health. Of course people walking past you with disgust or indifference would be bad for your mental health. Of course having to sleep on cold concrete with no silence or peace would be bad for your mental health. 

It was very powerful for me this time when asked who they are, Red replied with “we’re Americans.” This point is driven home when Red lists that they have teeth and blood just like us. I wonder how many other underground societies exist that we above ground are completely unaware of. Those living in underground societies are more similar to us than different. They are Americans.

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Examining Interracial Couplings in Get Out and “The Comet”

Though these stories are vastly different, they both are centered around the pairing of a white woman and a black man. In “The Comet,” this pairing is entirely accidental. Both characters are seemingly spared from a great tragedy which appears to have wiped out the entire human population. On the other hand, the interracial coupling in Get Out is the other side of the coin: a product of intentionally seeking out a person due to their skin color. But the pairing in Peele’s work is more than intentional; it is insidious. 

Rose seeks out Chris not solely because of his race, but also because of the potential capital that her and her family can gain at the expense of Chris’ autonomy and wellbeing. Where in “The Comet” the tragedy allows these two characters to briefly see beyond skin color and see each other’s humanity, the coupling in Get Out only furthers these racial divides. The Armitages see black people as superhuman in physical capabilities while simultaneously seeing us as subhuman in mental capacities, specifically with “determination.” 

Ironically, Rose’s role in this scheme causes her to lose her humanity. She spends months slowly infiltrating her victims’ lives while learning their vulnerabilities and assumably sharing her own (whether real or fake). This process occurs with the knowledge that her family will eventually kidnap and commodify the victims’ bodies. We can assume that the Armitage elders taught her not to see black people as entirely human. But Rose spends months becoming extremely intimate with these people, presumably physically as well, stalking her prey. I wonder what must happen in your brain to be able to fake deep intimacy with people while seeing them as subhuman and knowing the horrific fate ahead, yet feeling no empathy or regret. Rose creates a unique closeness with the victims that no other member of the family has. She gives up her human emotions, her sincerity, and even her body all for her family’s scheme and thus becomes inhuman. 

To me, Rose is probably the creepiest Armitage because of this. This is exemplified in the scene where she is on the phone with Rod eating dry cereal with her glass of milk. She has human emotions in her voice but they are completely unfound in her face. She is a robot that can only perform human emotions rather than feel them. Her father hides behind thinly veiled double entendres expressing his hatred for black people. Jeremy hardly conceals his true feelings. Misty creates a mirage which makes it difficult to see her true feelings, but uses her mother position to keep the other family members in character. Rose, on the other hand, uses her knowledge of black struggles to pull victims deeper into trusting her, to make them think she “gets it.” She exploits black pain in order to cause more of it.

I think it's worth noting that both of these stories are set (at least partially) in New York City, which is generally thought of as progressive. When people think of the horrors of American racism, they primarily think of the South. But, whether it's 1920 or 2017, so called progressive areas have been far from a safe space for black people. The vigilantes and segregation of the 1920s have become militarized state sanctioned police brutality. 

In the end, like Rose, Julia sheds her human connection with Jim in favor of her position within white supremacy. The man who she looked favorably upon, at least for a moment, goes back to being “dirt beneath her feet” the minute she is reconnected with her familial relations.