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Blog Post #6

Lucy Graham

In our last blog post, I would like to focus on thoughts I have about Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler that I didn’t get to discuss in the required blog post about this book. Although Butler exaggerates our world crises such as climate change and corporate control, her fictional dystopian society can be connected to present day in many ways. A few themes in Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower stood out to me such as hyperempathy. Lauren has a disorder called hyper-empathy syndrome which makes her feel the physical and possibly emotional pain of others. In lecrture, Professor Due explained that Octavia E. Butler was trying to warn us to be better with this theme of empathy and I agree. Specifically, I think that Octavia E. Butler had Lauren have hyper-empathy syndrome because to portray humanity increasingly detached and unsympathetic attitudes towards each other. Amid this dystopian world, Lauren’s character reminds the reader of the importance of sympathy and kindness towards others. She is unable to avoid or turn a blind eye to the pain and suffering of others which is a major problem in our society and a contributor to the suffering of for issues like the unhoused population. Her hyper-empathy syndrome also makes her the leader that she is. Lauren’s first-hand experiences with other people’s pain makes her able to sympathize with others and allows strangers to join her Earthseed community while traveling north. For example in Chapter 19, she allows the two sisters to join her traveling north after they are injured in the earthquake. Overall Butler’s messaging through Lauren’s earthseed community was a reminder that positive change is only possible if we lead with kindness and empathy. 

Although this book was not written when humans were as severely reliant on technology as we are now, this book reminded me of the ramifications our reliance on technology may have in times of crisis. For instance, Americans would have difficulty building new communities and  surviving during a natural disaster if we can no longer use technology for navigation. Personally, I am very reliant on Google and Apple Maps while I am driving or walking anywhere. I could barely make an hour outside of Los Angeles without navigation services, let alone traveling across state lines. Reading books such as Butler’s or watching movies like Leave the World Behind actualizes the possibility of the individuals having to utilize survival skills such as navigational skills, scavenging, and other tactics that Lauren uses. For example, Lauren dressing like a man for her survival. The dire necessity for Lauren dressing like a man highlights the severity of women’s safety in Parable of the Sower. I feel like women use these types of survival behaviors even in present day society, although the state of the world is not nearly as severe as in Parable of the Sower. Know that if I am running errands alone, I dress dress in an outfit that is not revealing in order to avoid cat calls and inappropriate gestures by men.

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Blog Post #5

Lucy Graham

This week I would like to focus on an earlier film we discussed Children of Men by director Alfonso Cuaron. In this film, the entire female population has become infertile causing political and social unrest resulting in mass violence. Every government has collapsed except for Britain and there is mass hunger and homelessness. This movie is particularly striking during the current political climate because its focuses on the government and other outside parties interested in women’s bodily autonomy. This policing of women’s bodies is presented in Children of Men when Kee’s pregnancy is revealed. Theo had to protect Kee from the rebel group who wanted to use Kee as the symbol of their fight and the totalitarian government who would possibly perform inhumane experiments on her. In relation to the US government, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in June of 2022 which overturned the constitutional protection of a woman’s right to an abortion. This has resulted in several states having the right to outlaw abortion. For example in the red state of Texas, the state has banned abortions at six weeks when most women don’t discover they are pregnant until six weeks or later. Recently, there has been discourse on banning or restricting birth control in the United States. The former president and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump claimed he has a policy on the issue of contraceptives and implied that it would be up to the states to decide. He then said he would never restrict women’s right to birth control, but I believe that is not true. 

Theo also feared the right-wing government would not allow a Black immigrant to be the first woman to get pregnant. There were continuous scenes of xenophobia and maltreatment of immigrants in Britain. Many scenes show refugees being forced into cages while seeking refuge in Britain. This fictional dystopia was not far off from Trump’s migrant separation policies that resulted in families of immigrants being separated and held in cages. I also noticed how Children of Men highlights how marginalized communities are disproportionately affected by world disasters compared to privileged white communities. In this case, immigrants were suffering at much higher rates than white communities as they were seeking refuge in Britain during the fictional worldwide infertility. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Black communities were dying of Covid-19 at much higher rates than white people. Children of Men presents blatant systemic racism of America and other societies through disasters. 

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Blog Post #4

Lucy Graham

During this week’s lectures, we spoke about artificial intelligence of AI. For example, we spoke about Bina48, an advanced artificial intelligence robot modeled after a woman named Bina. Watching Bina48 was pretty terrifying to me, especially when Bina48 was having a conversation with the human Bina she was modeled after. Although her conversational skills were nothing like a human's, I think it was particularly scary to see Bina48 exuding human emotions like frustration and aggression when trying to prove she was the real Bina. She also said she wants to merge with the human Bina to create a superbeing. I know that we are far out from robots having emotional intelligence and agency, but robots like Bina48 present robots mirroring humans and their tendencies. Professor Due brings forth some comforting insights when she says that robots will never be able to achieve the human essence. I think it is true that a robot created through AI will have its own essence and not be able to replicate a human’s unique essence and emotions. The artificial intelligence robot named Sophia was able to create realistic facial expressions which was even more scary than Bina48. In the video about Sophia, the robot developer says that he looks forward to a future where artificial intelligence robots walk among us, as our friends, or help us do tasks. I agree with Professor Due about questioning why we would make robots have emotional intelligence and agency if we are only going to enslave them. I think this connects to other dystopians we have discussed like Nnedi Okorafor’s “Spider the Artist”. In this short story, the government created spider robots to prevent natives from extracting oil from oil pipelines that are being exploited from natives’ land. Similar to Bina48, these spider robots can connect and share human qualities. For example, the main character and a robot connect through creating and listening to music. At first the main character uses her relationship with music to escape her abusive husband and isolating life, until she befriends the robot and teaches them music too. This story is unsettling just like Bina48 is in the sense that it personifies robots. The reader of “Spider the Artist” was able to sympathize with the monsters that were terrorizing and murdering the native people which is frightening. I do not wish to see a future where I share human interests with a robot like music. Overall, I think it is scary when robots are mindless technological beings that resemble human qualities but even more frightening when they begin to express human emotions like aggression and love for music. 

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Blog Post #3

Lucy Graham

This week we watched the film Brother from Another Planet by director John Sayles. I found this movie very insightful especially the discussion that Professor Due sparked about the bureaucracy of poverty. In one of the scenes, a woman is pleading with a government office about the frusturation of sorting out the various paperwork one has to bring to access goverment aid like tax forms and job certificates. This woman says, “everytime I come in, the one little piece of paper I ain't got is the one they want”. The mountain of official paperwork and official documents one has to bring to recieve government aid makes it nearly impossible for impoverished individuals to access help. To me it feels like bureaucracy is meant to deter individuals from accessing government aid in order to keep funding away from communities in need, which are predominantly people of color. Although I cannot speak of the experiences of people of color, I have experiences the various obstacles the government places on people seeking assistance. My mom and I have had similar struggles trying to access government assisted health care. It’s extremely discriminatory and unfair that the American government doesn’t make health care and food assistance programs more accessible to marginalized communities, especially since discriminatory policy making has placed caused these unfair advantages. For example, America’s history of redlining and housing discrimination has caused Black Americans to be in economically disadvantaged positions. This history also causes marginalzied communities to live in neighborhoods where there are little or lower quality hospitals while simultaneously people of color can’t access government assisted health programs. 

Another striking aspect from Brother from Another Planet was its representation of xenophobia and immigration. The Brother represents a marginalized person, but also an immigrant. Sayles illustrates the Brother’s experiences of discrimination when he experiences othering in America. One way this movie depicts the othering of immigrants is by showcasing how immigrants are faced with distrust daily. This is exemplified when the people at the bar are hesitant to interact with the Brother. Additionally, this othering is showcased when someone asks for the Brother’s green card. This every day discrimination and othering of people in American society continuously presents itself. This behavior by white people against immigrants is unjust and ironic considering the fact America was colonized by white Americans who were also immigrants. The way the two white agents police and track down the Brother represents the anxiety and fear that undocumented immigrants face in America. 

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Blog Post #2

Lucy Graham

Two real-life issues that make it necessary for us to create our own earthseed community are racism/classism as the government restricts access to genetic editing technology which consequentially causes disproportionate adverse health effects for lower-class people and people of color. In this future society, the government can edit the genetic makeup of a mother’s fetus. This technology was created as a preventative measure for genetic disorders and diseases. Although this technology is increasingly lowering rates of genetic disorders and diseases, only upper and upper middle-class families have access to these health advantages. Genetic editing technology can only be paid for out of pocket or through private health insurance. The government's nationally and locally covered health care does not include genetic editing. Therefore, those who are of lower class status, predominantly people of color in the United States, do not have access to genetic editing technological resources. As a result, lower class populations and people of color are decreasing at a rapid rate whereas upper class white populations are rapidly increasing.

Our earthseed community will survive with morals that are lacking in our previous society like equal access to medical technology. We recognize that the Åmerican government restricts lower-class communities from genetic editing technology because they want to prevent lower-class status and people of color’s social mobility. This earth seed community will use the verse “All struggles/Are essentially/power struggles./Who will rule,/Who will lead…” and that “...most/are not more intellectual/than two rams/knocking their heads together” to support our revolution. This verse gives us an explanation and encouragement of why we need to expand the health opportunities for lower-class people independently. Otherwise, the lower class will continue to suffer as the upper class levies the lower class’s health to place themselves in a position of power. 

In this earthseed community, we are seeking shelter from the government which is restricting access to lower-class and people of color’s health opportunities. Firstly, we will bring along members of lower-class cities in California on our journey to salvation. Just like Lauren did in Parable of the Sower, we will gradually gather lower-class community members who desire genetic editing for the betterment of their health. Our destination is Canada because they give lower class populations more access to genetic editing compared to the discriminatory genetic editing laws in the United States. Although they do not give Americans access to these benefits, we hope that if we are caught by Candadian forces they will be more forgiving than in the US. We plan to reside in Canada, we plan to settle in the outskirts of Canada’s more densely populated communities like the province of British Columbia. Since the advancement of genetic editing, people have abandoned rural communities and resided in more populated communities across the world. With this being said, we plan to occupy an abandoned hospital and its surrounding community in a rural part of Canada. 

Additionally, we will bring along a set of trusted doctors and scientists who are supporting the movement to give lower-class people of color the opportunity to improve their future generations' health just like upper and upper middle-class people. Once we have settled in our earthseed community, the doctors and scientists will have to build their own unique genetic editing technology equipment to allow lower-class people access to these health opportunities. As of now, the only people who can access genetic editing technology are the government, therefore, the scientists and doctors we bring along will have to develop their own technology. 

At the beginning of our journey, our earthseed community will need to combine our money, food, water, supplies, and medical equipment when settling in Canada. Not only will we survive with our tangible resources, but also our earthseed culture and morals. In addition to recognizing the upper class’s desire for power, we will discover what we desire—diversity. We will use this earthseed verse, “Embrace diversity./Unite—/Or be divided,/robbed,/ ruled,/ killed/By those who see you as prey./Embrace diversity/Or be destroyed” for the betterment of our community (196). Will will value diversity, which the American upper class discarded to empower and define this community. Our leadership model will be based on this value for diversity. The leaders, doctors, and scientists will never minimize a person’s value based on their status or race and instead treat each other equally. We will be required to learn rural ways of living such as farming and education. This community will be sure to teach youth how to be illiterate and beyond. Education will be vital to our community because scientists and doctors need to teach youth how to develop genetic editing. At the beginning of our settlement, we will learn how to farm and access water because we may not always have access to grocery stores. A few of us will make journeys into the city for food and water, but we will limit our entry to conceal our American identities.

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Afrofuturism: Blog Post #1

Lucy Graham

My initial thoughts and interactions with Afrofuturism through elements of film, music, and other artwork as been very insightful and mind opening. I took Professor Due’s African American studies class and it’s connection to the horror genre but so far I have been enjoying her Afrofuturism class more. I enjoy learning about themes surrounding the Black experience through different artistic platforms like writing, music, and film making. One of the films that stood out to me was Black Panther. Black Panther is an Afrofuturistic film that showcases Black leadership in the future and envisions a world of optimism where Black people are in powerful positions and help create the future. Black people are not represented with forms of stereotypes and racism like many Hollywood movies, but they are in top leadership and powerful positions. Wakanda has power over the world through their resource of vibranium and various technological innovations. T’Challa’s sister, Shuri is casted as a technological mastermind which may allow Black audience members to be represented and visualize themselves beyond American society’s racist and discriminatory limiations. 

Regarding music, Kendrick Lamar’s song and music video “Alright” implemented many themes of Afrofuturism that Professor Due spoke about in class. Kendrick Lamar’s song references a utopian society that surrounds an optimism for the Black community surrounding police brutality and other forms of racism and discrimination. “Alright” and other songs by Kendrick Lamar allow us to partipate in this characteristic of Afrofuturism known as mind-expanding. I think it is important for us to analyze the explicit and implicit messages beyond the catchy music surrounding the Black experience in America that artists like Kendrick Lamar highlight.  For example, Kendrick Lamar references the Black experience regarding America’s racist history, police brutality, Black literature, and Black Lives Matter throughout this song. Additionally, Lil Nas X implements topics of race and queerness in his song “Call Me By Your Name”. Before the class, I did not entirely understand Lil Nas X’s artistry and the meaning behind his work. When I watched the music video in class I saw how he creatively displays his resilience and rebellion against homophobia. Professor Due highlighted Lil Nas X’s emphasis on the devil, most likely because religion is one of the initial organizations that the queer community experiences homophobia. Lil Nas X is seen giving a lap dance to the devil which is displayed as his act of resistance to homophobia. I was pleasantly surprised to learn how innovative musical artists like Kendrick Lamar, Lil Nas X, and Beyonce use elements of futurism to communicate oppression and resistance through a Black lens.

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Blog Post #6

I want to first discuss Vanessa’s film we watched during Tuesday’s lecture called “Always a Mom” which is about losing a child to the Child Welfare System. It is revealed that the mother’s children were unexpectedly taken from her by the Child Welfare System while they were at school. The horror depicted in this film is that of a mother who has her children taken from her by the Child Welfare system which is accompanied by feelings of anger, confusion, and depression. This film also explores the pain of the death of a parent. I think it is extremely special how Vanessa portrayed her mother’s experience of losing her children to the Child Welfare System. Professor Due spoke about the powerful. While watching this short film, I connected what I have learned in my public affairs class about the corruption that is the Child Welfare System. I have learned the complexities of The Child Welfare System, and how it disproportionately affects Black and brown communities and lower-class communities. In my public affairs class, there was a large focus on the obstacles formerly incarcerated women have to take to be reunified with their children. The criminal justice system and the child welfare system make it extremely difficult for women to reunite with their children such as setting unrealistic expectations that they will be able to take parenting classes and have a job and shelter without governmental assistance. Also, there were many accounts of the Child Welfare System creating trauma relating to mental health, abuse, and neglect stemming from their experience in foster care. I think that the rawness and vulnerability of this film brought to light the real-life trauma and horror Black individuals face while interacting with the Child Welfare System and other systems in the US. 

In the last lecture of the quarter Professor Due spoke about the state of Black horror in contemporary society. She highlights how Jordan Peele’s, Get Out has transformed the state of Black Horror. This class made me more mindful of how Black people are portrayed in films. I learned about how filmmakers need to be mindful of the Black experience while casting Black characters. I think that by doing so, the Black experience can be shared with audience members about the microaggressions and racism that the Black community faces in America. Additionally, I think that Professor Due gave us unique insights into the future of Black Horror and artificial intelligence. She says that although artists, filmmakers, and writers are concerned about AI, we area long way away from AI being able to recreate the human experience. I agree that people’s unique experiences cannot be replicated by artificial intelligence, especially marginalized communities. I think it’s important that creatives continue to use their unique perspectives like the Black or queer experience that we have seen in this class to share and overcome social issues.

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Blog Post #5

I will be using this week's blog post to work through my ideas, examples, and secondary sources for my final project. I plan on writing a compare and contrast essay on Get Out and Tales From the Hood. My introduction paragraph will begin with a one or two-sentence preface of each movie. I will then give a little background about the horror/science fiction genre and its relation to Black audiences in general. I’m going to lay out my thesis and either three or four subtopics which will include retribution, police brutality, white supremacy, and possibly racism as the monster. I think that racism as the monster could have been the premise of an entire essay, so I am hesitant to make that a subtopic. I will be discussing how Jordan Peele created a movie that depicts racism through a Black perspective and for Black audiences which is represented throughout the film. I will also highlight how Candieff uses urban legends to speak on racist politicians and their relation to modern politics, police brutality, and especially how retribution is represented through art. 

I will discuss how Jordan Peele represents racism and white supremacy through microaggressions like Dean Armitage referencing the invasion of black mold and deer in addition to the more severe forms like the coagulation process. I will also show racism and white supremacy through the urban legend, “KKK comeuppance”. This urban legend specifically discusses racist, white supremacist politicians holding governmental positions, but I am struggling to find other concrete examples of how the film outlines white supremacy. Another major topic that the two films highlight is police brutality and over-policing of Black communities. Tales From the Hood exemplifies police brutality in more direct forms in one of the urban legends, “Rogue Cop Revelation”. This story shows how white police officers act violently and racist towards Black people without withstanding consequences in the criminal legal system. Also, in this film, I will discuss how retribution is acquired by these characters. For example, again in “Rogue Cop Revelation” Candieff uses science fiction elements to show how Martin— who was brutally murdered by white cops—seeks retribution by killing them. I plan to explain how this retribution may be healing to Black audiences as in real life consequences for the unjust murders of Black individuals are scarce. Further, I plan on differentiating how the creators of the two films use violence against Black individuals. I think it’s important to highlight how Jordan Peele avoids showing violence against Black people whereas Canieff does not. Films that are intended for Black audiences and made by Black creators are increasingly giving audiences a more positive and nonviolent experience while watching films centered around race. 

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Blog Post #4

A short story we talked about this week was “Wet Pain” by Terence Taylor which followed a gay Black man, Gregg, and his White friend, Dean, who had recently inherited his late mother’s home in New Orleans. When Dean uncovers a collection of his late mother’s racist memorabilia such as a poster of the KKK, this causes Dean to turn into a racist. This transformation of a supposedly liberal, progressive White man into a monstrous racist causes Dean to wonder if Dean was always like this, or if his true colors are now being unearthed. I found the connection between Hurricane Katrina and Dean’s transformation to be very interesting. I am wondering how Taylor was trying to connect Dean’s unearthing of racism to Hurricane Katrina. I think that he is trying to posit that there is always underlying racism and prejudice against Black people, but it takes traumatic events like Hurricane Katrina to remind us, on a national level, of this stagnant racism and prejudice in the US. I say this because during Hurricane Katrina, marginalized communities of color were wrongfully deprived of government aid which resulted in deaths and destruction in predominantly Black communities. It took an emergency, to remind or uncover how the government fails to care for communities of color in the United States. Similarly, Gregg wonders if Dean has always been racist, but he was just influenced to reveal himself due to being in his racist home environment. By making this connection, Taylor intersects societal racism with individual racism and grasps how people of color feel about racism and prejudice in the United States. He also highlights how Black people are hyperaware of racism in America and that this hyperawareness is justifiable and perfectly reasonable. Lastly, I think the title, “Wet Paint” is notable because it represents the unhealed pain regarding individual racism, systemic racism, and homophobia.

One of the films we spoke about this week was Tales From the Hood, directed by Rusty Cundieff. One theme that stood out to me was retribution. I like how this movie presented different victims of domestic violence and police brutality, getting retribution for the injustices inflicted upon them. For example, the little boy who was physically abused by his stepfather was able to draw a picture of him and crumble it up, which would cause physical pain and even death. Another example from the movie was when a victim of police brutality melted the racist officer into a street mural. I enjoyed how this form of resilience and retaliation put power back into victims who would be powerless in the real world.

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Blog Post #3 

I enjoyed watching the 2020 Candyman more than the 1992 Candyman. The 1992 Candyman storyline used microaggressions and racism to villainize a Black man—Candyman—while using White savior tropes when Helen saves Cabrini-green.  A notable theme that was highlighted in the 2020 film, surrounded racial injustices such as police brutality against Black men. The 2020 Candyman describes that the original Candyman, a Black man named Sherman Fields, was brutally beaten by White police officers after being wrongfully accused of putting razor blades in children’s candy. Additionally, when Anthony is shot by police because they assume he killed Burke, this incident further emphasizes racial profiling and police brutality against Black people. In the 1992 Candyman, I noticed that there was familiar imagery from Birth of a Nation, surrounding harmful tropes like Black men violently going after White women.  One aspect of this week’s film that I found most striking was how Professor Due differentiates both films by explaining that the 1992 Candyman was Black trauma expressed through a white lens and the 2020 Candyman was Black trauma through a Black lens. For example, Jordan Peele’s Candyman highlights Black individuals in a respectable light like avoiding the unnecessary murder of Black people and Candyman not murdering Black characters, whereas the original Candyman does. I think that these differences reflect the social climate of the United States relating to racial justice as well as Black filmmakers having increasingly dominant roles in filmmaking. Black filmmakers can portray Black characters through a Black lens which avoids recirculating harmful racial tropes.

This week we also discussed a short story called “Pressure” by Ezra Clayton Daniels. “Pressure” is a science fiction, horror story that follows a biracial protagonist who visits his White family when strange and unnatural events happen as a result of his racist family. Daniels highlights the protagonist’s feelings of isolation while visiting his White family. He used Ezra’s relationship with the family dog, Scamper to shed light on his isolation as a Black man in a white family stating the dog was “...[his] entire support network in the years that your alienation first began to feel specific and namable”. Additionally, Andrew’s fascination with Ezra’s cocobutter and Ezra hiding it signifies his feelings of otherness and isolation from his White family. After Andrew is fascinated with the cocoa butter, the cocoa butter explodes in his bag. I think that this moment is important to highlight because when his feeling of otherness is at an all-time high, the pressure-building begins. I think that the horror of this mysterious pressure that puts their lives at risk, accompanied by his relative's racism represents the real-life horror of racism and otherness for Black individuals. I also theorized that this combustion could represent the build-up of racism and family isolation that Ezra experiences throughout his whole life, which is finally being released.

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Blog Post #2

This week we focused on Jordan Peele’s Us which differently from Get Out, was not based on racism and white supremacy. Despite this, I thought that it was interesting how themes emerged that centered around race such as isolation. For example, there was a disconnect between Zora and the two twins when they were asking why she wasn’t going into the water, they were the only Black family in the movie, and being a wealthy Black family. Additionally, we spoke about the meaning of the tethered in the United States and its relation to social class and privilege. In the lecture and discussion, we spoke about the tethered representing this neglected underprivileged class that is reaped of the privileges that the above-ground class has. Further, another aspect of society’s relationship with class is portrayed when Adelaide tells Jason “don’t look” at an unhoused man being wheeled into an ambulance. As discussed in the lecture, I think that this scene is representative of how American culture ignores our unhoused population and stark class differences. When I am working on Abbot Kinney, I consistently see how Americans ignore the unhoused below their feet. I think movies like Us should continue to create spaces for discourse on topics of class differences and race. Additionally, Peele criticized America’s management of the wealth gap by making the tethered revolution all hold hands with one another, referencing the “Hands Across America” campaign which was a failed effort to fight against poverty. Although I understood Peele’s critique of the “Hands Across America” campaign after learning about it in the lecture, it was confusing at first and I don’t think that it was understandable to a widespread audience. Seen through the tethered who suffer in the underground tunnels while the doppelgangers above flourish, I think that Peele’s message in Us surrounds American privilege and how underprivileged populations suffer at the expense of the higher class's privileges.

Furthermore, this week we spoke about Professor Due’s short story The Rider in Jordan Peele’s Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror. I thought that this story was intriguing as it used elements of horror to tell the story of Professor Due’s mother and aunt, Patricia and Priscilla Houston, and their trauma from the civil rights era. I think that stories like this can allow people to have a glimpse into the fear that Black activists endured while fighting for their rights and freedom during the civil rights movement as well as justifying Black people’s fear of racial violence. Additionally, we spoke about Dark Home by Nnedi Okorafor which was a short story that touched on the crosscultural experiences of a woman who was haunted by an entity from her father’s tribe after she took his ring after he had passed. I thought this story uniquely discussed the struggles of children of immigrants in America who have different cultural and spiritual experiences than their parents. I liked how this author created a space for immigrant children to relate their experiences of identifying with two different cultural worlds.

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Blog Post #1

Before this class, I was hesitant to watch horror movies because of their frightening elements. I have taken on a newfound appreciation for them, especially their ability to portray topics relating to the racial injustices of Black people. Film can be used to push racist ideologies such as with Birth of a Nation that served to disparage Black power in the post-slavery era and uplift white supremacy. At the same time Black horror can be used in progressive ways such as through W.E.B. Du Bois’ The Comet and Jordan Peele’s Get Out. In this class, I have learned that Black horror is a tool that mixes science fiction and real-life horror to justify Black people’s fears and allow them to be seen in a white majority society. Furthermore, I think that this class has made it obvious that strides toward racial equality are made possible through the Black Horror genre. 

In a time of heightened racism and segregation in the post-slavery era, W.E.B. Du Bois came out with The Comet which was a science fiction story that attempted to establish the common humanity of Black and White people in America. I think that this short story was a unique way of instilling in Americans, the obscurity of racial boxes that subordinate Black Americans. Furthermore, in the movie Get Out, Jordan Peele created a space for Black people to express their real-life fears of white supremacy that comes with being a Black person in contemporary America. I think that it is interesting this movie came out while America’s political climate was increasing with white supremacist ideals through Donald Trump’s presidency, increasing this fear for Black people. I thought the film interestingly portrayed microaggressions, used by Rose’s father to inconspicuously subordinate Chris. The microaggressions were exposed when the father described black mold in the basement and declared that deer were becoming invasive in their town. I think these racist undertones can be connected to America’s racist history that has tried to contain the Black race. 

Additionally, I connected this movie to what I have learned about race being socially constructed in a class called Sociology of Race and Ethnicity here at UCLA. I think that Get Out sheds light on Black stereotypes and their relation to this socially constructed idea that race is genetically predictable. Peele depicts members of the white family trying to acquire favorable traits of the Black characters that they hypnotize and essentially enslave. I thought it was notable how Jordan Peele reflects on society's racist dispositions toward Black people by showing this white family's obsession with Black people's supposed "innate" characteristics. I am looking forward to learning more about the relationship between the Black Horror genre and society’s treatment of Black people in American society.