March 29, 2017
Page 15
A Film to Seep into your Consciousness
C ontinued From p age 4
ly to the music, which includes a
disturbingly buoyant 1930s hunt-
ing song (“Run Rabbit Run”) and
whose introduction to Chris’s
world is accompanied by Childish
Gambino’s admonition to “stay
woke” in the song “Redbone.” A
haunting original song by Michael
Abels (who created the excellent
and creepy soundtrack) opens
and closes the film, entreating a
“brother” in Swahili to listen to
the elders, listen to the truth, run
far away, and save himself.
A few other things to notice:
Watch Chris manage, sub-
merge, deny, and apologize for his
fears and misgivings, especially
to Rose. In most cases, those very
moments contain clues of what’s
to come, yet the impulse to ad-
dress his experience turns to ash
in Chris’s mouth. Chris’s behavior
felt very familiar to me; far from a
foolish horror-movie protagonist,
Chris is simply doing what people
who are othered typically do be-
cause of the high cost of naming or
even recognizing the truth of their
experience. Perhaps if we were to
right-size our expectations, “stay-
ing woke” would mean recogniz-
ing that for a marginalized person
to minimize his observations of
his own experiences in this way is
to act like a foolish horror-movie
protagonist.
Watch also for Rod’s struggles
to advocate for Chris. A scene
where he attempts to enlist help
from three police officers of color
is especially painful. Notice how
the black woman cop uses her own
adoption of a “uniform” to dispute
Rod’s diagnosis of what is hap-
pening.
The film contains several ex-
amples of trade in black bodies.
This is a particularly resonant part
of black experience, yet we are
not at all alert to it in this culture.
Michelle Alexander has explained
how state-sponsored oppression of
black people has morphed from
slavery to Jim Crow to mass in-
carceration; this film suggests that
we ought to be alert to a similarly
resilient practice of trade in black
bodies.
Hypnosis figures prominent-
ly in the film as a means of con-
trolling black people’s response to
oppression. This struck me as pro-
foundly resonant. In what ways do
we instruct and train black people
to, in a sense, marginalize them-
selves?
Finally, the film contains the
idea of a “sunken place” from
which a black person retains a
limited ability to see what is hap-
pening to him or her but cannot
respond. I have been stewing
on how that metaphor manifests
in real life, how it is that black
people and other people of color
can lose the ability to see their
own oppression and to act to in-
terrupt it. At times it feels like
they have allowed themselves to
be enlisted by white supremacy;
I have also often experienced a
kind of silencing that I did not
at all sign up for. Whatever your
social location, reflecting on the
means that are used to silence
black people and other margin-
alized folks has the potential to
be an important part of your own
awakening.
Peele has accomplished some-
thing that is worthy of your most
focused attention. See the film for
fun -- but don’t stop there. Allow
it to seep into your consciousness
and to trouble you.
Recognize that when black
folks exit the theater, they walk
back out into a world where they
face real danger -- even and in
some ways especially -- at the
hands of well-meaning white peo-
ple. Listen to the elders; listen for
the truth.
Darleen Ortega is a judge on
the Oregon Court of Appeals and
the first woman of color to serve
in that capacity. Her movie review
column Opinionated Judge ap-
pears regularly in The Portland
Observer. Find her movie blog at
opinionatedjudge.blogspot.com.
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C ALENDAR
March 2017
SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY
19
20
21
22
23
Swallows Return
to San Juan
Capistrano
26
Make up Your own
Holiday Day
Poet Robert Frost
born, 1874
1st Day of Spring
Louis Sachar born,
1954
27
Alaska hit by 8.4
Earthquake (1964)
FRIDAY
24
Children’s Poetry Day
National Teen-Agers
Day
Single Parents’ Day
National Goof Off
Day
National Sing-Out Day
United Nations
World Water Day
Toast Day
Political Leader
Patrick Henry
declared, “Give me
liberty...”, 1775
Harry Houdini born,
1874
Exxon Valdez runs
aground (1989)
28
29
30
31
“Greatest Show on
Earth” formed
1881
Doreen Cronin
Birthday
R
Coca-Cola was
Invented in 1886
Armed Forces left
Vietnam (1973)
Doctor’s Day
Artist Vincent van
Gogh born, 1853
Tater Day
Mathematician Rene
Descartes born,
1596
SATURDAY
25
Pancakes First
Made (1882)
Sculptor Gutzon
Borglum born,
1871