When our class “(Re)Writing History: American History in
Film and Literature” began, we first dealt with the issue for the racial
discrimination against African Americans through the Invisible Man of
Ralph Ellison. When I read and discussed in classes, I could think about the
unconscious racial discrimination in our society. I think in our society, many
people may discriminate unconsciously against the African Americans even though
they do not recognize their actions, thoughts, and words which contain the
implied meanings for racial discrimination. In the book of Ellison, Mr. Norton
who was wealthy white trustee of the narrator’s college was described as that
kind of people. In the Invisible Man, Mr. Norton is first illustrated as
a white man who does not discriminate against African Americans and tries to
understand their lives. However, at talks with the narrator and at the end of
the story, Mr. Norton’s actions and sayings are based on ignoring African
Americans implicitly. When I recognized his twofold character, I flashed upon my
mind about a great movie. A few years ago, the movie directed by Jordan Peele, “Get
Out” was so popular and attracted a lot of attention from the public in the
world. As one of the audiences who have interests in the movie, I also watched
it and could find the similar cases to the unconscious racial discrimination in
the movie.
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| Jordan Peele, Get Out, 2017 |
In the movie, while the male (Chris Washington) and female
(Rose Armitage) protagonists go to her parents’ home, they hit a deer in the
road. They call police officer to resolve the roadkill accident. But, at that
time, even though the driver was Rose, the police officer requests to Chris his
ID. At this scene, I thought it is an example of unconscious (maybe conscious)
discrimination against Chris (African American). If the driver was Chris, then
the situation might be understandable, but the police officer just requests
Chris to show his ID without any reason. It means that there is a basic concept
of discrimination against African American, and they might classify African American
as a potential criminal. Even though through the movie describes that issue
with the character of police officer, in our society, there will be more
various people who act like the police officer.
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| Jordan Peele, Get Out, 2017 |
Another character which made me confuse about the concept
for racism was Chris’ friend, Rod Williams. I think this issue might have
different perspective for the racial discrimination. For a long time, I have
thought the discrimination against African Americans was conducted mostly by the
white. However, I think that like Rod in the movie, some African Americans
discriminate themselves by undervaluing and avoiding connections with the white
due to their hasty concerns for the racism. Their concerns may be right, but it
is not always. In the movie, Rod stops Chris from meeting Rose and going to her
parents’ home because Rose is white woman, and her family are also white. Rod
has the concern and fear for the white by thinking they will inflict injury to
African Americans. I think this thought of Rod makes another reverse discrimination
against the white.
Of course, in the case of the movie “Get Out”, the main
topic is the white Americans’ discrimination against African American by using
hypnosis and brainwashing to make them as their slaves. Also, for the book of
Ralph Ellison, “the Invisible Man”, the theme is the racism as an
obstacle to individual identity. So, my points for this blog posting might be
very detail and peripheral ideas. However, I strongly believe that even though
our society has steadily developed and resolved a lot of social discrimination,
there are still many unconscious and conscious discrimination against
minorities. The big concepts and overall ideas for the discrimination are important
to remove them from our society, but, I also think specifically at the
individual level, we should break some prejudices which can cause discrimination
and change our mindset by thinking everyone has equal human right without superiority
and inferiority. As I briefly expressed my opinion for the discrimination described
in the book and movie, people should not discriminate others, and we also do
not need to restrict our lives in the stifling self-undervaluation.
By Kiyeong Kim (Terry)
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