by Walter G. Tarrow

“All I know is sometimes, if there’s too many white people, I get nervous, you know.”

In the mind of a black American, beneath that skin of a different color, lives the seemingly eternal question… what is really behind those peaceable and welcoming faces of white middle and upper class Americans?

Jordan Peele has set aside his wild comedic energies to craft a horror thriller that builds from subtly creepy moments of tension into a most extreme extension of where beliefs and actions about racial stereotypes might lead us, regarding racism, slavery and eugenics, at least metaphorically. Or one would hope only metaphorically.

A white girl takes her black boyfriend Chris to meet her wealthy white family, the Armitages, and their friends on their remote estate. Through Peele lingering on reaction shot after reaction shot, Chris, and we, come to question and doubt the warm reception, the smiles, the genteel small talk. What begins as awkward dinner conversation builds to more disturbing and sinister realizations as the family’s group of friends descend on the estate for an annual party.

At the party, the guests treat Chris with respect, admiration, even reverence. Well beyond, “some of my best friends are black” attitudes. Even the sole other black man in attendance, along with the Armitages’ black housekeeper and groundskeeper, behave very Anglocentric, prim and proper. Sinister indeed.

Soon after, the horror escalates as Chris finds himself at the mercy of their absolute love. The film then delivers classic tropes of an escape thriller very believably. Peele delivers the expected, but avoids the clichés, in a most satisfactory way.

A tight film expertly executed that could start discussions worth having. Even if you’re not racist.

4 Comments

Free Market Man
May 22, 2017
Sounds like a liberal conundrum, and dichotomy of opposites, a "perfect storm" liberals love and then find out they are the racists in the room. The party that says they are the party of inclusion, gay rights, and racial equality has just the opposite history - Democrats were the plantation and slave owners. But in a strange twist of history and colossal lying by liberals, changing history books and narratives - the party of racists, bigots, and homophobes has taken the yoke off their shoulders and somewhat successfully (with media collusion) placed it upon Republicans. Lincoln, the emancipator, was a Republican, not a Democrat. Strange isn't it - most think he was a Democrat if you ask young minds full of mush taught from today's lying history books. Why, if he was freeing the slaves, he had to be a Democrat - right? The would-be great emancipator was Lincoln's rival in the previous election (1856) before Lincoln won in 1860 - John Charles Fremont - the famous explorer of the west and Civil War general. Lincoln learned well from Fremont, however he didn't believe in emancipation until the war turned to the South's favor early in the Civil War. Then he changed his tune and adopted Fremont's refrain. The resulting carpetbaggers from the North to invade the South and pick-up land and businesses cheap, they were no better than those they ousted. Any slave staying in the South was turned into a share-cropper. Instead of a slave to an owner, they were slave to the land to make a living, paying rent to farm in the form of crops or cash. They were "free" in name only, but not really free. Ironic isn't it? If the script were just the opposite, do you think a black family would act the same as the white one described with the resulting ending? If you think otherwise, either you're not being honest with yourself or you're delusional. If you want to see a great movie to study race relations, watch "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner", a human look about love between two from different races and the flurry of angst and racial stereotypes of family and friends.
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Editor
May 22, 2017
As a lifelong student of history and a substitute teacher for more than a few years, I have never heard nor seen any reference by young people to Lincoln being a Democrat. Furthermore, anybody who has even a basic understanding of history knows the Democratic and Republican Parties of 150 years ago were very different and they gradually switched sides on racial issues. The Democratic South abruptly switched to the Republican side in 1964 to support Goldwater after Lyndon Johnson shepherded the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress. The South has voted decidedly Republican ever since, with a few exceptions. And slaves were "free" in name only during the presidential administrations of many Republicans.
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Free Market Man
May 23, 2017
There was no bigger racist than President Johnson and if you knew history, you would know that. He shepherded the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through because it was pushed by Bobby Kennedy and he wasn't going to back down from "that weasel Lyndon". It was all for more votes, not equality. And the African-American's have been modern slaves to the Democrat party on Uncle Sam's plantations (ghettos and poor sections of cities and towns). The ones that throw off the yoke of modern slavery and think for themselves and break out of the Democrat mold reach a level of success equal to other races. Since they don't follow the Democrat mantra, the are called despicable things and "Uncle Toms." The Republican party offers opportunity. The Democrats offer more of the same - just vote for us the next time or else we'll verbally (and sometimes physically) attack you!
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Editor
May 23, 2017
JC Watts' father, noting his son was a Republican congressman, said, "A black person voting for a Republican is like a chicken voting for Col. Sanders." So I don't know history. Johnson, like so many Southern Democrats, indeed was a racist at one time. You don't seem to believe people can change. Hillary Clinton once said she opposed same sex marriage, but changed her mind. How awful! "The foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
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