blackhorrorthoughts

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Blog Post #6: Sorry to Bother You

Sorry to Bother You, before this class, was a movie that I put on in the background a few months ago and ended up tuning back into at random times with absolute shock and confusion. I put the movie on because the premise was intriguing: a man who uses a “white voice” to succeed in his telemarketing calls. The short clips of it on Netflix that they showed as a preview also hooked me because of the surrealist imagery where he would transport into the homes of the people he was calling. I didn’t expect at all to find that I would watch a movie that talked so heavily about themes like unions, capitalism and double consciousness, or even a morphing of the main character into a horse hybrid… thing. After watching the movie initially, I wrote it off as something I didn’t really understand and never took the time to look further into it.

One of the first things I thought of when the topic of code switching and playing up a “white voice” to succeed was my experience with my name. On paper, my name looks like that of a white person’s, and I’ve gotten feedback from current and previous coworkers that they would’ve expected me to be white when they first saw my name. Instead, I am a Punjabi woman and visibly non-Caucasian, often mistaken for Mexican because of the confusion my name brings. There’s an innocent reason my name isn’t a typical Sikh name that the rest of my family has—my sister, who was 4 at the time my mom was pregnant with me, gave me the name “Emmy” after one of the main characters in Dragon Tales. Someone, whoever wrote down my name on my certificate, heard it wrong and penned it down as “Amy.” A decision by a child and a benign mistake has led to my name holding more privilege than my siblings, Manveer and Kirenroop, solely because I am perceived as white on an application or resume.

Further, I finally learned what the purpose of the Equisapien’s was after properly paying attention to the plot of the movie. Of course, they are slaves for WorryFree, forced into being “stronger and more obedient” by their form as horse-human hybrids. They represent the lengths that capitalism goes to ensure complicity in the system, to the point that genetic modification is necessary to ensure maximum profit without disruption.

[blackhorrorthoughts]

Blog Post #5: Lil Nas X

I have been particularly interested in the inclusion of queerness and the LGBTQ+ community in Afrofuturism. Lil Nas X’s Montero music video was one of the works discussed that took on this theme, where the music video centers him, using many religious and cultural subtexts to represent his queerness. It is most evident in him pole dancing straight to hell and giving Satan a lap dance, eventually killing the devil and crowning himself the new king.

It’s a triumphous piece of work for Lil Nas X and the strides he’s taken as an openly Black, queer artist; the beginning of his career was full of speculation and hushed rumors in regards to his sexuality. I remember it being something that wasn’t confirmed when he started becoming popular with Old Town Road, and the confusion people had because the lyrics of that song stated otherwise. Once he came out, the response by classmates around me was, “Well, we knew the entire time,” which I felt undercut the importance of him being open with his identity. 

Despite this, it’s clear that Lil Nas x intended to be different from the outset, especially with the fact that his first major song was a country song rather than something mainstream. “Old Town Road” ignored the cultural norm that Black artists did not have a place in country music, and forced the country genre to face the inherent racism in their erasure of Black people from the entire “Wild West” aesthetic.

One of the things that has continued to make me appreciate and look forward to his projects is how openly and boldly queer he continues to be. I’m sure there is a pressure he felt as a Black rapper, knowing that there is a stereotype that is put onto the rap industry to look and act a certain way. Montero expresses a femininity that rejects the box rappers and men are put in to stay hard and aggressive, even heteronormative, and allows Lil Nas X to lead by example by shedding those expectations of a male. Just his presence as an effeminate male in our current culture gives an example for others that may want to look, act, or dress in the same ways as him, and his openness provides courage. I believe Lil Nas X has a lot of potential as a mainstream Afrofuturistic artist, especially with what he’s achieved in only four years of a successful career.

[blackhorrorthoughts]

Blog Post #4: "Alright" by Kendrick Lamar

One of the pleasant surprises when reviewing the syllabus at the beginning of the quarter for this class was seeing the inclusion of Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” in the works the class would discuss. It has been one of my favorite songs since I was in middle school, and I had the pleasure last September to see it live during his Big Steppers Tour. It wasn’t until the lecture that covered the song that I found out the song was actually adopted by the Black Lives Matter movement as its anthem, which made me appreciate the song even more.

Before the lecture, I had not watched the music video for the song since I usually don’t watch many music videos anymore. The video made it a lot clearer the ways the song was tied into the themes in the class, as it features Kendrick literally rising above the pain and chaos in the video. There is a lot of power in the statement of “We gon’ be alright,” and the song itself means a lot to ease my personal struggles as well as the Black movements that have co opted the song to put an end to police brutality. It has stayed in my rotation over the years and I don’t think there will be a time where I don’t listen to it and feel a small sense of relief from its message.

I find it fascinating (and very reassuring) that one of the aspects of Afrofuturism is optimism for the future and creating the space for Black people to thrive in the future. “Alright” is a great example of that; it’s likely that Kendrick Lamar wasn’t intending his work to be Afrofuturistic, but its intentions and what the song has come to stand for allows it to paint a brighter future without the perils of systemic violence. I also love the way the lyrics bounce between Kendrick’s own personal struggles and taking on issues for the greater community; both struggles still align with the greater message when considering the ways our system continues to oppress Black individuals on a singular and plural level.

Overall, I loved that a song so important to me was discussed in our class context. I have a new lens on both Afrofuturistic music as a genre and Kendrick Lamar’s music.

[blackhorrorthoughts]

Blog Post #3: Black Panther

Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther is one of the works in this class that I am the most familiar with, as I assume most others are as well. I have been a big Marvel fan since I was in middle school because of my older brother, and I remember the movie being one of the most anticipated things that was released that year. I ended up watching the movie a few weeks after it was released and I would say that it was one of the few times I genuinely struggled with the amount of sympathy I had for the villain.

His introduction had a lot to do with my sympathy for him in the beginning—stealing back artifacts that the Europeans looted from colonized countries is pretty badass. My brother and I visited the Victoria & Albert Museum in London many years ago and seeing stolen artifacts on display like they weren’t stolen from our people was incredibly bittersweet (more bitter than sweet, really). They’re relics of valor for Europeans and the museums, but for those who view them as their own cultural history, it’s a reminder of the warfare they brought to every country they invaded.

There is a part of Killmonger that I relate to a lot, being a part of the Indian diaspora and knowing that many Americans think I do not belong in this country because my parents are immigrants (and I’m not white), while native Indians would never accept me as an Indian. It is definitely not as heavy as Killmonger’s struggle, being a part of the African diaspora that has seen the struggles that Black people endure all over the world, all while also knowing Wakanda is so peaceful and prosperous in isolation because of vibranium. All he wants to do is bring liberation to all so everyone could live the way Wakandans do, but introduction of vibranium would only lead to unending violence because of its capabilities.

There is a large level of sympathy I have for him because I feel his intentions were in a good place—he just wants to help his people. It is the rage he experiences and his pursuit of revenge for the death of his father that drives his dreams for violence, which is where my sympathy ends for him. His vengeance towards the system is justified, but his attempts at inciting war were not and, ultimately, there was no other way out for him but choosing to die the way he did.

[blackhorrorthoughts]

Blog Post #2: Earthseed

Explain two real-life issues that make it necessary to create your Earthseed community. What are you seeking shelter from?

My Earthseed community would be escaping from bigots that are intolerant of different minority communities, as well as the overarching capitalistic society. The current system benefits the White, heteronormative class that has built capital through a corrupt system and my community would aim to shed themselves of this system and perhaps even overthrow it entirely.

Quote two Earthseed verses from Parable of the Sower and show how you apply them to your community. You may be creative in your interpretation.

“A tree cannot grow in its parents' shadows.”

This verse would apply to my community, as it provides that we are constrained by the beliefs and limitations of our predecessors. We cannot only strive for what the generations before us considered to be “normal,” as there is no room to grow in boxed ideas.

“Kindness eases change.”

Lack of understanding and open mindedness in bigots and conservatives leads to a lack of kindness, which festers into hatred on both sides of beliefs. It is worthwhile to be kind, as it allows you to understand those different from you. Kindness does ease change.

Explain WHERE you will create your Earthseed community to be safe.

My Earthseed community would be created outside of American territories, so that we would not be targeted for anticapitalist sentiments, most likely somewhere remote 

Who can join your community and why? Who can’t join? Why not?

My Earthseed community would be open to all, but if a person expresses that they cannot be tactful, respectful, or aligned with views of my community, they would not be allowed to continue as a member. I assume there would be a natural wariness to those that espouse conservative viewpoints, but unless they create direct harm, I would not want to create requirements for joining.

What will your leadership model be for your community?

I would hope that the model for my community would be communal, where there is not one central leader but multiple that contribute equally.

Create a future technology to help improve life at your Earthseed community.

A future technology that would improve life at my Earthseed community would be a language device that makes translating and speaking to people native in different languages easier. I think this would improve life at my Earthseed community because it would mean oppressed individuals from other societies would be able to live comfortably in my community, allowing for a wider range of ideas and leadership.

Explain/show how your Earthseed community will survive.

Since my Earthseed community would be incredibly communal, I think the combined skills and ideas of many different people would allow it to be easy to survive. Some may be better at technical skills, some may be better at things like harvesting, so ensuring that everyone feels they have an equal share and equal benefit in the community would make things go smoothly.

Explain/show what two steps your Earthseed community will make to build a better future, i.e.  education, conservation, farming, etc.

My Earthseed community would focus on education, in planting kindness into the future generations of those that are born in my community. This would be aided by the Earthseed verses mentioned before, where kindness and open mindedness are essential. Development of a communist/socialist society in my Earthseed community (and/or an overthrow of capitalist norms) would also build a better future that doesn’t instill issues inherent to our current society, like the wealth gap and systemic racism.

[blackhorrorthoughts]

Blog Post #1: Aye and Gomorrah

Aye and Gomorrah by Samuel R. Delany is a work that, thus far in the class, I have found fascinating, especially given that it has managed to stay relevant in context despite being a work written in the 1960’s. I especially gravitated towards the line spoken by the frelk in Istanbul, where she says, “You don’t choose your perversions,” and “My love starts with the fear of love.” It is the most upfront in the entire story that Delany is about the queer metaphor; in a futuristic society where there are “spacers,” people who have been sterilized before puberty, there is a subculture of people who fetishize them due to their asexual nature The line makes the case that love is not a choice, and the frelk’s experience with love resonates deeply with the same kind of fear someone queer experiences when discovering themselves. Both the spacer’s and the frelk’s experience coalesce into a bigger picture of the loneliness one feels being rejected from society for something as simple as sexuality.

There is also a very obvious othering towards spacers by the locals of every city, where they are referred to as “you people,” always immediately identified by their androgynous appearances and looked down upon. This kind of treatment by others made me think of the parallels that could hold to both queerness and race, where distinctive features (i.e. skin color) give way to immediate prejudice. At every turn, the spacer’s are never taken seriously; when they try to speak in a native language to locals, they are rudely corrected, and even when they insist to the frelk that they are not interested in being bought, she is still persistent in her fascination with them. These reactions are two sides of the same coin, and also ones that people of color encounter daily. For example, white individuals in the South are more likely to be outright racist to a black person, but trend analyses show that the top pornography category in those states is Ebony.

Delany’s vision of a future with androgynous, asexual individuals is promising for openmindedness towards gender identity, yet also holds a very depressing thought for me, in that this future with spaceships and jumps between multiple planets still has prejudice and discrimination against certain groups. While I understand the point is to create a general parallel for the way queerness in the modern day, taking a step back and thinking of the future in such a way only makes me fear continued oppression.

[blackhorrorthoughts]

Blog Post #6: Eve's Bayou

Eve’s Bayou was a film that particularly intrigued me in this class for a multitude of reasons. I’ve come to the understanding that I particularly enjoy psychological horror, with one of the first pieces of psychological horror media that I was able to watch in middle school being the short film, The Strange Thing About the Johnsons by Ari Aster. I remember being interested in the short film because of the fact that it wasn’t the traditional horror I expected, with jumpscares and gore, but rather focused on fear tied to a taboo topic.

While Eve’s Bayou isn’t a psychological horror, classified as a Gothic drama on Wikipedia, I take faith in Professor Due’s explanation of why she included it in class, in that the true horror lies in the secrets this “perfect family” tries to hide, which is why I initially tied it to The Strange Thing About the Johnsons. Eve’s father is a serial cheater, and on top of that has a growingly inappropriate relationship with his daughter, Cecily. Amongst the plot of the story, this culminates in her father drunkenly making an attempt to molest Cecily.

Of course, the “strange thing” in The Strange Thing About the Johnsons is the fact that the son has an inappropriate infatuation with his father, and continually rapes him until the father dies in an accident. Both films delve into, more or less, the horrors that can come out of inappropriate familial relationships, especially those that are not addressed early. There is less context given to The Strange Thing About the Johnsons, but in Eve’s Bayou there are many hints that Cecily has a strong need for her father’s validation: her constant praise of him, her pushing and invalidating her mother’s authority, even the fact that she would stay up and wait for her father to come home. Her father also has a doting nature to her that feeds into the confusion with their relationship.

Eve is enraged, and vows to kill their father, which occurs through an argument after she enlists the help of a voodoo practitioner. In Aster’s short film, both the father and the son suffer death, the father being chased into a car accident by the son, and the son being killed by his mother after an argument. Whether by revenge or through heated arguments, I believe that the deaths in both films are signals to the inexcusable nature of incest, and how the actions cannot be repaired or forgiven otherwise.

[blackhorrorthoughts]

Blog Post #5: Candyman

Candyman was a movie I was familiar with more as a cult classic horror film, and nothing more. The thing that lasted from the movie was the summoning of Candyman, where if you were to say his name five times in front of a mirror he will come and kill you. This terrified me just as much as the “bloody Mary” legend that kids would do in the school bathrooms to scare you. I didn’t even have a conceptualization of Candyman, only knowing that he was some kind of horror figure, and was too scared to do it from that.

Watching the initial Candyman for this class made me understand and somewhat appreciate the complexities of Candyman as a character, even if it has a tumultuous relationship with the representation of a black horror figure. Candyman himself was a victim of racial violence, and despite the handling of prejudice (amongst other racial topics) throughout the rest of the movie to weaponize white fear of Blackness, the idea of a vengeful spirit stemming from this kind of action was an intriguing premise. The places where the original film falls short is from the fact that whiteness is the focus, with Candyman pursuing a white woman and killing his own people, goading white fear instead of conveying a meaningful story of Black pain and trauma from racial violence.

The 2021 sequel instead imagines Candyman through the lens of a Black director, where a reimagining of the Candyman legend properly tells a story of gentrification, police brutality, and black trauma. The most notable act to reclaim the story was to not tie Candyman to chasing after a white woman, but instead that Candyman acted as an entity, or a hive, for victims of racial violence. In this sense, Candyman becomes a representation of the injustices that have occurred against Black people, and will continue to grow in vengeance as more violence is inflicted. The shift towards telling Candyman’s story as one that has more of a connection to the racial injustices that Black people endure makes Candyman even more of a horror icon, as he now represents a call for change instead of a centering on white obsession and exploitation of the fear of Blackness. I hope to see more mainstream stories that center people of color and racial violence being the root for vengeance, as I believe too much of mainstream horror rehashes the same premises based on European tales and gimmicky serial killers.

[blackhorrorthoughts]

Blog Post #4: The Keeper

The Keeper is the first horror related book I’ve read, aside from some manga that have horror elements like Chainsaw Man and Death Note that I gravitate to because of their use of psychological horror. The extent of my knowledge in horror novels would be whatever books of Stephen King’s that received movie adaptations.

An aspect of the story that intrigued me the most was the fact that the Keeper was made up entirely of ants—it didn’t make sense to me until Professor Due herself detailed that this was because ants are a sign of decomposition, since the Keeper was living off of the dead bodies of Aisha’s grandmother and the others it’d killed. I’m not a fan of insects at all, so the constant image of a mass of ants just made the entirety of the story even more creepy for me to imagine.

That, amongst other things, made me feel a very intense empathy towards Aisha herself. As the story progressed, many questions arose in my mind about what I would do if I was in her shoes, as a child who just experienced two bouts of death in very quick succession, and now suddenly I’m faced with a monster that has the capacity to kill. On the one hand, it is the last remnant of her grandmother, who was desperate enough in the love she had for Aisha to entrust a monster for her care. That said, Aisha was able to find her own family, especially in someone who was also taken care of by the Keeper. I feel I would not have been as brave as her to kill the Keeper for good, and I appreciated her headstrong qualities in becoming triumphant instead of succumbing to it, like usual horror protagonists. A question that sticks in my mind, however, is where the Keeper came from and how it ties into Aisha’s ancestry. This, alongside other stories in the class that I enjoyed, intrigue me to the mystic and spiritual themes in horror that utilize magic in ways that can inflict fear. When reading the book early in the quarter it reminded me of the first short film we had watched, Wake, with the fact that Aisha’s grandmother and the woman in the film had consulted dark spirits for their own intentions. In the end of both stories, the thing conjured, whether a perfect husband or an entity to keep an orphaned girl safe, ended up being a monster that needed to be eradicated.

[blackhorrorthoughts]

Blog Post #3: Nope and Get Out

Because I have made my past blog posts about Jordan Peele’s works, it is only fair that I take a stab at explaining my thoughts about Nope. Of his three original works, it is the only one I went out of my way to watch in theaters after seeing the confusion it created on social media, and I’m glad I was able to see it on the big screen. Of his films, I think it is the most complex in its social commentary.

Something I’ve noticed with all of Peele’s films is the emphasis on eyes. In Get Out, the most shared image is Chris when he’s in the Sunken Place, wide-eyed and crying. The reason he is being groomed and preyed upon by the Armitages is to be sold to a blind art collector. In Us, the opening shot started with the eye of a rabbit, slowly panning out to hundreds of rabbits stuck in cages, but carries little into the rest of the movie when compared to Get Out. Then, of course, the imagery of the eye is the central focus of Nope.

In many ways, eyes are our guide to the world. The reason I was drawn to this continuous imagery in Peele’s films is because it is used differently in both films where it’s prevalent, Get Out and Nope. In Get Out, we can see that there is something distinctly off in the eyes of the black people hypnotized by the Armitage’s, taking advantage of the connection between someone’s gaze and their humanity. In Nope, the use of the eye is commenting on a complete lack of humanity, and that looking means imminent death. Both films converge when the use of the eye doubles as a way to comment on the white lens, with the art collector’s blindness signifying his “colorblindness” in regards to race, and the eyes/cameras in Nope standing in for the white perspective.

Both movies also see the use of cameras as an extension of the eye as a central plot point. In Get Out, the camera resembles Chris’ focus as a photographer, where we can see him use his camera as a medium to try and understand the situation he’s been brought into. This is in direct contrast to the meaning of the cameras in Nope. In this film, the camera serves as an extension of Hollywood, white gaze, and the exploitation of tragedy, with all of the main characters attempting to capture the alien for their own purposes, attempting to make a spectacle out of it for the purposes of fame or fortune. The alien’s eye, resembling a camera, holds zero agency by the main characters and instead reigns terror with constant surveillance and bloodshed. The contrasting use of eyes and cameras in both films only goes to show the continued work of Jordan Peele to address the white lens through very mindful allegories.

[blackhorrorthoughts]

Blog Post #2: Us

Us was the one Jordan Peele work that I had consciously avoided watching as someone who is not an avid fan of horror movies. The soundtrack, trailers, and overall promotional material for the film was too creepy for me to sit in theaters and watch—a decision I ultimately regret, because the themes and messages in Us were the most thought-provoking out of the movies he has released so far.

The first thing that I caught onto and enjoyed with Us was the fact that the story followed a dark-skinned black woman as the main character for an original story. Further than that, there was a lot of thought put into putting together a full family of black, darker complexioned characters living in a fairly middle- to upper middle-class setting. This reminded me of the importance of Son of Ingagi written by Spencer Williams, and how that was the first movie to portray the black middle class in well-respected positions, such as scientists or lawyers. Even 80 years later, we are hard pressed to find fair portrayals of black families, or with a black female lead. The place Jordan Peele purposefully makes for underrepresented demographics in Hollywood only makes it look worse for other directors, who use any excuse to make it seem “difficult” to write and cast darker complexioned actors.

I was also very intrigued by the portrayal of neurodivergence as somewhat of a superpower with Jason. It’s only ever stated outright by the two sisters at the beach towards Zora, calling him weird, but throughout the movie there is a sense that Jason is different from the others—he has somewhat of a hyperfixation with his lighter and enjoys playing “tricks.” Despite this, his family never treated him very differently, and rather encouraged him in their own ways. It is also subtly implied through the movie that Jason is a lot quicker to realize the Tethered’s tricks, coming to a head when he realized Pluto’s intentions to set them on fire and subsequently killing him by mirroring his actions. I think this is confirmed by the end, when he finally realizes Adelaide is actually the Tethered, and swapped herself with Red when they first came face-to-face with each other. Jason’s neurodivergency as a positive in this movie is something I haven’t seen much of or even thought of with a movie plot, where a hero doesn’t need to be “normal” just to survive.

[blackhorrorthoughts]

Blog Post #1: Get Out

Get Out by Jordan Peele was one of the major reasons why I chose to take this class. Before viewing it for class this week, I had not seen it since it came out, and a lot of the subtle cues and nuances that Peele effortlessly seams into the storyline flew over my head when I was 16 years old. I’ve stated in discussion before that I am not much of a horror fan, but I enjoy Peele’s version of horror—no cheap gags or jumpscares, rather intense cultural and social context that makes everything even more horrific to watch.

One of the biggest themes that captured my attention while watching Get Out was the concept of the malicious white savior. It was incredibly intentional that two of the main perpetrators of Chris’ torment were the unassuming women of the Armitage family, Rose and Missy. Rose, as Chris’ girlfriend, has the entire portrayal of the cool, “progressive” girlfriend that looks down upon racism and discrimination, reinforcing it by calling out a prejudiced police officer and feigning shock about her family’s ignorance when interacting with Chris. Missy, conversely, doesn’t do much that can be considered overtly racist directly to him, but fleshes out her matriarchal role in the family’s slave business. Missy’s ability to hypnotize and Rose’s ability to manipulate Chris’ perspective and emotions are far more dangerous than the overt racist remarks and actions of Jeremy and Dean, aligning with the fact that Chris was easily able to defeat the two men before advancing to the two women.

Rose’s character was the most fascinating for me while watching. UCLA is a primarily White institution, and for someone who grew up in the impoverished areas of the Central Valley, it is a severe culture shock to interact with so many white people on a daily basis. It’s even more of a shock when observing that most of the affluent, comfortable white people I come across in my day-to-day resemble figures exactly like Rose: progressive, yet seemingly unaware of their own transgressions towards minorities, especially black individuals. Even more so, they are often dismissive of their parents’ or grandparents’ blatant racism, using explanations like “the times” to excuse their prejudice, as Rose seems to downplay and feign ignorance towards her family’s treatment of Chris.

The entire premise of Get Out is summed up perfectly with the use of Childish Gambino’s “Redbone,” literally spelling out for Chris and the audience alike to stay heightened towards white savior figures like Rose and her family, or they’ll quite literally get you.