Passive vs. Oppressive Appropriation in Equiano's Narrative and "Get Out" “slave enlightenment” as a means of appealing to the pathos of the British and American people regarding the transatlantic slave trade. By stating that he desires to be perceived positively as a Judeo-Christian, Equiano is essentially saying that black people can behave the same way as white people and therefore deserve equality. Furthermore, Equiano's transformation into a Christian is explained as one of the most important aspects of his life and therefore constitutes a call to be treated the same as white people. This seems different from modern African American art, because Equiano persuades his audience that assimilation is the condition under which equality will occur. However, Equiano's new identity is not necessarily conformed to whiteness, but rather shaped by her freedom to experience other cultures and is not defined in terms. of belief. Thus, by reinventing himself, Equiano can obtain his freedom. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay. Conversely, Jordan Peele's horror film Get Out contains African-American characters who experience assimilation through subjugation and fetishization rather than agency and self-understanding . , and ultimately the modern black characters in Get Out seem less capable, but just as determined to fight for their freedom. In the final moments of the film, the protagonist Chris does not fight to live more and become an entirely new person with his newfound freedom, but rather he desires to maintain his own identity. Furthermore, the freedom obtained by Chris is only realized after having assumed the identity of the hyper-masculine “super-predator” that was initially attributed to him. Chris plays the passive role throughout the film because the opposite is assumed about him, and then the antagonists force their predisposition to be true by threatening Chris' already limited perspective. Peele presents Chris in a manner almost identical to Equiano's view of himself, namely as a transient learning to free himself from the social and emotional prisons inflicted on him by his captors. Equiano's account, as opposed to Peele's, presents the audience with a longer time period. of subjugation and is essential to the abolitionist movement because it demonstrates the cruel monstrosity of the transatlantic slave trade. Equiano despises slavery like any honest person, as he says: “I thought only slavery was terrible; but the condition of a free Negro now seemed to me equally at least, and in some respects even worse, for they live in constant anxiety for their freedom, which is only nominal. (Equiano). The story tells us that in slavery we know the source and blame of oppression. There is a sense of defeatism from Equiano's point of view, but in his words, there is absolutely no hope. Abolition removes the need for fear, and that is why slavery cannot be resolved objectively on a case-by-case basis like his, but rather in one fell swoop to remove the disposition of black people as property rather than anyone. Peele's Get Out, reunifies modern noir with the concept of re-entering the harsh rule of slavery. When Chris is sent to the “Sunken Place,” he is mortified, and when Jim begins to explain the process to him, Chris lowers his head in understanding and says, “You will be me” (Peele, 1:24). :10). Peele's film does a lot to emotionally expose its protagonist, and ultimately the film decides to pursue themotive for reclaiming your identity by denouncing the ways in which those who would choose to assimilate you would choose for you. This rebellion, like abolition, is not just for Chris and it ultimately ends the process in which the Armitages kidnap and rob these young black men. Chris was typically passive and despondent for much of the film, and we see his desire to avoid confrontation with Jeremy and the memory of his mother's death; in the film's third act, Chris finally expresses his fears by frantically begging for the keys from Rose, who drops her facade and wears a sadistic smile begging the question of how he was supposed to escape to begin with. As Chris is set up to have his identity stolen by the Armitages, it is strange how Jim attempts to justify to Chris his intentions with Chris' body. He claims he doesn't really care about race, and that's an interesting probability; Jim just wanted those “things you see through” (Peele). Jim recognizes the incognito racist remarks and microaggressions committed toward Chris at the party, and they share a moment where they both admire each other's work objectively rather than in terms of color. Jim says it's "ironic" that you can spend all your time in a dark room developing these finished images of how you perceive the world, and then wake up one day to total darkness. This foreshadowing tells us that Jim is at least relatively understanding of his actions before bidding for Chris' body at the bingo/slave auction. He understands Chris's dilemma: constantly being seen as valued only in racial terms, and truly seen only as a body and not a mind. The point the film is trying to make is that, even if understood, the power structure will always do what it wants as long as it serves its own interests. Jim wants eyes, and he finds a new pair so he gets them, regardless of skin color. Similarly, in 1796, a certain Thomas Atwood Digges appears to have forged a letter from Gustavus Vassa to signify their correspondence and presumably to contextualize himself in Equiano's account as Digges had placed the letter in his limited edition version of the book. Equiano scholar Vincent Carretta Ph.D says the handwriting, compared to that of Equiano and Digges, was "inconclusive", suggesting that either left another scribe to write up his work, assuming either because of Equiano's deteriorating health or Digges' desire not to do so. let his writing betray him. Furthermore, this letter mentions Susanna, Equiano's wife, as if she were still alive, and it is dated after his death. This date is unlikely to be incorrect and suggests that Digges assumed the identity of Equiano to increase the monetary or social wealth of his possession. In many ways, this counterfeit simply defines Digges as typically indifferent to others despite the apparent desire to associate with Equiano. This letter along with Peele's film demonstrates the desire of those who appear progressive to be part of something inherently different from themselves in order to boast of their humility. Digges falsified Equiano's letter in a desire to reclaim depictions of his character. Lisa Guerrero's article "Can I Live: Contemporary Black Satire and the State of Postmodern Double Consciousness" explains pertinent details about black identity and the pain points of those who identify as black. such. She studies postmodern sketch comedy such as Get Out director Jordan Peele and his associate Keegan's "Key and Peele."Michael Key. as well as “Chappelle’s Show” and Richard Pryor. Guerrero focuses specifically on the idea of dual identity in the context of Keegan Michael Key's portrait of Luther, the translator of former President Barack Obama's anger. In this sketch, Barack is portrayed as a soft-spoken, tactful leader who tiptoes around situations in a calm, passive voice, then, after each line, enters Luther with the vernacular equivalent " "from Barack's previous statement. Barack (Peele) says he's "received quite a bit of criticism" from fellow Democrats, and Luther would follow up the queue with a phrase similar to "these motherfuckers over here." (Key/Peele.). This dual identity is representative of the pressures placed on even the seemingly most powerful person in the world. Barack Obama being subjected to the norms of assimilation into "white" ways to be perceived by the public as articulate. Furthermore, it demonstrates the need to maintain composure in a situation that stresses the individual emotionally, as they feel attacked by external power structures. Peele continues this analogy in Get Out by maintaining this sort of back and forth vernacular shift based on who Chris is talking to, and there's even a strange interaction when Rose speaks directly to the police officer who asks for Chris's identification after hit a deer at the beginning of the film. Chris passively attempts to listen to what the police officer is asking, but Rose becomes aggressive towards him by assuming the identity she believes she has, and that identity may not be entirely accurate for how Chris would handle the situation of confrontation with a police officer. officer, but it expresses some of the feelings that Rose assumes towards Chris because of his racial identity, just as Luther can sometimes go too far and miss what Barack is trying to say. Additionally, when Chris speaks to his best friend Rod on the phone, we see a complete shift in vernacular as opposed to the respectful language Chris uses at the dinner table with the Armitages. Chris changes his word choice and tone based on his familiarity, even with Rose alone he appears to use significantly lower densities of vernacular than when conversing with Rod. Lisa Guerrero states: “The consequences of post-raciality on communities of color, particularly African Americans, have been the contradictory but simultaneous processes of failing to claim the importance of their racial identity while being singularly defined by society through their race, which, supposedly, society has stopped seeing. (Guerrero). In Get Out, this is highlighted by the fact that the Armitages clearly only desire the African-American body, with complete disregard for the culture and social details of those they kidnap. In “The Interesting Account of Olaudah Equiano: or Gustavus Vassa, the African,” it is evident that Equiano's education was simply a byproduct of his indoctrination into Christianity. Equiano's dual identity presents itself in the form of his writing, Equiano plays the role of a faithful slave, but is essentially in Peele's idea of the "sunken place", while internally, like Chris, he can see the outside world and the horrors of slavery and he described them as "torture, murder and every other barbarity and iniquity imaginable" (Equiano). His dual identity is a survival mechanism, just as the black men whose bodies are stolen from them exist exclusively in the deepest orifices of their former selves, the slave must play the role of "passenger", while his experiences exert their power in the world. Get Out as a horror genre film seemingly avoids scaresinstantaneous and instead uses deep, cutting anxiety to lull the viewer into a frightening stasis. Peele repeatedly demonstrates that jump scares are essentially harmless, instantly gratifying moments of anxiety from which one immediately recovers. The rhythm of this film corresponds to its theme in that the anxiety of returning to captivity is constantly looming, whether through prisons or paranormal hypnosis. It is even more horrifying to black audiences than white audiences because of the history associated with captivity and diminished black identity, and by using a police officer to demonstrate this quiet anxiety and performative weakness, Peele demonstrates the horror. clear separation between Whites and understanding of the situation. In demonstrating this anxiety, Peele suggests that this misunderstanding of black anxiety is why African Americans are skeptical of neoliberalism and white guilt, because they present no inherent advantage to people who defend these ideals. It's safe to say we believe these things because social liberalism doesn't directly improve the lives of white people. The worry is that this crusade for social justice is a trend that, when threatened, these socio-liberal ideas would cease to be more important than the individual necessities of the person. This form of political malleability creates a culture around defending one's image as a white savior to an oppressed and incapable people, and the ideology can retreat into indifference when it suits it. The cultural appropriation in Get Out and Olaudah's fake letter clearly goes beyond what Professor James O. Young would call "deeply offensive," but it would engage in frightening and objectionable. It is noticeable that Jim from Get Out does not harm out of a desire to harm, but rather to save his life, much like Thomas Digges, but it is nonetheless harmful in that it indirectly oppresses minorities through cultural appropriation . Cultural appropriation in these two literary works does not manifest itself through admiration of culture, but rather through appropriation of the body rather than the mind. Get Out subtly explains that the culture these outsiders have fallen so deeply in love with and desire to emulate is simply the one their own ancestors stamped on the black image. The film makes this explicit by having Dean Armitage (Rose's father) use outdated and appropriate language to reflect his false interpretation of black culture back on Chris. For example, Dean takes Chris to tour the Armitage home and shows him lots of cultural memorabilia and says, "It's such a privilege to be able to experience another person's culture." Do you know what I'm saying? (Peele, 0:17:00). He then shows Chris photos of his father Roman running against Jesse Owens before the 1936 Olympics. This demonstrates a desire for ownership, and a jealousy within the patriarchal structure of the Armitage family. Additionally, it is later revealed that Walter, the gardener, is actually Roman Armitage in the body of a young black man, and Walter is passionate about performing physical activities such as chopping wood and running. He, too, appropriates what he perceives as the language Chris would use when addressing Chris directly by referring to Rose as a "Doggie guardian" (Peele, 0:39:20). What the film is saying through these two generations and their actions towards those of another race is that these slang terms are essentially meaningless if mispronounced, and/or simply to appeal to the type of person who is being impersonated. After speaking with Walter, Chris tells Rose..

Essay / Passive vs. Oppressive Appropriation in Equiano's Narrative and "Get Out" “slave enlightenment” as a means of appealing to the pathos of the British and American people regarding the transatlantic slave trade. By stating that he desires to be perceived positively as a Judeo-Christian, Equiano is essentially saying that black people can behave the same way as white people and therefore deserve equality. Furthermore, Equiano's transformation into a Christian is explained as one of the most important aspects of his life and therefore constitutes a call to be treated the same as white people. This seems different from modern African American art, because Equiano persuades his audience that assimilation is the condition under which equality will occur. However, Equiano's new identity is not necessarily conformed to whiteness, but rather shaped by her freedom to experience other cultures and is not defined in terms. of belief. Thus, by reinventing himself, Equiano can obtain his freedom. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay. Conversely, Jordan Peele's horror film Get Out contains African-American characters who experience assimilation through subjugation and fetishization rather than agency and self-understanding . , and ultimately the modern black characters in Get Out seem less capable, but just as determined to fight for their freedom. In the final moments of the film, the protagonist Chris does not fight to live more and become an entirely new person with his newfound freedom, but rather he desires to maintain his own identity. Furthermore, the freedom obtained by Chris is only realized after having assumed the identity of the hyper-masculine “super-predator” that was initially attributed to him. Chris plays the passive role throughout the film because the opposite is assumed about him, and then the antagonists force their predisposition to be true by threatening Chris' already limited perspective. Peele presents Chris in a manner almost identical to Equiano's view of himself, namely as a transient learning to free himself from the social and emotional prisons inflicted on him by his captors. Equiano's account, as opposed to Peele's, presents the audience with a longer time period. of subjugation and is essential to the abolitionist movement because it demonstrates the cruel monstrosity of the transatlantic slave trade. Equiano despises slavery like any honest person, as he says: “I thought only slavery was terrible; but the condition of a free Negro now seemed to me equally at least, and in some respects even worse, for they live in constant anxiety for their freedom, which is only nominal. (Equiano). The story tells us that in slavery we know the source and blame of oppression. There is a sense of defeatism from Equiano's point of view, but in his words, there is absolutely no hope. Abolition removes the need for fear, and that is why slavery cannot be resolved objectively on a case-by-case basis like his, but rather in one fell swoop to remove the disposition of black people as property rather than anyone. Peele's Get Out, reunifies modern noir with the concept of re-entering the harsh rule of slavery. When Chris is sent to the “Sunken Place,” he is mortified, and when Jim begins to explain the process to him, Chris lowers his head in understanding and says, “You will be me” (Peele, 1:24). :10). Peele's film does a lot to emotionally expose its protagonist, and ultimately the film decides to pursue themotive for reclaiming your identity by denouncing the ways in which those who would choose to assimilate you would choose for you. This rebellion, like abolition, is not just for Chris and it ultimately ends the process in which the Armitages kidnap and rob these young black men. Chris was typically passive and despondent for much of the film, and we see his desire to avoid confrontation with Jeremy and the memory of his mother's death; in the film's third act, Chris finally expresses his fears by frantically begging for the keys from Rose, who drops her facade and wears a sadistic smile begging the question of how he was supposed to escape to begin with. As Chris is set up to have his identity stolen by the Armitages, it is strange how Jim attempts to justify to Chris his intentions with Chris' body. He claims he doesn't really care about race, and that's an interesting probability; Jim just wanted those “things you see through” (Peele). Jim recognizes the incognito racist remarks and microaggressions committed toward Chris at the party, and they share a moment where they both admire each other's work objectively rather than in terms of color. Jim says it's "ironic" that you can spend all your time in a dark room developing these finished images of how you perceive the world, and then wake up one day to total darkness. This foreshadowing tells us that Jim is at least relatively understanding of his actions before bidding for Chris' body at the bingo/slave auction. He understands Chris's dilemma: constantly being seen as valued only in racial terms, and truly seen only as a body and not a mind. The point the film is trying to make is that, even if understood, the power structure will always do what it wants as long as it serves its own interests. Jim wants eyes, and he finds a new pair so he gets them, regardless of skin color. Similarly, in 1796, a certain Thomas Atwood Digges appears to have forged a letter from Gustavus Vassa to signify their correspondence and presumably to contextualize himself in Equiano's account as Digges had placed the letter in his limited edition version of the book. Equiano scholar Vincent Carretta Ph.D says the handwriting, compared to that of Equiano and Digges, was "inconclusive", suggesting that either left another scribe to write up his work, assuming either because of Equiano's deteriorating health or Digges' desire not to do so. let his writing betray him. Furthermore, this letter mentions Susanna, Equiano's wife, as if she were still alive, and it is dated after his death. This date is unlikely to be incorrect and suggests that Digges assumed the identity of Equiano to increase the monetary or social wealth of his possession. In many ways, this counterfeit simply defines Digges as typically indifferent to others despite the apparent desire to associate with Equiano. This letter along with Peele's film demonstrates the desire of those who appear progressive to be part of something inherently different from themselves in order to boast of their humility. Digges falsified Equiano's letter in a desire to reclaim depictions of his character. Lisa Guerrero's article "Can I Live: Contemporary Black Satire and the State of Postmodern Double Consciousness" explains pertinent details about black identity and the pain points of those who identify as black. such. She studies postmodern sketch comedy such as Get Out director Jordan Peele and his associate Keegan's "Key and Peele."Michael Key. as well as “Chappelle’s Show” and Richard Pryor. Guerrero focuses specifically on the idea of dual identity in the context of Keegan Michael Key's portrait of Luther, the translator of former President Barack Obama's anger. In this sketch, Barack is portrayed as a soft-spoken, tactful leader who tiptoes around situations in a calm, passive voice, then, after each line, enters Luther with the vernacular equivalent " "from Barack's previous statement. Barack (Peele) says he's "received quite a bit of criticism" from fellow Democrats, and Luther would follow up the queue with a phrase similar to "these motherfuckers over here." (Key/Peele.). This dual identity is representative of the pressures placed on even the seemingly most powerful person in the world. Barack Obama being subjected to the norms of assimilation into "white" ways to be perceived by the public as articulate. Furthermore, it demonstrates the need to maintain composure in a situation that stresses the individual emotionally, as they feel attacked by external power structures. Peele continues this analogy in Get Out by maintaining this sort of back and forth vernacular shift based on who Chris is talking to, and there's even a strange interaction when Rose speaks directly to the police officer who asks for Chris's identification after hit a deer at the beginning of the film. Chris passively attempts to listen to what the police officer is asking, but Rose becomes aggressive towards him by assuming the identity she believes she has, and that identity may not be entirely accurate for how Chris would handle the situation of confrontation with a police officer. officer, but it expresses some of the feelings that Rose assumes towards Chris because of his racial identity, just as Luther can sometimes go too far and miss what Barack is trying to say. Additionally, when Chris speaks to his best friend Rod on the phone, we see a complete shift in vernacular as opposed to the respectful language Chris uses at the dinner table with the Armitages. Chris changes his word choice and tone based on his familiarity, even with Rose alone he appears to use significantly lower densities of vernacular than when conversing with Rod. Lisa Guerrero states: “The consequences of post-raciality on communities of color, particularly African Americans, have been the contradictory but simultaneous processes of failing to claim the importance of their racial identity while being singularly defined by society through their race, which, supposedly, society has stopped seeing. (Guerrero). In Get Out, this is highlighted by the fact that the Armitages clearly only desire the African-American body, with complete disregard for the culture and social details of those they kidnap. In “The Interesting Account of Olaudah Equiano: or Gustavus Vassa, the African,” it is evident that Equiano's education was simply a byproduct of his indoctrination into Christianity. Equiano's dual identity presents itself in the form of his writing, Equiano plays the role of a faithful slave, but is essentially in Peele's idea of the "sunken place", while internally, like Chris, he can see the outside world and the horrors of slavery and he described them as "torture, murder and every other barbarity and iniquity imaginable" (Equiano). His dual identity is a survival mechanism, just as the black men whose bodies are stolen from them exist exclusively in the deepest orifices of their former selves, the slave must play the role of "passenger", while his experiences exert their power in the world. Get Out as a horror genre film seemingly avoids scaresinstantaneous and instead uses deep, cutting anxiety to lull the viewer into a frightening stasis. Peele repeatedly demonstrates that jump scares are essentially harmless, instantly gratifying moments of anxiety from which one immediately recovers. The rhythm of this film corresponds to its theme in that the anxiety of returning to captivity is constantly looming, whether through prisons or paranormal hypnosis. It is even more horrifying to black audiences than white audiences because of the history associated with captivity and diminished black identity, and by using a police officer to demonstrate this quiet anxiety and performative weakness, Peele demonstrates the horror. clear separation between Whites and understanding of the situation. In demonstrating this anxiety, Peele suggests that this misunderstanding of black anxiety is why African Americans are skeptical of neoliberalism and white guilt, because they present no inherent advantage to people who defend these ideals. It's safe to say we believe these things because social liberalism doesn't directly improve the lives of white people. The worry is that this crusade for social justice is a trend that, when threatened, these socio-liberal ideas would cease to be more important than the individual necessities of the person. This form of political malleability creates a culture around defending one's image as a white savior to an oppressed and incapable people, and the ideology can retreat into indifference when it suits it. The cultural appropriation in Get Out and Olaudah's fake letter clearly goes beyond what Professor James O. Young would call "deeply offensive," but it would engage in frightening and objectionable. It is noticeable that Jim from Get Out does not harm out of a desire to harm, but rather to save his life, much like Thomas Digges, but it is nonetheless harmful in that it indirectly oppresses minorities through cultural appropriation . Cultural appropriation in these two literary works does not manifest itself through admiration of culture, but rather through appropriation of the body rather than the mind. Get Out subtly explains that the culture these outsiders have fallen so deeply in love with and desire to emulate is simply the one their own ancestors stamped on the black image. The film makes this explicit by having Dean Armitage (Rose's father) use outdated and appropriate language to reflect his false interpretation of black culture back on Chris. For example, Dean takes Chris to tour the Armitage home and shows him lots of cultural memorabilia and says, "It's such a privilege to be able to experience another person's culture." Do you know what I'm saying? (Peele, 0:17:00). He then shows Chris photos of his father Roman running against Jesse Owens before the 1936 Olympics. This demonstrates a desire for ownership, and a jealousy within the patriarchal structure of the Armitage family. Additionally, it is later revealed that Walter, the gardener, is actually Roman Armitage in the body of a young black man, and Walter is passionate about performing physical activities such as chopping wood and running. He, too, appropriates what he perceives as the language Chris would use when addressing Chris directly by referring to Rose as a "Doggie guardian" (Peele, 0:39:20). What the film is saying through these two generations and their actions towards those of another race is that these slang terms are essentially meaningless if mispronounced, and/or simply to appeal to the type of person who is being impersonated. After speaking with Walter, Chris tells Rose..

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