Passive vs. Oppressive Appropriation in Equiano's Fiction and "Get Out" to appeal to the pathos of the British and American people regarding the transatlantic slave trade. By establishing that he wishes to be perceived positively as Judeo-Christian, Equiano is essentially saying that black people can behave similarly to white people and therefore deserve equality. Furthermore, Equiano's transformation into a Christian is self-explained as one of the most important aspects of his life, and is therefore a call to be treated equally to white people. This seems dissimilar to modern African American art as Equiano persuades his audience that assimilation is the condition under which equality will occur, however Equiano's new identity is not necessarily conforming to whiteness, but rather shaped by his freedom to experiment other cultures and not defined in terms of belief. Thus by reinventing himself Equiano can obtain freedom. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay By contrast, 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 of Get Out they seem less capable, but equally determined to fight for their freedom. In the final moments of the film, the protagonist Chris does not struggle to experience more and become a completely new person with his newfound freedom, but rather wishes to maintain his identity. Furthermore, the freedom Chris gains is only realized after he takes on the identity of the hypermasculine “superpredator” he was initially given. Chris plays the passive role for the entire film because the opposite is assumed about him, and thus the antagonists force their predisposition to be true by threatening Chris' already limited perspective. Peele presents Chris in a way that is almost identical to Equiano's perception of himself, and this is as a passenger learning to free himself from the social and emotional prisons imposed by his captors. Equiano's narrative, unlike Peele's, presents the audience with a longer period of subjugation and is essential to the abolitionist movement as it demonstrates the cruel monstrosity of the transatlantic slave trade. Equiano despises slavery as any decent person would, as he says: “I had thought that only slavery was terrible; but the state of a free Negro now appeared to me at least as good, and in some respects even worse, because they live in constant concern for their freedom, which is only nominal. (Equiano). The narrative tells us that in slavery the source and guilt of oppression are known. 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, which is why slavery cannot be objectively resolved on a case-by-case basis like his, but rather in one fell swoop by removing the disposition of blacks as property rather than people. Peele's Get Out brings together modern blackness with the concept of re-entering the harsh domain 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 tells him "You will be me" (Peele, 1:24:10). Peele's film does a lot to emotionally expose its protagonist, and in the end the film decides to pursue the theme of recovering one's identity by denouncing the mannerisms in whichthose who would choose to assimilate you would choose to let you have. This rebellion, like abolition, is not unique to Chris and ultimately ends the process of Armitage kidnapping and abducting these young black men. Chris was typically passive and downcast 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 Rose for the keys, who drops her facade and flashes a sadistic smile wondering how he was supposed to escape in the first place. Although Chris is destined to have his identity stolen by the Armitages, the way Jim tries to justify his intentions to Chris with Chris' body is peculiar. He claims he doesn't really care about race, and this is interestingly likely; Jim only wanted those "things you see through" (Peele). Jim recognizes the undercover racist sayings and microaggressions made towards Chris at the party, and they share a moment where they both admire the other's work objectively rather than in terms of color. Jim says it's "ironic" that one can spend all the time in the world in a dark room developing these limited images of how they perceive the world and then wake up one day in complete darkness. This foreshadowing tells us that Jim is at least relatively understanding of his actions before bidding on Chris' body at the bingo/slave auction. He understands Chris's dilemma of constantly being seen as valued only in racial terms and truly seen as only a body and not a mind. The point the film is trying to make is that despite understanding, the power structure will still do what it wants as long as it is selfish. Jim wants the eyes, and finds a new pair, so he takes them, regardless of skin color. Similarly, in 1796, one Thomas Atwood Digges apparently forged a letter from Gustavus Vassa to indicate their correspondence and presumably to contextualize himself in Equiano's narrative as Digges had inserted the letter into his limited edition version of the book. Equiano scholar Vincent Carretta Ph.D states that the handwriting when compared to both Equiano and Digges was "inconclusive", suggesting that one of the two let another scribe write their work, assuming or due to Equiano's deteriorating health , or Digges' desire not to. be betrayed by his handwriting. Furthermore, this letter mentions Susanna, Equiano's wife, as if she were still alive, and is dated after her death. It is unlikely to be incorrect and suggests that Digges assumed Equiano's identity to increase the monetary or social wealth of his estates. In many ways this falsification simply establishes Digges as characteristically indifferent to others despite his apparent desire to associate with Equiano. This letter, along with Peele's film, demonstrate the desire of those who appear progressive to be a part of something as intrinsically separate from them as a boast of humility. Digges forged Equiano's letter with a desire to save portrayals of his character. Lisa Guerrero's article "Can I Live: Contemporary Black Satire and the State of Postmodern Double-Consciousness," explains relevant details about black identity and the pain points for those who identify as as. Study postmodern comedy sketches like Get Out director Jordan Peele's "Key and Peele" and partner Keegan Michael Key. as well as “Chappelle's Show” and Richard Pryor. Guerrero focuses particularly on the idea of double identity in the context of Keegan Michael Key's portrayal of Luther, the translator of the former AngerPresident Barack Obama. In this sketch Barack is portrayed as a soft-spoken, tactful leader who tiptoes around situations with a calm, passive voice, and then after each line Luther enters with the vernacular “street” equivalent of Barack's previous statement . Barack (Peele), says he has "received a fair amount of criticism" from fellow Democrats, and Luther would follow up with a phrase similar to "these sons of bitches right here." (Key/Peel.). This dual identity is representative of the pressures placed on even the seemingly most powerful person in the world Barack Obama is subject to standards of assimilation to “white” mannerisms in order to be perceived by the public as articulate. It also demonstrates the need to maintain composure in a situation that stresses the individual emotionally because he or she feels attacked based on external power structures. Peele continues this analogy in Get Out by keeping this sort of vernacular switching back and forth based on who Chris is talking to, and there's even some strange interaction when Rose directly addresses the police officer asking for identification Chris after hitting a deer at the beginning of the film. Chris passively attempts to listen to what the officer is asking, but Rose becomes aggressive towards him enough to assume the identity she believes he has, and this identity may not be entirely accurate to how Chris would handle the situation of being confronted by a police. official, but it expresses some of the feelings that Rose takes on Chris because of his racial identity, just as Luther can sometimes go overboard and miss the point of what Barack is trying to say. Additionally, when Chris talks to his best friend Rod on the phone, we see a complete change in vernacular from 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 being cut off from reclaiming the meaning of their racial identities while being singularly defined by society through their race , which, presumably, society has stopped seeing." (Guerrero). In Get Out this is made evident by the fact that the Armitages clearly desire only the African-American body with complete disregard for the culture and social minutiae of those they kidnap. In “The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano: or Gustavus Vassa, the African,” it is made evident that Equiano's education was simply a byproduct of his indoctrination into Christianity. Equiano's dual identity manifests itself in the form of his writings, Equiano plays the part 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 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 exist exclusively in the deepest orifices of their former selves, the slave must play the role of "passenger", while their experiences exert their power in the environment. world.Get Out, a horror film, seemingly avoids instant jump scares and instead uses deep, cutting anxiety to lull the viewer into a frightening stasis. Peele repeatedly demonstrates jump scares as essentially harmless and instantly gratifying moments of anxiety from which theyimmediately recovered. The pacing of this film matches thematically as the anxiety of returning to captivity is constantly looming, whether through prisons or paranormal hypnosis. It is a horror more to black audiences than white audiences due to the history associated with imprisonment and diminished black identity, and by using a police officer to demonstrate this low-key anxiety and performative weakness, Peele demonstrates the clear separation of whites from understanding the situation. Demonstrating this anxiety, Peele suggests that this misunderstanding of black anxiety is the reason why African Americans are skeptical of neoliberalism and white guilt, because they bring no intrinsic benefit to the people who uphold those ideals. It's not risky to say you believe those things because social liberalism doesn't directly improve the lives of white people. The anxiety is that this crusade for social justice is a trend and that, if threatened, socio-liberal ideas will cease to be more important than the person's individual needs. This form of political malleability creates a culture focused on upholding one's image as the white savior of an oppressed and incapacitated people, and the ideology can retreat into indifference when convenient. The cultural appropriation in both Get Out and Olaudah's fake letter clearly goes beyond what Professor James O. Young would call “deeply offensive,” but descends into appalling and reprehensible identity theft. It's understandable that Jim from Get Out isn't doing harm out of a desire to do harm, but rather to save his life, and the same goes for Thomas Digges, but it's still harmful as it indirectly oppresses minorities through appropriation cultural. The cultural appropriation in these two literary works is not demonstrated through admiration for the culture, but rather the body is taken instead of the spirit. Get Out subtly explains that the culture these outsiders have fallen so deeply in love with and wish to imitate is simply the one their own ancestors labeled the black image. The film makes this explicit by having Dean Armitage (Rose's father) use outdated appropriate language to push back on his false interpretation of black culture on Chris. For example Dean is taking Chris on a tour through the Armitage house and shows him many cultural souvenirs and says “it's such a privilege to be able to experience another person's culture. Do you understand what I'm saying?" (Peele, 0:17:00). He then proceeds to show Chris photos of his father Roman racing against Jesse Owens before the 1936 Olympics. This demonstrates the desire to take possession of things and the jealousy all within the patriarchal structure of the Armitage family. It is also later revealed that Walter, the groundskeeper, is actually Roman Armitage in the body of a young black man, and Walter is infatuated with physical activities such as chopping wood and running. He too appropriates what he perceives as the language Chris would use as he directly addresses Chris by referring to Rose as a “Doggone keeper” (Peele, 0:39:20) What the film says across these two generations and their actions towards those of another race, is that these slang terms are essentially empty if pronounced incorrectly and/or said only to appeal to the type of person being impersonated. After speaking to Walter, Chris he tells Rose that she was acting strangely and that it wasn't what she said, but rather "how she said it." The uncomfortably formalized speech patterns of those who had already undergone the procedure to take on a body are evidence that the culture and mannerisms with which.

Topic > Passive vs. Oppressive Appropriation in Equiano's Fiction and "Get Out" to appeal to the pathos of the British and American people regarding the transatlantic slave trade. By establishing that he wishes to be perceived positively as Judeo-Christian, Equiano is essentially saying that black people can behave similarly to white people and therefore deserve equality. Furthermore, Equiano's transformation into a Christian is self-explained as one of the most important aspects of his life, and is therefore a call to be treated equally to white people. This seems dissimilar to modern African American art as Equiano persuades his audience that assimilation is the condition under which equality will occur, however Equiano's new identity is not necessarily conforming to whiteness, but rather shaped by his freedom to experiment other cultures and not defined in terms of belief. Thus by reinventing himself Equiano can obtain freedom. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay By contrast, 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 of Get Out they seem less capable, but equally determined to fight for their freedom. In the final moments of the film, the protagonist Chris does not struggle to experience more and become a completely new person with his newfound freedom, but rather wishes to maintain his identity. Furthermore, the freedom Chris gains is only realized after he takes on the identity of the hypermasculine “superpredator” he was initially given. Chris plays the passive role for the entire film because the opposite is assumed about him, and thus the antagonists force their predisposition to be true by threatening Chris' already limited perspective. Peele presents Chris in a way that is almost identical to Equiano's perception of himself, and this is as a passenger learning to free himself from the social and emotional prisons imposed by his captors. Equiano's narrative, unlike Peele's, presents the audience with a longer period of subjugation and is essential to the abolitionist movement as it demonstrates the cruel monstrosity of the transatlantic slave trade. Equiano despises slavery as any decent person would, as he says: “I had thought that only slavery was terrible; but the state of a free Negro now appeared to me at least as good, and in some respects even worse, because they live in constant concern for their freedom, which is only nominal. (Equiano). The narrative tells us that in slavery the source and guilt of oppression are known. 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, which is why slavery cannot be objectively resolved on a case-by-case basis like his, but rather in one fell swoop by removing the disposition of blacks as property rather than people. Peele's Get Out brings together modern blackness with the concept of re-entering the harsh domain 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 tells him "You will be me" (Peele, 1:24:10). Peele's film does a lot to emotionally expose its protagonist, and in the end the film decides to pursue the theme of recovering one's identity by denouncing the mannerisms in whichthose who would choose to assimilate you would choose to let you have. This rebellion, like abolition, is not unique to Chris and ultimately ends the process of Armitage kidnapping and abducting these young black men. Chris was typically passive and downcast 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 Rose for the keys, who drops her facade and flashes a sadistic smile wondering how he was supposed to escape in the first place. Although Chris is destined to have his identity stolen by the Armitages, the way Jim tries to justify his intentions to Chris with Chris' body is peculiar. He claims he doesn't really care about race, and this is interestingly likely; Jim only wanted those "things you see through" (Peele). Jim recognizes the undercover racist sayings and microaggressions made towards Chris at the party, and they share a moment where they both admire the other's work objectively rather than in terms of color. Jim says it's "ironic" that one can spend all the time in the world in a dark room developing these limited images of how they perceive the world and then wake up one day in complete darkness. This foreshadowing tells us that Jim is at least relatively understanding of his actions before bidding on Chris' body at the bingo/slave auction. He understands Chris's dilemma of constantly being seen as valued only in racial terms and truly seen as only a body and not a mind. The point the film is trying to make is that despite understanding, the power structure will still do what it wants as long as it is selfish. Jim wants the eyes, and finds a new pair, so he takes them, regardless of skin color. Similarly, in 1796, one Thomas Atwood Digges apparently forged a letter from Gustavus Vassa to indicate their correspondence and presumably to contextualize himself in Equiano's narrative as Digges had inserted the letter into his limited edition version of the book. Equiano scholar Vincent Carretta Ph.D states that the handwriting when compared to both Equiano and Digges was "inconclusive", suggesting that one of the two let another scribe write their work, assuming or due to Equiano's deteriorating health , or Digges' desire not to. be betrayed by his handwriting. Furthermore, this letter mentions Susanna, Equiano's wife, as if she were still alive, and is dated after her death. It is unlikely to be incorrect and suggests that Digges assumed Equiano's identity to increase the monetary or social wealth of his estates. In many ways this falsification simply establishes Digges as characteristically indifferent to others despite his apparent desire to associate with Equiano. This letter, along with Peele's film, demonstrate the desire of those who appear progressive to be a part of something as intrinsically separate from them as a boast of humility. Digges forged Equiano's letter with a desire to save portrayals of his character. Lisa Guerrero's article "Can I Live: Contemporary Black Satire and the State of Postmodern Double-Consciousness," explains relevant details about black identity and the pain points for those who identify as as. Study postmodern comedy sketches like Get Out director Jordan Peele's "Key and Peele" and partner Keegan Michael Key. as well as “Chappelle's Show” and Richard Pryor. Guerrero focuses particularly on the idea of double identity in the context of Keegan Michael Key's portrayal of Luther, the translator of the former AngerPresident Barack Obama. In this sketch Barack is portrayed as a soft-spoken, tactful leader who tiptoes around situations with a calm, passive voice, and then after each line Luther enters with the vernacular “street” equivalent of Barack's previous statement . Barack (Peele), says he has "received a fair amount of criticism" from fellow Democrats, and Luther would follow up with a phrase similar to "these sons of bitches right here." (Key/Peel.). This dual identity is representative of the pressures placed on even the seemingly most powerful person in the world Barack Obama is subject to standards of assimilation to “white” mannerisms in order to be perceived by the public as articulate. It also demonstrates the need to maintain composure in a situation that stresses the individual emotionally because he or she feels attacked based on external power structures. Peele continues this analogy in Get Out by keeping this sort of vernacular switching back and forth based on who Chris is talking to, and there's even some strange interaction when Rose directly addresses the police officer asking for identification Chris after hitting a deer at the beginning of the film. Chris passively attempts to listen to what the officer is asking, but Rose becomes aggressive towards him enough to assume the identity she believes he has, and this identity may not be entirely accurate to how Chris would handle the situation of being confronted by a police. official, but it expresses some of the feelings that Rose takes on Chris because of his racial identity, just as Luther can sometimes go overboard and miss the point of what Barack is trying to say. Additionally, when Chris talks to his best friend Rod on the phone, we see a complete change in vernacular from 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 being cut off from reclaiming the meaning of their racial identities while being singularly defined by society through their race , which, presumably, society has stopped seeing." (Guerrero). In Get Out this is made evident by the fact that the Armitages clearly desire only the African-American body with complete disregard for the culture and social minutiae of those they kidnap. In “The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano: or Gustavus Vassa, the African,” it is made evident that Equiano's education was simply a byproduct of his indoctrination into Christianity. Equiano's dual identity manifests itself in the form of his writings, Equiano plays the part 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 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 exist exclusively in the deepest orifices of their former selves, the slave must play the role of "passenger", while their experiences exert their power in the environment. world.Get Out, a horror film, seemingly avoids instant jump scares and instead uses deep, cutting anxiety to lull the viewer into a frightening stasis. Peele repeatedly demonstrates jump scares as essentially harmless and instantly gratifying moments of anxiety from which theyimmediately recovered. The pacing of this film matches thematically as the anxiety of returning to captivity is constantly looming, whether through prisons or paranormal hypnosis. It is a horror more to black audiences than white audiences due to the history associated with imprisonment and diminished black identity, and by using a police officer to demonstrate this low-key anxiety and performative weakness, Peele demonstrates the clear separation of whites from understanding the situation. Demonstrating this anxiety, Peele suggests that this misunderstanding of black anxiety is the reason why African Americans are skeptical of neoliberalism and white guilt, because they bring no intrinsic benefit to the people who uphold those ideals. It's not risky to say you believe those things because social liberalism doesn't directly improve the lives of white people. The anxiety is that this crusade for social justice is a trend and that, if threatened, socio-liberal ideas will cease to be more important than the person's individual needs. This form of political malleability creates a culture focused on upholding one's image as the white savior of an oppressed and incapacitated people, and the ideology can retreat into indifference when convenient. The cultural appropriation in both Get Out and Olaudah's fake letter clearly goes beyond what Professor James O. Young would call “deeply offensive,” but descends into appalling and reprehensible identity theft. It's understandable that Jim from Get Out isn't doing harm out of a desire to do harm, but rather to save his life, and the same goes for Thomas Digges, but it's still harmful as it indirectly oppresses minorities through appropriation cultural. The cultural appropriation in these two literary works is not demonstrated through admiration for the culture, but rather the body is taken instead of the spirit. Get Out subtly explains that the culture these outsiders have fallen so deeply in love with and wish to imitate is simply the one their own ancestors labeled the black image. The film makes this explicit by having Dean Armitage (Rose's father) use outdated appropriate language to push back on his false interpretation of black culture on Chris. For example Dean is taking Chris on a tour through the Armitage house and shows him many cultural souvenirs and says “it's such a privilege to be able to experience another person's culture. Do you understand what I'm saying?" (Peele, 0:17:00). He then proceeds to show Chris photos of his father Roman racing against Jesse Owens before the 1936 Olympics. This demonstrates the desire to take possession of things and the jealousy all within the patriarchal structure of the Armitage family. It is also later revealed that Walter, the groundskeeper, is actually Roman Armitage in the body of a young black man, and Walter is infatuated with physical activities such as chopping wood and running. He too appropriates what he perceives as the language Chris would use as he directly addresses Chris by referring to Rose as a “Doggone keeper” (Peele, 0:39:20) What the film says across these two generations and their actions towards those of another race, is that these slang terms are essentially empty if pronounced incorrectly and/or said only to appeal to the type of person being impersonated. After speaking to Walter, Chris he tells Rose that she was acting strangely and that it wasn't what she said, but rather "how she said it." The uncomfortably formalized speech patterns of those who had already undergone the procedure to take on a body are evidence that the culture and mannerisms with which.