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Matthew Roberts

Professor Kim Freeman

College Writing R1A Accelerated Reading and Writing

08 December 2017

The Society Within Get Out Restricts Itself With Racial Stigmas

Racism is on the forefront of people's minds today. Many people try to not be racist

towards one another. However, there are some people that want it to thrive. Jordan Peele in his

movie Get Out attempts to show why racism still exists in society today. He creates a society in

the film that gives a radical representation of the racist people of society. Through this racist

group Peele shows that people in society want to be superior. Thus, many people allow these

racial stigmas to exist long because they allow themselves to be superior. Peele shows that these

superiority complexes allow racism to linger in society.

Within the movie, Peele portrays a couple that violate racial stigmas by having an

African American male named Chris going out with a Caucasian female named Rose. The movie

begins with the couple innocently going to Rose's house so Chris can meet Roses family.

However, the visit goes bad for Chris when he learns that Rose and her family are deceiving him.

Chris discovers during a soiree the family conveniently hosts upon Chris arrival that the dinner

guests want to remove most of Chris African American brain and replace it with their own

Caucasian brain in order to make Chris body their own (Peele). This idea of body stealing may

seem strange; however, Peele uses it to outline racial stigmas in society. In fact, within their

social circle, the guests would have no remorse for killing Chris and taking his body for their

own since they believe that stealing Chris body would make them superior human beings. The
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combination of the two races would, in a Franskensteinish way, create what some Caucasian

people believe the best version of a human. With this in mind, the question of how a society

decided what the best parts of a person are remains. Peele answers this question by showing how

racist beliefs form due to societal interaction. Throughout the evening, Chris was unwittingly

tested by the guests to see how his body would work better than that of the inferior guests

bodies. For example, Gordon Green, a professional golfer, asked if Chris he played golf and then

continually talked to Chris about Tiger Woods, the best African American golfer in the world in

order see Chris bodies potential for a specific skill; golfing (Peele). Although this may seem like

harmless chatter, Peele was using Green and the rest of the guests to highlight many racial

stigmas. In Greens particular case Peele was showing the stigma that all African Americans are

good at sports. He also shows that this racial stigma came to be because of Greens observation

of an African American being considered the best golfer. Peele used these racial stigmas

throughout the party to depict the racist belief that African Americans excelled physically but not

mentally in comparison to Caucasians. These racial stigmas the basis for the guests ethical

justification of the brain transplant since it would blend the favorable mental capacity of the

Caucasian with the favorable African American body in order to create a superhuman with the

best features of the two races.

Peele plays both societies off of one another in order to show that racism is rooted within

the extremely racial stereotyping of people. These stereotypes are shown by the African

American guests that had already transplanted their Caucasian from their original bodies. These

guests were seen as superior within their racist social circle. Peele shows this superiority with a

couple in which the male had a body transplant. This couple never leave each other's arms in

order to show that they were closer to one another, than the other couples, due to the transplant.
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The man also expresses his superiority by stating that he finds being an African American is for

the most part very good (Peele). The societal stigma of the what was the superior traits of both

races caused the man to want the body of another. It also allowed the man to make up benefits to

being African American because he had already seen in what ways he would be superior to the

common man when he did not have both the Caucasian brain and African American Body.

By showing the rivalry between a large group of people at the party to gain a new body,

Peele could demonstrate the drive humanity has for achieving superiority. Much like Victor

Frankenstein, a mad scientist, in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the house guests seek to gain

superiority to the common man. Although his values are corrupt, Victor Frankenstein finds that

the creature he created in order to prove his superiority to society, ultimately, only wants to harm

Frankenstein and can not help him elevate above society as intended (Shelley). Similarly, the

house guests want to elevate themselves above their social circle by superseding society.

However, by doing so they destroy themselves. Peele graphically shows a white males skull

being cut off and throne into a trash can before his scheduled brain transplant (Peele). The

Caucasian male is willing to leave his body to rot in order to deem himself superior to his peers.

Through this graphic example Peele shows the lengths humans are willing to go in order to make

themselves superior to their peers. The racist society wanted to pick and choose values to make

them automatically have a superior mind to other races. However, since these racist people see

African Americans as better physically they are willing to even cut their brain out of their body

in order to consider themselves better than their peers. Also, since their Caucasian minds are

better than African Americans, they automatically know best. Thus, they can believe that their

racial views are also correct.

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The society Peele creates using Rose allows for him to isolate the core of racism. He

shows how racism occurs as a result of the racial stigma people associate with African

Americans. He also shows how people associate racial stigmas with specific races through

observation in daily life. Peele believes that these stigmas become associated with superiority.

Peele shows that extremists who want to be superior, are willing to resort to changing their

meaning of superiority. They will be racist in order to show that they are better than another

person. Many people will also go to extremes to have what other people are seen to have. Roses

social circle justifies taking the life of an African America because of their own selfish need to

be superior. However, their warped ideas of what it means to be superior do not actually allow

them to be truly superior. They are only accepted through their own definition as being superior.

Thus, Peele not only demonstrates that racism only clouds someones judgment as to what is

superior but also that Racism lingers because of a need to feel superior that some people feel.
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Works Cited

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015.

Peele, Jordan, director. Get Out. Blumhouse Productions, Monkeypaw Productions, 2017.