Post-Colonialism in Jordan Peele’s Get Out

Both Frantz Fanon and Edward Said are largely responsible for ideas and theory about Post-Colonialism. Said describes Orientalism as a creation of a “contrasting image” that is used to base and differentiate the West’s own culture by, which in turn casts the East as the “oriental others” (1780). In a similar way, Fanon describes the struggle against the growth of post-colonial culture, specifically living as an African American man in a predominately white society. His work describes the psychological effects racism and colonialism has on not only the black psyche, but the white as well. Fanon describes what it is like to be viewed not as a human being, but as “a specimen of an exotic and savage race” (1351). Jordan Peele’s film Get Out is a prime example of Post-Colonialism. More specifically, in Get Out the girlfriend's family participates in a secret society that literally views African Americans as less human by using them as objects to sell to others in their society, and also as objects that they can use for their own benefit. The main character becomes very aware that the family is viewing him as “the Other,” and less of a human being. This family casts their own racist and bias images of African Americans onto Chris (the main character), viewing him through the lens of their own invented culture for him, and sees him as deserving of domination because of this. It is critical to see how these colonialist effects continue to be cultivated in the psyche of the minority and majority today in multiple societies, which can be reflected by Jordan Peele’s 2017 film.

In Get Out, Peele links American culture and provides a strong example of how colonization has impacted its view of African Americans. Fanon describes how African Americans are viewed as lacking something in their nature as “Negro consciousness does not hold itself out as a lack. It is” (1357). In the movie, the family sees Chris Washington, who is African American, as less human because of his race. As an effect of colonization, Chris’s white girlfriend’s family views him as lacking of something because he is black. “The white man wore out my brother in the hot sun of the roads because my brother was strong” (1358). This poem directly reflects this image. Because they see Chris as fundamentally lacking, they feel they have the right to take him captive and use him as their own slave, auctioning him off and replacing his brain with that of the white man’s that bought him. This family views “sin [as] Negro [and] virtue [as] white” (1359). By replacing his brain, they exploit the qualities they view as beneficial to them, like his athleticism or strong body, but fill the lack that his blackness causes by replacing his brain with that of the white man’s. The family sees Chris as an object they can have dominion over and simultaneously sees him as something that is lacking. The family views Chris as strong, athletic, and healthy because of his blackness, but since they still believe that he is lacking in some aspects, they believe that he deserves to be dominated and made whole with the virtue of a white man’s brain.

Another aspect that this film explores is the third-person consciousness that Fanon describes in his work Black Skin, White Masks. In Get Out, Chris Washington experiences the “consciousness of the body [as] solely a negating activity” when he is put into a trance by Missy, his girlfriend’s mom, to cure his smoking habit (1353). Chris travels to what they call “the sunken place,” where he views his childhood trauma from an out-of-body perspective. This serves as a literal depiction of the third-person consciousness, but also serves as a metaphor for black America remaining hypnotized among white America’s envy of the strengths of the black race. Chris also experiences the third-person consciousness when he meets Logan King, another black man, at the Armitage’s annual get-together. Logan is visibly “not yet white, no longer wholly black” and “suffers in his body quite differently than the white man” (1359). Chris is excited to see “another brother” at the pre-dominantly white gathering, but is taken aback when Logan acts very strange (Get Out). Logan speaks very regally, even shaking Chris’ fist when he extends for a fist bump. This is a direct reflection of how Logan is stripped of his black heritage. Logan is no longer fully black because he has the brain of a white man inside of him, and because of this he no longer participates in (or is even aware of) genuine black culture. Logan is “without a Negro past, without a Negro future,” making it “impossible for [him] to live [his] Negrohood” (1359). Chris views him from an outsider’s perspective, negating his own body. This in turn makes him realize how he himself is being viewed by the white’s around him, especially when they make comments to him like “black is in fashion” and asking him “what are the advantages and disadvantages of being African American in modern society?” (Get Out) Chris is compared to a pre-existing idea of his culture. Using the third-person consciousness this is depicted literally in some of the scenes of this film. Chris experiences how he is viewed as foreign and inferior to that of the white’s around him as he negates his own body and takes on their perspective. This post-colonial view is a depiction of how this remains a problem, even in today’s society.

Another aspect of post-colonialism that applies to this film is Edward Said’s “Orientalism.” Edward Said describes what he calls “Orientalism,” as “the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient—dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, ruling it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restricting, and having authority over the Orient” (1785). Said describes the nature of being “the Other,” and the Orient being compared to this romanticized or fantasized version of their race. This concept not only applies to the bias and racism of the Orient, but can also be depicted amongst other modern cultures. In Peele’s film, the whites have created their own romanticized beliefs of the black culture. They believe that their bodies offer several health benefits, which make them perfect for having dominion over. They believe that they are to have dominion over their body via this strange brain switching surgery, and also, they believe that they are superior to them. The wealthy, white party goers admire Chris’s physique and compare it to that of Tiger Woods. This racist comparison acts as a biased and potentially invented idea of what black culture is. The Armitage’s and the white party goers invent their own version of African American culture and continue to attempt to take advantage of it. The Armitage’s and the whites in Get Out depict how this imperialistic view continues into modern society.

Jordan Peele’s Get Out also depicts the creation of a “contrasting image” that Edward Said describes in his work Orientalism. The creation of a “contrasting image” is used to base and differentiate one’s own culture by contrasting it to the minority’s culture. In this case, the Armitage’s use their own bias opinion of the African American culture to reflect the culture of their own secret society. Said describes it as “the hegemony of European ideas about the Orient, themselves reiterating European superiority over Oriental backwardness, usually overriding the possibility that a more independent, or more skeptical, thinker might have had different views on the matter” (1788). In the context of this film, the Armitage’s use the hegemony of their own ideas about African American culture to assert their authority over African Americans. In doing this, they not only create their own version of African American culture that serves as a stereotype, but also draw their own conclusion that their culture is the correct form. Basically, by creating this complex of superiority, the Armitage’s and their secret society is fostering a bias and racist belief of African Americans, and also “casting them as the oriental others” (1780). This film directly depicts how the ideas of Orientalism are not subject to boundaries within Europe, the United States, and the Orient, but can also be applied to multiple eras in world history, as well as across the board for many cultures that extends into present day.

The importance of these theories is that they are not explicit to the specific context of their argument. We see Orientalism, the third-person consciousness, imperialism, and the struggles of post-colonial effect on the human psyche extend into a broader context than what is described in these works. Elements of history and the biases that they have created continue to have a larger effect than we might originally perceive. Get Out shows how whites continue to take advantage of and make life for African Americans difficult. Although this may come as unintentional, these attitudes that have been created because of post-colonialism have been fermenting and agitating for many years. This film is a direct example of one culture creating a fantasized image of another’s, as we see this remains a very prominent issue in the United States amongst whites creating racist depictions of the African American culture. The struggles of post-colonialism continue to create tension amongst whites and black in America and it seems impossible to relieve the ignorance that this comes with. This film sheds a light on racism and puts the viewer in their own “third-person consciousness” position, negating their own body, to be able to view it from a new perspective.