Blog #3

In this time in age, everyone is surrounded by social media which means that news has never traveled as fast as today. Most known trends and/or news come from America. For example, racial problems have become much more acknowledged thanks to the citizens of America, they have filmed countless abuse that the Black community have experience, and posted those videos on social media to show the horrible truth that has not been worldly known. An example of a news that had spread quickly is the murder of George Floyd that happened 2020, that made people that support BLM (Black Lives Matter) stand up and protest whenever possible, because that incident made racism more open. Other than the media, there are other illustrations that show us how the Black community is treated unfairly. Like how, Desmond Cole’s book: The skin we’re in, and Jordan Peele’s film: Get Out, demonstrate how the Black community in Canada and America act in society because of the racism that is constantly following them. In these illustrations, there’s going to be talk about some of our history, the racism Black people have to experience, and how powerful White people think they are. 

First, the history of Canada starts from the moment we got our land, which first belonged to the Indigenous people until we stole it (Cole 3). The reason why it was stolen is because the White supremacy has always wanted to be superior, to be above everyone else, to win, so that meant that they had to conquer everything. Like how Jacques Cartier colonized Canada and how Christopher Columbus discovered America. They both though that they were the first to discover the land they had found, but Cartier took the land of the Indigenous people and Columbus took his land from people he had called “Indians”. To show power, White people steal what they want because they want to show that they are superior, that they are on top. The same thing happened to Desmond’s parents’ native land of Sierra Leone, the land was also stolen by White British settlers (Cole 3). A big percentage of White people like to demonstrate that they have more power. To keep that power, they will start to do anything to monopolize it, but instead of giving monopoly to one single individual, they’ll monopolize it to one specific community; their own (White community). To monopolize the power, they will reject anything/anyone that is different, that is out of place. For example, if this other individual that doesn’t look anything like them, or is somehow stronger than they are, it is unacceptable, so to hide their weakness, they will make it seem like this other person is nothing special or is worthless, basically making them feel estrange. If this other individual is actually stronger than them, it might result to jealousy, because for example, Black people are stronger than white people, in strength, in speed, etc. That jealousy can make White people hate Black people even more because the feeling of lost might not be something they are used too. An example can be pulled out from Jordan Peele’s movie, Get Out, when Chris (the main character) and Rose (Chris’ girlfriend)’s father did the tour of the house, Dean (the father) pointed out the grandfather’s picture (Roman) and mentioned that during his Olympic race competition, Roman lost to a black guy and Dean said; “He almost got over it” (Peele 17:29). That basically means that Roman never accepted the fact that he lost to a Black person so you could say that to take his revenge, Roman took advantage of their superior physic and he created something called the Coagula. The Coagula is a transplant of a White person’s brain to a Black person’s body, so that they can have the physical characteristics they wish to have and in some twisted way it makes them immortal. This example is fictional but there are real-life incidents that could be or are as violent as what the Armitage (Rose’s family) family did. We already know that White people have the most power in North America, and they show it by taking control of everything, you could say that it is the main reason why their ego is so high and steal whatever they want as if it just belonged to them. As Cole says; “[the control they have on Black people goes way back to 1785, to Shelburne, Nova Scotia.] White settlers resented the recent arrival of Black Loyalists, [over a thousand enslaved Black people who had fought with the British during the American Revolution]. The British had promised the Loyalists freedom and land in their conquered territories, but didn’t keep their word. [Most Black people then became the property of new white masters in Shelburne, while other work with a lower wage than their White coworkers]” (Cole 7). The Black loyalists that Cole talks about are basically slaves for the White settlers. Desmond also mentions that “in order to control the “freed” Black Loyalists”, the White settlers had created a bylaw that “[forbids Negro Dances and Negro Frolicks in this town (Shelburne)” (Cole 7). This passage resembles the scene where Jim Hudson, the person who bids on Chris’ body, was doing phase two, which is the mental preparation, the psychological pre-op, and said that their (people like Chris, Black) “existence will be as a passenger” in their own body while they (people like Jim, White) take over (Peele 1:23:39). This scene in Peele’s movie relates to what Cole had mentioned in his book, the part that he mentions White settlers being in control of Black loyalists that are supposedly “free”. It’s like how, in the movie, the black people that were taken are free as in alive, but they won’t be in control, just like a slave because they are also being tortured; mental torture. In the end, the superior complex that White people have goes way back to before the creation of North America and the sad truth of their discrimination against others is very well still alive in our present days. 

Second, racism has been around us since the thirteenth century and unfortunately it is very much still alive in our present time. Racial profiling in policing has become acknowledged around the 1990s. Since then, a lot of people have started finding ways to solve this particular problem but not that long ago, around 2020, racial profiling and biased policing had aggravated. You can take the incident of Geoge Floyd as an example; he was murdered by a white police officer because the officer had knelt on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds which caused his death by lack of oxygen. Something similar is found in Cole’s book, he mentioned police brutality against black people that happened close to him as a new year started. The brutality happened to a local Black photographer named John Samuels; the police had interrupted his gathering and then repeatedly tased him in front of his guests. According to John and his friends, this incident was a long-term impact of their intervention because police officers had been hassling John for a long time and they would always be asking questions about drugs and be searching his gallery, they didn’t even have any warrant (Cole 5). Even in Peele’s movie, there was some racial profiling policing, which was shown at the beginning of the movie; Chris and his girlfriend Rose had hit a deer on their way to the Armitage house, so they had called the police. After Rose had finished answering the police officer’s questions, the officer had asked to see Chris’ license even though it was not needed as in it was clear that he wasn’t the one driving (Peele 12:20). In the book, Desmond proves that no matter the place and time, police brutality can be just around the corner, and in Jordan’s movie, you can see that whatever you do, you can be questioned because of your dark colored skin even if you did nothing wrong. Racism is everywhere, so the way the Black community acts around White people is very crucial. For example, Desmond mentioned that John was wary about the police officers that had been hassling him, so John had applied for liquor licenses for his gallery events, just so that the officers wouldn’t have an actual excuse to arrest him but even that didn’t stop them (Cole 5). Another example would be during the scene where the police officer asked Chris for an identification, he didn’t even resist to the unreasonable request, and was about to give the officer state ID just so that he wouldn’t cause unnecessary troubles (Peele 12:46). The way that the Black man in these examples react is simply something that is found everywhere a Black person is, because to stay safe from being arrested, the black population especially has to be on guard whenever they go out. Their guard is always up because past incidents have proven that police officers can shoot their gun whenever they want and even when they’re scared (which says a lot about their training to be honest). John and Chris being careful is just part of their daily life because they fear what a White officer can do and whenever a Black person shows how wary or fearful they are, the more powerful the White police officer feels. Still at present time, racism is everywhere and because of it the consequence for the Black community is to always live in fear. 

Third, the thing that makes racism so influential is the power that the White community gets from knowing that they are able disparage them. That is the source of their power. Because of the power that the white people have gained over the course of time, they see Black people as foreign object, as tools to be used. For example, in the movie there was a foreshadowing about Chris’ situation; during the gathering at the Armitage’s house, Chris got worried about Rose’s mom hypnotizing him, so he called his best friend Rod to get his input on the matter. During the call, Rod said that the suspicious Black people at the house are actually hypnotized to be slaves and that he would be next, and this gathering is just to put him on some sort of display (Peele 50:18). An example that shows how the White people in the movie treat the Black people as objects is the scene where everybody at the gathering were “playing bingo”, but they were actually bidding on Chris’ body (Peele 1:00:02). In the movie, they see Black people as objects because they want to take advantage of their superior physic, as in they are stronger, faster and cooler (Peele 1:25:24). Like how Jim Hudson choses to take Chris’ body because he wanted to be able to see through his eyes, as he is blind and because he is the owner of many famous art galleries, he needs to be able to have “a great eye” like the comment he gave to Chris (Peele 47:08). Or like how Roman, the grandfather, chose a body that has excellent running speed (Peele 30:02). A shorter explanation is that they see themselves as God so they think that the others are just some tools that they can pick up for their convenience. The Armitage and the others at the gathering see themselves as divine gods, so to them the purpose of the Black community is to serve them (Peele 1:08:16). Even in Cole’s book, when he mentioned our history, the White settlers would think of themselves as above everyone; in Shelburne, while new bylaw were created to limit the movements of black people, no white residents had such restrictions (Cole 3). They see themselves as divine because the White population grew up being privileged, as in no discrimination can ever be applied to them. With that reasoning, families like the Armitage could take it to their advantage and commit crimes without any guilt because to them it is normal to do what they did: the Coagula. White people grew up treating others like they are lesser than them, so treating them like tools, like slaves is normal and so they won’t show any respect to anyone else except for their own kind. The surrounding and the privileges that White people grew up with over time makes them think that no rules apply to them and that they can use whatever and whoever they want. 

In conclusion, since before our lands were fully created, White people had done whatever means necessary to get what they want, which shows just how greedy they are. Racism stated even before that, and sadly it is still very much with us and can be found anywhere we go. White people are responsible for this horrible discrimination, due to the fact that they think that their value is higher than others and will treat others unfairly. All of these points can be found in Desmond Cole’s book and in Jordan Peele’s movie because in their own way these authors show us the reality of the Black community in Canada/America.