Abstract
The colonial discourse racially defined the others and distinguished between people regarded as barbarous, infidels, and savage, such as the inhabitants of America and Africa. The formal abolition of slavery has not been the solution for Blacks, but they have often been subjected to the domination of sovereign ideology at different social life levels. The dominant ideology in USA is also influential in representing Blacks in the cultural industry. This chapter examines the 2017 film Get Out, directed by Jordan Peele, as an example of the recent diversity positive trend in Hollywood. Peele is the first Black screenwriter to win the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film was analyzed by Roland Barthes's semiotics theory and Frantz Fanon's critical theory Fanonism. This research shows that Get Out is truly a Black renaissance in Hollywood. The signs of racism skillfully placed in the film were analyzed by focusing on denotative and connotative meanings, and the racial oppression faced by African-Americans throughout history was revealed by regarding Fanonism.
TopThe African-Americans In Usa: Historical Background
For the first time in 1619, twenty Africans were brought as slaves to the American continent, where Europeans invaded and settled. The blacks were chained to the galleons, which were abducted from the African continent colonies. They were persecuted and tortured by slave traders on these ships throughout their journey. These people, who were sold very cheaply as slaves, were employed in the Lower South states of America in the cotton fields extending into Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, without any rights and pay (Bullard, 1993).
The American War of Independence took place between 1775 and 1783, and the colonial peoples in the American continent united around the phenomenon of “independence” against Britain and formed the United States of America. The previous “Boston Tea Party” incident set the stage for the American War of Independence (Barley, 2007). They were reacting to the high tax imposed on tea by Britain, a prominent colonial state. The American colonial forces disguised as Native Americans and poured tons of tea into the Boston Harbor to eliminate England’s high taxes.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Harlem Renaissance: The social and artistic explosion that was inspired by the Black Studies, or Africana Studies; with the development of the Harlem neighborhood in New York City, Harlem was emerged as a Black cultural center in the early 20th century.
Hollywood Renaissance: The concept expressing the change and transformation that Jordan Peele initiated on the big screen with his award-winning masterpiece Get Out , which was released in 2017, in favor of African Americans in the USA.
Get Out: The film that initiated the Black renaissance in the Hollywood film industry, directed and written by Jordan Peele.
Fanonism: The name of the anti-colonial libertarian criticism formulated by Martinique psychiatrist Frantz Fanon (1925–1961).
Sunken Place: Coming to the agenda with the movie Get Out , it is a metaphor used to express the helplessness they experience in the face of systematic and institutional racism faced by Blacks in society. It represents Blacks silenced by the dominant ideology in the USA.
Diversity Positive: It refers to the works carried out to leave behind the ethnocultural discrimination that left traumatic marks on the world’s recent history.
Postcolonialism: It is a theory that investigates the social, economic, political, cultural, and psychological effects of the conditions that emerged during and after colonialism.
Social Thriller: Coming back to the agenda after the 70s with the movie Get Out . It is a type of film that depicts the ugly and unacceptable examples of oppression in the society using elements of tension and fear.