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All the Feels (Self Contempt as a Result of Cultural and Familial…

- - - - "Get Out," the horror movie directed by Jordan Peele, takes the idea of fearing the "black body" introduced by Ahmed and flips it to fearing the oppressors: the "white body." The movie begins with the abduction of a black man in what can be assumed is a mostly white, suburban neighborhood, and the theme of violence at the hands of white people continues throughout the film. Chris, who is a black man, suffers through his white girlfriend's family's psychological torture throughout his stay at their home, but manages to escape before they can completely steal his mind and give it to a white man. Chris experiences fear that transforms to anger as he manages to escape and free himself from their torture, and in self defense and rage kills the family that has been torturing and objectifying black people for years.
        
        "Representations of Whiteness in the Black Imagination" by Bell Hooks brings up concepts of how white people perceive race that are echoed in "Get Out." Hooks says that white people have "a deep emotional investment in the myth of sameness," (167) i.e the thought process behind "I don't see color," a phrase that minimizes the history of segregation and subjugation of black people in order to convince a white person that they are not taking part in sustaining racism. The white family in "Get Out" takes on this way of thinking, most evidently in the repetition of saying they would "vote for Obama a third time" if they could, as if that excuses what prejudices they may have and how they perceive black people.
    - - "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action" Audre Lorde writes about her experience as a black woman finding her voice, and her experience with rejecting silence. Lorde's main argument is that we are all mortal beings, whether we use our voices or not, so while we're alive we must recognize this and speak out. Silence may be a safe route, but speaking out is the only way to create real change, as is exemplified by ACT UP and Gran Fury. Those organizations saw an injustice being committed, and instead of being silent and grieving, they created a movement of anger and action, and used their voices to be loud and garner support for their movement.
        
        "Moving Politics: The Emotion Work of Movements" Author Deborah Gould writes on AIDS activism group "ACT UP" and the emotion work they did to bring attention to the urgency of the epidemic. They urged people to take their grief and transform it into anger and activism, and they were successful. Their protests at the FDA, Catholic Church, and the White House lawn got enough attention that people began to listen and join the movement, and pushed for policy change. Through their angry activism they were able to push to speed up drug testing, and lower the costs of drugs. Their anger was apt, they desired recognition for the moral wrongs that the US Government and drug companies were committing against them by ignoring the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, predominantly from the LGBTQ community.
        
        Gran Fury was a group of artists who created art to bring attention to the AIDS crisis. Their uncensored, angry form of art called out the inaction of the government and the FDA. They were able to take the emotion many people were feeling- anger- and translate that anger into art that expressed the urgency of the epidemic. One of their most famous pieces reads: "The Government has Blood on its Hands" and features a bloody handprint, a symbol that would be used in ACT UP demonstrations to call out government inaction.
        
        "Twilight Los Angeles" The one-woman play directed and staring Anna Deavere Smith is about the LA riots following the beating of Rodney King by white police officers. The story of these riots is a stark contrast to the protests of organizations like ACT UP. People were full of rage, and while it was warranted, there was no central group or goal that people could rally behind to push for longterm change. While two of the police officers were found guilty, the movement created divides between different communities in Los Angeles, most prominent in the play between Koreans, African Americans, and White people. The anger was apt, but it wasn't transformed into activism in a productive way.
        
        "Can Hope be Disappointed? (Ernst Bloch) and Cruising Utopia (Jose Esteban Munoz)" Ernst Bloch talks about hope in terms of the idea that it can always be disappointed, as it "does not address itself to that which already exists." (341) Hope is "queerness" according to Munoz, it uncertain like Bloch says, and is full of anticipation. The texts examined in this course, especially those surrounding activism like ACT UP, bring about a feeling of hope for the future. It is possible that this hope will be disappointed, and it sometimes is when we witness moments that take us steps back in history like the Rodney King riots. Munoz says that "Bloch offers hope as a hermeneutic , and from the point of view of political struggles today, such a critical optic is nothing short of necessary in order to combat the force of political pessimism. Hope is a necessary emotion, one that enables us to be passionate, to be angry, and to push for the change and utopias we'd like to see in the world.