These are just a few examples, but they outline the thought process that I had after watching Get Out. There’s a conversation and education that still needs to be required, and although things have gotten better over time in certain aspects, we’re never exactly where we need to be. When we take two steps forward, we’re only taking five steps back, and I’m not talking about the festering boil of racism and bigotry that grows and still festers on the face of this world. We need not fear each other or feel that we have to be different just to appease someone, because even though you feel you’re saying the proper thing, it can be quite insulting or demeaning at its core.
There are many other pieces to the message Peele was attempting to convey through his extremely entertaining film, but that was the main one that stuck out for this particular viewer.
In this time in our lives, there’s a change happening, albeit very slowly, and personally I love being alive to see it. Things are progressing slightly in the entertainment industry, from the work of Peele to the release of Black Panther, to Patty Jenkins and Ava Duvernay. This is not exactly going to change the tide of our present day, but it’s in fact a start to a better understanding of each other, to the aspects we still need to change, and more importantly, to voices that should and are now being heard if you are willing to listen.
This is why Jordan Peele and his film Get Out is nominated for multiple awards and is important not only to the evolution of entertainment, but to the way we see each other as well. Understanding cannot occur if we’re blind to it, and this critically acclaimed thriller is a conduit and a small mirror in a much larger room to how we need to look at ourselves.