This is a perfect example of what represses our black race. First and foremost, it's ALWAYS another race holding the black race down, ALWAYS someone elses fault and FAULT IS NEVER WITHIN THE BLACK RACE ITSELF!
Black men murder each other at rates much higher than any other race. Black on Black crime runs rampid in every region of the United States! Who's to blame for this? The Whyte man? Because our ancestors were enslaved by the whyte man many centuries ago? Institutions are a result of violent acts from all races , not built by the Whyte man to repress the black race !
Yeah, I think so, too. Let's see some horror that's all about instilling moral dread in people who commit hate crimes and maybe creating some antiracist memes. The right curse *could* do that.
I have to say that I really liked Them and, if it makes sense, I also really liked your essay, that brilliantly pointed out the contradictions of the series, its rough strokes vs. its subtleties. In full disclosure, I am a white immigrant living in Brazil who loves cinema and TV, and I think those are the main features that molded my perspective. I will lay it out here, in the hopes you find something interesting in it.
1. I thought the series was very American. Its take on USA culture and history (Compton and Watts, settlers, religion, Americana, the suburbs, etc) seemed to me as a discourse on the origins and constitution of structural racism over there. So, unlike you, I didn't necessarily think the Devil was racist: I saw him as an instigator of chaos that uses racism as a tool to spread confusion, with the Man in the Black Hat as his "employee". To me, that indicated an original Evil on the foundations of your country and it seemed like an interesting statement.
2. I thought the series was about forbidden spaces even more than it was about forbidden bodies. We see more invasions and the impossibility of privacy that actual gore, so, the horror's motor, the source of the hubris, is more the lack of access and mobility (physical as much as social) than the fear of pain and destruction. Let me rephrase that: the physical and psychological decay of the characters seems more like a consequence of the social place they were sentenced to occupy. So, I felt the final catharsis had to be more about stepping out of those expectations than about an actual escape from the place. The importance of the family and specially the Mother as first units of resistance seemed very right to me, maybe because I live in a place where almost every official document indicates the mother's name, but not the father's.
3. I read a lot about if the series is intended to white or black audiences. It's an important discussion, but I don't think it's my place to be a part in it. My perspective is that of a film geek and, after reading Coleman's "Horror Noire", I became very interested in black protagonism in the horror genre. So, I tend to step out of the story for a moment and look at Them as a cultural object that references classic horror (exploitation, B films, "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street") but from the perspective of black heroes. Maybe those hard strokes I mentioned are aesthetically intended, as deep manichaeism and violence are common features in those references. In that sense, Them could be claiming a genre from which black protagonists were historically excluded. And that always brings me to the same question: if Ryan Murphy spent years burying cliches and stereotypes under stylish visuals in AHS, why couldn't Little Marvin speak about structural racism under the layer of psychological terror?
an incredible deep dive into this show (that I have not yet seen, but have been curious about. loved Lovecraft Country exactly for the campe it reveled in)! I may have to check out this Frye person (though sometimes theory gets my brain a bit fuzzy) since you really sold these ideas in your analysis. thanks for writing. (:
THIS THIS THIS!! I had so many thoughts on this show but lacked the language to fully express them and you did a beautiful job. Thank you so much for sharing.
This is a perfect example of what represses our black race. First and foremost, it's ALWAYS another race holding the black race down, ALWAYS someone elses fault and FAULT IS NEVER WITHIN THE BLACK RACE ITSELF!
Black men murder each other at rates much higher than any other race. Black on Black crime runs rampid in every region of the United States! Who's to blame for this? The Whyte man? Because our ancestors were enslaved by the whyte man many centuries ago? Institutions are a result of violent acts from all races , not built by the Whyte man to repress the black race !
Yeah, I think so, too. Let's see some horror that's all about instilling moral dread in people who commit hate crimes and maybe creating some antiracist memes. The right curse *could* do that.
I have to say that I really liked Them and, if it makes sense, I also really liked your essay, that brilliantly pointed out the contradictions of the series, its rough strokes vs. its subtleties. In full disclosure, I am a white immigrant living in Brazil who loves cinema and TV, and I think those are the main features that molded my perspective. I will lay it out here, in the hopes you find something interesting in it.
1. I thought the series was very American. Its take on USA culture and history (Compton and Watts, settlers, religion, Americana, the suburbs, etc) seemed to me as a discourse on the origins and constitution of structural racism over there. So, unlike you, I didn't necessarily think the Devil was racist: I saw him as an instigator of chaos that uses racism as a tool to spread confusion, with the Man in the Black Hat as his "employee". To me, that indicated an original Evil on the foundations of your country and it seemed like an interesting statement.
2. I thought the series was about forbidden spaces even more than it was about forbidden bodies. We see more invasions and the impossibility of privacy that actual gore, so, the horror's motor, the source of the hubris, is more the lack of access and mobility (physical as much as social) than the fear of pain and destruction. Let me rephrase that: the physical and psychological decay of the characters seems more like a consequence of the social place they were sentenced to occupy. So, I felt the final catharsis had to be more about stepping out of those expectations than about an actual escape from the place. The importance of the family and specially the Mother as first units of resistance seemed very right to me, maybe because I live in a place where almost every official document indicates the mother's name, but not the father's.
3. I read a lot about if the series is intended to white or black audiences. It's an important discussion, but I don't think it's my place to be a part in it. My perspective is that of a film geek and, after reading Coleman's "Horror Noire", I became very interested in black protagonism in the horror genre. So, I tend to step out of the story for a moment and look at Them as a cultural object that references classic horror (exploitation, B films, "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street") but from the perspective of black heroes. Maybe those hard strokes I mentioned are aesthetically intended, as deep manichaeism and violence are common features in those references. In that sense, Them could be claiming a genre from which black protagonists were historically excluded. And that always brings me to the same question: if Ryan Murphy spent years burying cliches and stereotypes under stylish visuals in AHS, why couldn't Little Marvin speak about structural racism under the layer of psychological terror?
an incredible deep dive into this show (that I have not yet seen, but have been curious about. loved Lovecraft Country exactly for the campe it reveled in)! I may have to check out this Frye person (though sometimes theory gets my brain a bit fuzzy) since you really sold these ideas in your analysis. thanks for writing. (:
THIS THIS THIS!! I had so many thoughts on this show but lacked the language to fully express them and you did a beautiful job. Thank you so much for sharing.