The Inequality of Blacks: A Long History of Discrimination - Essay Sample

Introduction

The Blacks have been the unfortunate beings in the universe regarding racial discrimination since the time of memorial. Their skinned color makes them be perceived as inferior and unworthy. As a result, this group of people has been subjected to inhumane acts such as slavery. Thankfully, the world's democracy has positively evolved, unlike centuries ago, where the black man lacked a platform to express oneself. Therefore, human rights policies have been constructed to ensure equity among all classes of people despite the diverse traits, which, of course, fight for the recognition of the black man.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

However, racism still prevails in most parts of the world, especially in America where the African-American is disregarded as portrayed in the 2017 movie Get Out. For instance, according to an analysis conducted by The Independent paper in 2016, the black Americans are being killed at a 12 times rate of the Whites in extra-judicial instances. This paper looks deeply into these racial mistreatments against the African-American through reflecting the events of the film, Get Out, for better references.

Brief Summary and Description of Get Out

Get Out is a horror movie that was created and directed by Jordan Peele. It premiered to the public in 2017. In this film, Peele highlights the friction between the Blacks and the Whites in a unique setting based storyline. The plot centers Chris Washington, who finds himself in danger at his supposedly good girlfriend's home. His girlfriend, Rose Armitage, who is white, insists that he visits her parents upon which he reluctantly agrees. Rose's family, brother, and parents talk negatively about the African-Americans in Chris' presence to lower his esteem. During his stay, Chris notices strangenesses in the family as well as the neighborhood, especially, the African-American workers who seem to be charmed. As soon as Chris is revealed the real character of his girlfriend, together with her family, they opt to capture him against his will. Finally, Chris escapes the ordeal but still faces difficulties in getting justice for himself with the other blacks who find themselves in trouble for saving their lives. Notably, Peele depicts the picture in which the Whites still views the Blacks to show that the racial issue is far from being solved.

Racial Mistreatment Aspects

Missing Persons

Notably, Peele relays a message of the reality of how cases of missing people are handled. In the movie, the Blacks comprise the most significant percentage of the missing persons. Unfortunately, there is little to no efforts of recovering the missing persons since they are Black. The perpetrators of this crime, on the other side, take advantage of the ignorance to brainwash and vandalize their victims. As mentioned above, the Blacks mostly considered being the less fortunate since they are viewed as unworthy of legal consideration. For instance, in Get Out, the story begins when Andre is being kidnapped together with other two Blacks. The rest of the events do not show any signs of efforts of trying to find him. After, his encounter with Chris at the Armitage family party, it is then discovered that he is Logan King through Rod's Investigation. The same also applies to the Armitages' African-American workers, Georgina and Walter, who behave strangely like Logan King.

Notably, these aspects demonstrate how missing person's cases involving the African-American in the US are highly ignored. Less attention concerning the recovering of the persons as well as consolation of the victims' families is done. While compiling their finding for The USA Today, concerning the missing persons Keppel, Epstein and Grisham revealed that missing cases involving the Blacks were handled in a slower process as compared to those concerning the Whites.

Injustice

Sadly, the current American justice system is unfair to African-Americans. The discriminative policies have seen most Blacks being condemned to harsh sentences even for minor crimes. Besides, the societal perception and stigmatization against the Blacks that paint them as rogue has led to them denied judicial favors. For instance, they are denied the opportunity to defend themselves legally; thus, they are sent directly to condemnation. As a result of this predicament, most prisons record a high number of African-Americans as prisoners.

The same injustice policies are reflected in Get Out. First, cases concerning Black people are neglected or paid less attention. This aspect is revealed through the unsolved cases of missing persons concerning the African-Americans as law enforcers never show interest in finding them. Another excellent example is when TSA agent Tod Williams, Chris' friend discovers the impunity of the Armitage family together with their neighbors. Williams reports to the police who dismiss him as they do not believe him. Another judicial discrimination is revealed when a white police officer harasses Chris while he on the way to the Armitage house with Rose. In this scene, the police officer seems to be worried about Rose's safety as she is driving with a Black man. The message portrayed in this part is to show the inequity of law practices based on racial discrimination.

Modern Slavery

Even though acts of slavery are associated with the earlier centuries, it is still practice up to date as portrayed in Get Out. According to Armstrong and Responsible Tourism Matters (67), modern slavery refers to the acts of exploiting other people for profit advantage. Notably, the culprits take advantage of the vulnerability of the victims to use them (Armstrong & Responsible Tourism Matters, 67). The exploitation can be in the form of violence or manipulation lure people into slavery (Armstrong & Responsible Tourism Matters, 68).

Importantly, Peele tries to explain how modern slavery, especially to the African-Americans, is practiced. In Get Out, The Armitage family practice the type of slavery that involve capturing people for evil incarnations. The institution, Order of the Coagula, founded by Rose's father Dean, runs by trapping the blacks. The captives are controlled to be exploited to work for free against their will. For instance, housekeeper, Georgina, and groundskeeper, Walter act strangely, and their brain seems to function under manipulation. This strangeness makes it impossible for Chris to save them since they are "wired" to do what the whites anticipate.

Additionally, the victims' bodies are used for weird reasons. For instance, Hudson desires Chris' body due to its athletic physique. Therefore, he wins an auction conducted by Dean to get Chris' body and transfer his brain into the body. Notably, these slavish practices may not be those that were practiced during the slavery period but still involves the violation of human rights.

The victims in Get Out are lured into slavery through violence and manipulation. Abuse is revealed in the movie's prologue where Logan is captured against his will. Chris is deceived into the trap by his girlfriend, who lies to her that the visit to her parents purely concerns their love. He trusts Rose anticipates that she helps him escape. However, she betrays him and helps her parents to kidnap him.

Perception Discrimination

Consequently, Peele demonstrates how African-Americans are natively perceived in society. In America, this racial group is usually associated with adverse traits such as criminality and unintelligence. These negative perception and stereotyping contribute highly to their discrimination since people act based on what they think or know. In Get Out, the Whites have weak view concerning the Blacks which, in turn, widens their gap. For instance, Chris is worried about visiting his girlfriends' parents because he fears that they speak ill of him due to his race. His fears are confirmed when he finally meets Rose's family since they start making adverse comments about Black people in his presences.

Similarly, a negative conclusion about the African-Americans is shown during the surgery where the Armitage wants to transfer Hudson's brain into Chris' body. In a videotape, Roman, Rose's grandfather, explains that the act is to help eradicate the Blacks' unintelligent mind to replace it with the Whites intelligence. This scene confirms Asante (7) claims that people with the African Native are considered to be less empowered socially, politically, and economically.

Apart from intelligence, the Blacks in Get Out are considered to be weak. This perception culminates from the notion that Whites are the dominant racial culture, while blacks are inferior. The superiority challenge is depicted Jeremy, Rose's brother insinuates that he is stronger than Chris; thus, he challenges him into a fight. Physically, Chris looks stronger than Jeremy, thanks to his athletic physique. However, Jeremy still thinks that he would defeat him in a match due to his racial advantages.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Get Out suggests that Blacks still suffer racial discrimination in the modern world where policies are expected to have evolved to support equity. Also, the law system continues to be adamant about providing justice to the perceived weak, as depicted in the movie. Worse, the racial war seems never to be contained in this civilized world due to people's ignorance, a message which the film also relays as it ends with no viable resolution.

Works Cited

Armstrong, R. & Responsible Tourism Matters. "Modern slavery: risks for the UK hospitality industry." Progress in Responsible Tourism 5.1 (2016): 67-78. Retrieved from https://www.goodfellowpublishers.com/free_files/filePiRT5(1).pdf#page=69

Asante, M. K. "Afrocentricity." The International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication (2017): 1-11. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118783665.ieicc0195

Keppel K., Epstein M. & Grisham L. By the numbers: Missing persons in the USA. USA Today. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/09/23/missing-persons-children-numbers/16110709/

KK & Beyond. "Get Out Full Movie Review - From Beginning 2 End - Spoiler Alert! #Modern Slavery." YouTube. Published on Feb 28, 2017. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dqjtwE3Fsg.

Mortimer C. Black Americans are being killed at 12 times the rate of white people in the developed world. The Independent. Published on July 8, 2016. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/black-americans-12-times-more-likely-murdered-developed-country-dallas-shooting-statistics-a7127596.html