Media is a reflection of the culture that produces it. For example, when media focuses upon heroism, the heroism shown on the screen is shaped by what our culture considers to be heroic. Likewise, when media explores fears, those fears are chosen based on what our culture considers to be frightening. With that said, different segments of the same culture can have different views about what can seem like the same world on initial consideration, which in turn, can result in very different media. As a result, studying media from particular segments of the same culture can prove interesting insight into their hopes, their fears, and the rest of their beliefs, meaning that movies such as Get Out can make an excellent subject matter for college courses.
For those who are unfamiliar with the movie, Get Out is centered around a black man who is invited to meet his white girlfriend’s family at their family estate. There, he meets both black men and black women who are behaving in rather odd manners, which is not helped by his girlfriend’s family making rather discomfiting comments about black people. Eventually, he learns that his girlfriend’s family has been kidnapping black people for the purpose of transplanting white people’s brains into them, which explains the odd behavior as well as the discomfiting comments. Overall, Get Out is meant to make a number of points about the state of black people in the United States.
For example, it is meant to point out the lack of interest in missing black people compared to the immense interest in missing white women, which suggests that black lives aren’t valued as much compared to white lives. Furthermore, it is meant to point out the realities of institutional racism, which is why the movie’s original ending was going to be the protagonist getting arrested for fending off a family of murderous kidnappers, though that was changed because events happening at around the release made that too grim. Finally, Get Out can be seen as a criticism of “West Wing liberals,” meaning people who see themselves as being opposed to racism but nonetheless fail to live up to those tenets through a combination of arrogance and complacency.
Summed up, Get Out provides a lot of interesting information about the perspectives of black people in the United States, which is why it became the core of a college course that was offered at UCLA by Professor Tananarive Due. After all, Get Out makes for a powerful introduction to a number of serious issues in real life, which in turn, makes for interesting classes and conversations. However, what is most interesting is that the course is now available to interested individuals who are not attending UCLA, seeing as how the professor has chosen to make it public through the Internet. There isn’t much homework, but participants will be expected to follow along with the reading of short stories as well as the watching of movies, which can take up a fair amount of time. However, the subject matter is a fascinating one, meaning that the college course could prove a good use of time for a lot of people out there.
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