Student's Blog

  For today’s blog post, I want to talk about the short story Destroyer by Victor LaVelle. I feel like the main message that the work was trying to convey is the types of violence that Black families face in the US. I thought that the concept of the story was super interesting in that it revolved around a Black woman scientist who brings her son back to life. I think it was super powerful to choose a mother as opposed to a father. Her son was innocently killed by police. Even though she was able to bring him back to life, there was a cost involved in doing so. When her son came back to life, he also came with extreme anger and strength, kind of like a monster. To me, this represented the cost that violence causes for Black families. The son becomes a real life representation of the abuse that Black families face. I think the resurrection and change of behavior and emotions also pushes forward the message of the results and effects/legacy of trauma. I think the choice of using polic...

  For this week's Blog Post, I am going to talk about the movie Sinners by Ryan Coogler. I was lucky enough to watch this movie in theaters when it first came out a few months ago. Before going into the movie, I had no idea what the movie was about. I was going in with no expectations, but I saw online on Instagram and Twitter (X) how amazing this movie was. All of those amazing reviews ultimately convinced me to go to the theater, which I have not done in years!!  Every single moment and frame felt intentional and had a purpose from the very start of the movie. Beyond the physical gore and horror, like the blood and vampire depictions came to life, the movie really dove deep into messages regarding Black lives in America. I really liked how the Juke Joint, which represented self agency and culture in a town filled with racism and segregation, was sort of the central setting for the movie. Then, the first vampires come and infiltrate the juke joint showing lots of blood and ...

       Reflecting back on Week 4, one of the most interesting works I have seen thus far in our course is Candyman and specifically comparing the 1992 version to the 2021 sequel. For me, as for Professor Due, I felt like the 1992 version was problematic in delivering the message that it was intending to do. Firstly, the fact that it was shown through a white person's point of view; for me, I did not like that because how is it fair to depict Black suffering and pain through a non-Black person's lens? Although it was a great film, that really bothered me. I also can recognize that the political climate that both of these films were created in were completely different to each other. I did not like how in the 1992 version that towards the end it basically depicted Cabrini Green in a dangerous and violent place and took away the community that it was. It did not focus on Black experience which I felt it needed to stick to.  But, when I analyzed it and compared th...

When thinking about this week’s blog post, I wanted to do a deep dive and analysis into Jordan Peele’s film Us. This movie was about the social inequalities that Black Americans face to this day. I think that Peele’s decision to use a person’s shadow was amazing when thinking about the overarching messages and symbols that he is trying to explain.  One of the most memorable messages that this film was explaining was its critique of the American Dream. When thinking about America, one of main selling points that make America seem so great is the idea of the American Dream that is constantly sold across the world and for many years. There is this idea that America is the best country to live in, with the most equality and opportunity in the world; this has definitely been an idea that has been instilled in me as I have grown up. But after learning more and more about America and how they treat certain groups of people, like minorities, namely Black Americans, I can see how this dre...

     After reflecting on the first few days of class, I am happy to be back in another one of Professor Due’s classes. I took Professor Due’s Afrofuturism course last year and really enjoyed it. I did not know much about Afrofuturism or African American studies in general, and because I enjoyed that class so much I was excited to see that she was teaching the Black Horror course. So far, this course is not that different from what I was expecting. In terms of the actual structure, it is identical to her previous courses. I also watched the movie Get Out when it came out a few years back; I really enjoyed it and read more about the story behind the movie, the intended takeaway, and even more about Jordan Peele and his works. I also watched Sinners by Peele a few months ago when it came out, so I was a little familiar with his work and its deeper meaning.  Something that I really enjoyed about the movie Get Out was how uniquely framed it was. It is a satire about the...