"Get Out" and the Theology of Suspicion

The monster here isn't a dark beast with glistening fangs — it's white people themselves. Get Out specifically echoes critiques of white liberals made by Malcolm X, James Baldwin, and others, calling into question the very idea of the “Good White Person”(™), whose basic politeness toward black people — or preference for having sex with them — supposedly mitigates their participation in white supremacy.

In this sense, Get Out resonates with black liberation theology's contention that white Christians are uniquely disfigured by the violent logics of race. That is, whiteness has so powerfully marred the vision of white Christians — distorting ancestral legacies and narcotizing conscience — that black people must approach the white Church and its demonic legacy of racism with vigilance.

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