RACISM
How Can White People Love Horror Films But Not Black History?
Some people love gruesome stories, but only if they're race-neutral
Before someone's hair catches on fire after reading the title, this article is not implying that all White people love horror films or that all White people are afraid of Black history. Still, there is undoubtedly a type of White person that fits the script, who is intrigued with gory stories as long as they are fictional and race-neutral. For instance, Margaret Atwood's dystopian horror series The Handmaiden's Tale follows the life of June Osborn, a woman forced to serve as a concubine. The villains in the story, the Giliead government, use acts of torture to control women. Gouging out an eye, cutting off a finger, and being waterboarded, force-fed, or drowned to death are examples of women's physical abuse women endured in the story. Still, even though the film centers around political upheaval in the United States, the story only deals with gender-based discrimination and pretends as if racism either never existed or is an irrelevant detail in the story.
Never mind the fact that White Americans spent generations forcing Black women to have babies and become wetnurses to theirs — Atwood didn't include race in her horror story, and this viewpoint is typical of White writers. Atwood's story is a spell-binding, provocative, and timely social critique of the real-world pro-life movement, which supports legislation that forces women to give birth, with no exception for rape or incest. Still, it's a curious decision to leave race out of the equation, especially since characters like Moira and Rita are played by Black women, and both were technical "property" at various parts of their stories. Some film critics have questioned how many Black women need to die so the main character, June, could "get her revolution," noting that Black characters are often used as sacrificial lambs.
Also, the irony isn't lost on me that conservatives like Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis are actively fighting to remove any meaningful conversation about Black history, literature, or experiences from the classroom and workplace. So, not only is it true that White people love horror films (the Horror-Movie Market has become a billion-dollar industry), but it's also clear that some White people are looking for a particular type of movie, one that scares them but doesn't make them think about the social hierarchy that actively diminishes Black people, the one that actually exists. So, I got to thinking. How is it that so many White people enjoy watching horror films but shy away from discussions about the chattel slavery system and the horrors of Jim Crow?
White people have no problem watching ghouls and goblins wreak havoc through the night, vampires biting, fighting, and killing people, aliens sucking the life out of people, and serial killers with superhuman strength hunting down teenagers whose only crime was making out near Cyrstal Lake. But, when it comes to talking about this country's real history, the content is suddenly deemed too violent and grotesque to discuss, and it's time we call it malarky on their performance. The widespread adoration for the Horror Film Industry makes it hard to take White people seriously when they say their opposition to race-based content is because of the gory aspect of some stories.
Far too often in American history, White Americans were the ones carrying the pitchforks.
On May 19, 1918, "a white mob from Brooks County, Georgia" lynched a Black "pregnant woman named Mary Turner. Her only crime was protesting her husband's lynching. Yet, her loyalty was repaid with cruelty. Author Guy P. Harrison noted that "the reality is that racial lynchings were a frequent and normal feature of life in the South. This unique method of murder was a devastating form of terrorism that constantly threatened all black people. The white authority structure did not only tolerate or encourage these killings but used the fear of lynchings to control and oppress black people." Turner's death was a tragic moment in American history. Learning about her death would help demonstrate how White Americans used violence to terrorize Black people and maintain an imbalance in social power. Still, White conservatives who treat Black history like a boogieman would prefer students never learned Mary Turner's name.
On November 12, 1935, a prosecutor defended "a mob of 700 White people" who lynched two "Black teenagers, 15-year-old Ernest Collins and 16-year-old Benny Mitchell.” Seriously White people who love horror films shouldn't shy away from this story. Because, honestly, what could be more terrifying than being falsely accused of murder and then being hunted down by a large crowd, chained together by their necks by a tree, and hung to death while a crowd of White people "burst into jeering screams?" Furthermore, as an added round of horror for the Black people living in that era, "no one was ever held accountable for their deaths." So, Black people" had to live with this type of brutality that could occur anytime without warning or cause. In addition to lynchings, there were significant events of widespread racialized terror like the 1866 New Orleans Massacre, the 1868 Opelousas Massacre, and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre where White people freely killed Black people without consequence.
Living as a Black person in America has always come with its share of horrors, from the chattel slavery system to the current criminal justice system, which disproportionately targets and kills Black people. Just weeks ago, a Black man, Keenan Anderson, died after the police repeatedly tased him as he feared becoming "another George Floyd." If the horror-film industry ever gets tired of making vampire films, they can always dramatize the stories of thousands of people killed by police each year. And those lynched throughout the South after the Civil War, and even the White ones who died fighting against prejudice or defending Black people. Horror is not just a fictional concept; for Black people in America, it's all too real. Twelve Years a Slave is only one story, one drop in the bucket of understanding what enslaved people experienced. And for those of you supposedly tired of watching slave movies but breaking your neck to watch the latest serial killer or possessed doll film, your race-neutral horror film adoration is duly noted.
Still, far too many White people seem only to have tolerance for race-neutral horror. Films like Get Out, Us, and Candyman by Jordan Peele are challenging the horror-film industry, carving out space for a new sub-genre of films that explore horror without ignoring the unique racialized horror that Black people experience. How much more intriguing The Handmaiden's Tale could have been if the audience didn't have to pretend that American racism was somehow washed away by misogyny. In the real world, Black women deal with racism and misogyny, the inspiration for endless horror films if the industry actually cared enough to dig into these topics. Unfortunately, far too many White people are afraid of learning about Black history, not because it's horrific, but because of their relationship to the horror. Because in America, White people aren't always the blonde damsel in distress or hero trying to fight off aliens, zombies, or vampires. Far too often in American history, White Americans were the ones carrying the pitchforks.
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