Stypula 1

Harrison Stypula

Dr. Nicole Peeler

SEL 237

10/25/2022

Subconscious Inferiority: White Supremacy Examined in Peele’s Get Out

With the work Jordan Peele produced in Get Out viewers received a brutal and close up

look into the realities of racism and white supremacy in the U.S. through a surreal horror

experience. The way Peele refers to eugenic theory in Get Out is making a statement on the

white supremacist beliefs underlying this and similar concepts. Specifically, that they have the

right to dominion over other races. By inserting their consciousness, they genuinely believe they

are making the “inferior” individuals “perfect” by using their consciousness to enslave their

victims physical form in the most extreme manner. In doing so, Peele is bringing to light the

white supremacist irrationality in the Armitage’s attempts at prolonging their consciousnesses,

while also providing an underlying commentary on what motivates them to do these things.

This creation by Peele is reminiscent of the kind of atrocities committed through history

in the name of eugenics and “helping” humanity, depicted through the lens of unnatural horror

that only makes the reality of it more vivid, all the while highlighting the white supremacy that is

at its core behind it. This kind of pseudoscientific ideology in eugenics has made the work of

white supremacists easier by giving them “factual” evidence to support their ideas about

“inferiorities” and “superiorities” in other races. In the context of Get Out, Peele takes the

concepts of this theory and uses the idea of scientific knowledge to display how white supremacy

uses science to find “proof” of these based on genetics. This assumption can be seen in the

Armitage’s and their guests that they believe white genetics are superior to other races.
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The film revolves around Chris, an African American man who is asked by his white

girlfriend Rose to come meet her supposedly liberal, progressive parents for the first time. Her

parents Dean and Missy Armitage, while seemingly cordial, are disturbingly thrilled and

awkward at meeting Chris. Besides the pair of them, their hired black groundskeeper and maid

do little to make Chris feel better about his situation. After Missy hypnotizing Chris against his

will and the bizarre behavior of the “help”, Chris’s fears grow more real until Chris is forced into

the Coagula procedure. The goal of the Armitage’s, his girlfriend Rose included, is to swap the

brains of white hosts into stolen black bodies. By inserting the white consciousness into bodies

they believe are physically “superior” they’re performing their own brand of enslavement and

white supremacism (Get Out).

The kind of real-life horror that Peele is depicting in the first half of the movie presents

the viewer with the kind of systemic racism present in the U.S. with simple but true depictions.

An example of this is Chris being harassed by a police officer after having done nothing wrong

or Dean Armitage using outdated slang when referring to him and his relationship with Rose

(Get Out). With this first simple but effective display the viewers get the first sense of uneasiness

about the situation that Chris is being put into. As a viewer there is an obvious sense of

something very wrong with the people Chris is surrounded by, giving the viewer a look through

Chris’s gaze into how life appears to him. By doing this Peele is delivering his underlying

message, that “the systemic racism that the movie is about is very real” and it is far from just a

standard horror film (Landsberg 692), which is pushed even farther when the family beliefs first

crop up.

Where this racist ideology first rears its ugly head is during the family dinner in which

Chris first meets Jeremy, Rose’s brother. During his first introductions to Chris, he assesses him
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first on his race and genetic makeup, asking him questions like if “he ever [got] into street fights

as a kid?” and states “with your frame and your genetic makeup, if you really pushed your body,

and I mean really train, you know? . . . You’d be a fucking beast,” we’re given the first strong

indication of the “inferior”/“superior” ideals that the Armitage’s hold (Get Out). This depiction

follows the early eugenic ideal that one race is “superior” to another, and though it might seem at

first that the Armitage’s are implying they believe their own physical forms “inferior” they still

consider their own race above others.

They believe that combining their minds with a physically stronger body can keep their

consciousness alive for another generation in an improved, “perfect” form and prove they’re

capable of enslaving African Americans in the modern day. In taking over host bodies they

follow their sick ideology that they are “perfecting” African American’s by enslaving their

minds. In doing this they genuinely believe they’re doing a good thing by preventing them from

following a path of supposed degeneracy by controlling them. With this belief that they are doing

“good,” Peele is mirroring the same kind of racist ideas that were prevalent in American history.

In displaying this concept, he is giving hints at the irony behind their ideology. They believe they

are “superior” beings, yet they also consider the bodies they are colonizing to be a physical

improvement over their own. even their most “perfect” step in evolution by adding their

consciousness into bodies of people they consider inferior to them. Noting this, it’s the first

indication that they do not believe themselves wholly “superior,” at least not consciously. This

strange obsession with black bodies that would seemingly contradicts their racist beliefs in

“inferiority” can be seen as Peele’s interpretation for why they perform these actions. They

subconsciously believe they themselves are “inferior” and need to be improved upon, though

they would never admit it consciously.

This kind of search for physical “perfection” meshes excellently with the standard

eugenic thought, as it can be seen during the Armitage “family gathering,” specifically the

concept that “black is in fashion” as it’s so uncomfortably put by one of the party guests (Get

Out). During this scene guests continuously make comments about Chris’s physical attributes in

the same manner as Jeremy, including about his virility.

This mention by an older woman referring to Chris’s sexual ability and the depiction of

Philomena and “Logan King” as a couple at the garden party (Get Out), demonstrates the way

that sexual reproduction is being manipulated by the white elite for their benefit, and how they

may use it to their own advantage later in life. This concept falls in line with the ideas behind

great replacement theory, a political conspiracy that non-white individuals are attempting replace

those of white, European descent (Rose). Instead of trying to counter this illogical fear by

eliminating the “threat” of non-white individuals, Peele shows how they move with the racist

idea by trying to become visible in a “in fashion” form once their own bodies have been used up

with age. Rather than trying to eliminate these people they deem “inferior” they replace their

consciousness, which they consider to be the root of their imaginary problems. When the time

comes for them to colonize a host body, it brings with it how Peele is showing the irony that they

invade and replace these individuals. This is done just in the same way that they use their racist

ideology to claim that non-white individuals are “inferior” and trying to take over their world.

When first introduced to Rose’s parents, Chris and Rose relate how they hit a deer on the

drive to the house, striking it dead after impact, prompting Dean to go on a rant about how the

deer are overrunning the land, saying, “You know what I say? I say one down, a couple hundred

thousand to go. I don't mean to get on my high horse, but I'm telling you, I do not like the

deer. I'm sick of it; they're taking over,” (Get Out). This aggressive stance on deer at first seems
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like an awkward rant from a middle-aged man. However, with the context of modern beliefs in

great replacement theory mentioned previously, this tirade works as a metaphor for their

underlying belief that the world is being taken over by “undesirable” individuals.

When it comes to the way Dean speaks about the deer, he talks with a very lay

understanding of the ecosystem and how the deer affect it, which seems surprising at first given

his work as a neurosurgeon. When looking at the early history of race as a “science” however,

this lay (or average persons) understanding has been fairly closely as a “scientific” understanding

of it or bound together in a religious sense (Morning 25). With the way that both the scientific

and lay understanding about race has been tied together in history, it makes considerably more

sense why Dean would have such a strong view. There is almost a sense of religious reverence

with their belief in strengthening their white consciousness before death through colonizing the

black body. This can be seen with the ominous atmosphere and candlelit operating room where

Dean and Jeremy perform the procedure (Get Out). This traditional mixed understanding

suggests Peele is playing off it intentionally, by showing that the Armitage’s have an

intentionally lay understanding about race as well, in the belief that “Genetics plays a primary

role in determining an individual’s race,” while also considering themselves highly scientific

(Morning 42). This belief makes the perfect framework for understanding Coagula’s ideologies,

given the heavy focus genetics plays in their understanding of race as a concept. Besides this, his

statement that the deer are “taking over” can be read as a metaphor for his feelings about Chris

and other African American people. The belief provides his reasoning behind why this process of

colonizing their bodies is necessary. Instead of using older methods of eugenics, he chooses to

follow the Coagula procedure.

The procedure itself, invented by his father, allows white individuals to occupy the

bodies of African Americans, and in turn take over their bodies with their own consciousness

(Get Out). In showing this Peele displays the Armitage’s white supremacist fueled desire to

eliminate black consciousness. In addition, he shows how it mirrors the way they are doing what

they fear will happen to them by literally taking over other people’s bodies. Yet again Peele is

making reference to the irony in how the Armitage’s believe they are doing good with this, and

how this frightening ideology is reflected in real life white supremacy.

The Coagula procedure itself truly encapsulates the spirit of how ineffective and illogical

the entire process is, mimicking the illogical nature of race “science” that is used for white

supremacist gains. In creating this bizarre form of white supremacy, Peele showcases all the

traits of good horror, bringing something unimaginable but very real to the screen. By portraying

the eugenic ideology in this style of horror verité, or a truthful horror, (Landsberg 632) Peele is

giving us a truthful message of ignored racism in America. By doing so, this also shows his

feelings about the eugenic movement with the mocking play on it the film takes. In this light he

critiques the eugenic movement in a mocking, almost humorous way, with how illogical their

belief is in attempting to prolong their consciousness through Coagula.

In line with this mocking critique of the “science” of race, he presents real life

implications of how systemic racism is not fully taken seriously in the reception of the film.

When the film first released in 2017 it was rightfully given rave reviews yet was nominated by

the Golden Globe awards as either a comedy or musical, sparking confusion and controversy

over this unbelievable categorization (Landsberg 629). While this kind of absurd confusion over

the entire point of the film does not at first seem directly related to the concept of eugenics and

how Peele displays and mocks the pseudoscience, there is in fact an unspoken comedy in the
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way the Armitage’s believe so strongly in the Coagula procedure despite its lackluster success

rate at fully preserving consciousness. Much like past so-called scientists using unfounded

claims and fears about genetics to push their racist beliefs, there is a sense of comic idiocy in the

way they pursue this disturbing form of white supremacy. Again and again they go through this

process to demonstrate their own “superiority” while unwittingly undermining the very

consciousnesses they are seeking to preserve. Get Out is by no means a comedy. It is highly

doubtful the Golden Globes nominated it under these categories because they picked up on the

irony of what the Armitage’s believe is good. There is a sense of humorous mockery of how the

white supremacist beliefs ignore all logic and reasoning in favor of their own racist ideology, but

it is not in and of itself comedy.

For the Armitage’s and the Coagula organization, losing a little bit of themselves in the

name of immortality is worth it to prove they’re dominant over nature, as well as the African

American people they enslave for their purposes. The evidence is put plain in view that their

process does not work, with Georgina, Walter, and Logan all behaving in a dull, trance-like state

that leave them seeming closer to a portion of their original selves. Even that Chris can snap both

Andre/Logan and Walter out of the trance with the flash of a camera is evidence to the fact that

the Armitage’s process is anything but perfect as the spell can be so easily broken (Get Out). The

ease with which the camera flash saves Chris could be seen as just a plot point to allow him to be

victorious in the end, but at the same time Peele is displaying how the Coagula procedure is

flawed terribly. Though it is meant to help them transform through the “cocoon” stage of life and

ascend to a godlike state (Get Out) there is true irony in the way that their own freedom as hosts

can be so easily revoked with the flash of a camera. That they can become imprisoned so easily
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is testament to flawed nature of the procedure, and the illogical bullheadedness that comes along

with this form white supremacy.

In the end the viewer gets an image of how white supremacy can be displayed through a

lens such as eugenics, in subtle and unsubtle ways in Get Out. Peele makes use of contradicting

images about what white supremacists typically desire. Instead of attempting to stamp out

African Americans, the Armitage’s instead work to improve white individuals by transferring

their consciousness into them. In doing this they colonized their bodies in the process to become

more “superior” than they could ever be before in their twisted ideology. More than anything this

strange position of believing African Americans less than them while still idolizing and

fetishizing their bodies leads to the concept that the Armitage’s and their guests have a

subconscious fear that they truly are “inferior.” That they believe they can only truly become

“perfect” by performing the Coagula procedure gives a hint from Peele that they do so because

of an unspoken concern that they are not the “superior” people they claim to be. It’s this kind of

racist idea that prompts them to still put Chris, who is not an above average athlete or physical

person, above themselves in physical superiority simply because he is black. They may justify

their reasoning that they are “bettering” their victims, or that it’s making them “perfect” in the

process, when really, they feel insecure in their bodies because of their racist ideology. In

depicting these motives and actions, Peele shows the viewers the systemic racism of today’s

society through a horrific and unnatural lens. Beyond this it shows how he points out the irony in

their efforts along with the illogical conclusion that their experiments end with, mirroring both

false race science used in real life along with the white supremacy which lurks in the background

of such fields.
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Works Cited

Landsberg, Alison. “Horror Vérité: Politics and History in Jordan Peele’s Get Out

(2017).” Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, vol. 32, no. 5, Oct. 2018, pp.

629–42. EBSCOhost,

https://doi-org.setonhill.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/10304312.2018.1500522.

Morning, Ann. The Nature of Race: How Scientists Think and Teach about Human Difference,

University of California Press, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central,

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/setonhill-ebooks/detail.action?docID=730032.

Peele, Jordan, director. Get Out. Universal Pictures, 2018.

Rose, Steve. "A Deadly Ideology: How The 'Great Replacement Theory' Went Mainstream." The

Guardian, 8 June 2022, www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/08/a-deadly-ideology-

how-the-great-replacement-theory-went-mainstream. Accessed 8 Oct. 2022.