Thursday, March 28, 2024

‘Get Out’ Inspired College Course About Racism Now Available Online

[videowaywire video_id=”ZZVNHN2YD23FMV81″]

‘Get Out’ director & writer Jordan Peele

*Last year, UCLA offered a course inspired by Jordan Peele’sGet Out,” titled: “The Sunken Place: Racism, Survival, and Black Horror Aesthetic.”

Now, students will be able to attend a web seminar on the subject offered by Professor Tananarive Due and her husband, author Steven Barnes.

The couple decided to offer a seminar when they received an overwhelmingly positive response to the original course.

“The highest number I’ve ever had in [my] Afrofuturism [class] was about 30. And that was a lot of students,” said Due. “I had 60 in my first quarter for Sunken Place, and I have 60 again. They’ve given us a bigger room, in fact.”

Due credits media coverage for the increased interest in the “Get Out” seminar. Even Peele himself stopped by the class for a surprise appearance.

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get out

“So now, it’s crazy and so many people have said, ‘Oh, I wish I could take that class,’” Due explained. “And we teach classes through webinar, and have for years, and it’s just suddenly like, ‘Well, wait a minute — why don’t we just offer this class online?’”

The students weren’t aware the Peele was going to show up.

“The way I kept them distracted before sneaking Jordan into the room was showing the clip where Rose says, ‘You know I can’t give you these keys, babe,’” said Due. “That scene where you realize he has no allies in the house? They had had an extensive discussion about that—and the messaging in the film around the complicity of white women—in the previous class. So, I knew if I put that clip on, we could have an earthquake and they wouldn’t notice.”

Barnes offered more details, saying,  “There were two doors. And we snuck him in through the back door, we had a seat reserved for him, but he’s wearing the hoodie and a baseball cap and he’s kind of hunched down.”

“After I brought the lights up, I said, ‘Okay—what did you think the director was trying to say about the coveting of black bodies?’”

“And he raises his hand in the back, and he’s like, ‘I have a question.’ And he stood up, walked to the front of the room, and the class, in waves, just went crazy.”

“One student ran out of the classroom, sobbing,” Barnes said. Due added, “I was like, ‘Where is she going?’ And she was just going to the hall to walk it off and get herself re-centered so she could come back. And what was fantastic about it, was that I really got the sense that it wasn’t just ‘Jordan Peele from Key & Peele’ kind of love he was getting. It was ‘this is the creator of this masterwork we have been studying.’ I mean, they totally got that.”

 

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