Movies

They're not racist, they're racist-lite.

The daughter with a black man fetish. The father who can't help but performatively support black people. The son who wants to show how tough he is by fighting the black guy. The party guests who think black people are just the coolest, or are overly interested in their penis size or physical prowess. The grandfather who never got over being beaten.

It's a showcase of the other type of racism that we don't talk about as much, the obsession and fetishization of a race.
"I wish I was black so I could be fast, or cool".

The two people who weren't diet racist were the scariest. The mother who just saw "we can steal black people and no one will investigate" was perfectly observant and willing to use systemic racism for her own benefit.
The blind artist literally couldn't see race. He saw the main character for who he really was. He saw, and wanted to possess his eyes. Creepy shit, but at least he was creepy as fuck in a not racist way?

They're all parodies of the worst white people.

I think the yardwork and maid bit is just why they were around, because otherwise it's just "why do you have two random black people living with you". Grandpa likes being fit, which is why we have the wtf moment of him just running around aimlessly when he thinks the main character is asleep.

The main characters friend basically tells the truth the whole time, whenever they talk. "Get out of there man, you're deep in some messed up ultra white person shit".

First of all, you are taking the movie way too literally. It is a lot of symbolism about complex racial issues including losing your identity to white culture that appears to be warm and inviting.

They take over black people because as they see it doing that to white folk would be wrong, but black people are not people to them. They play black people for outsiders the way they see black people, as servants, to avoid raising suspicion.

This article spells out out pretty clearly even though the writing of the article itself isn't that great https://thecinemaholic.com/get-out-movie-explained/

Jordan Peele wrote Get Out and knows what he is doing.

Everything Peele.does is a comment on race and racial issues. In no particular order:

1. A guy mentions black strength and athleticism is superior, and would be incredible with a white brain.

2. Nobody notices when black people go missing, and nobody looks for them, as shown by the TSA agent friend failing to get help then doing it himself.

3. They aren't living as slaves, they're pretending to be live in groundskeepers while others are around so they can stay with their family.

4.They newly young/strong people enjoy using their bodies that failed them before the switch, hence the guy running all night.

5. While the hijacked bodies being lower standing could be a ploy, or a part of their payment for the procedure, I think it's more likely a jab at racism being so ingrained that black people are looked down on even when they're white, possibly even by the people that became black.

6. They choose black people because nobody outside of the inner city neighborhoods they're taken from would ever recognize them, shown when the main character recognizes the guy at the party.

Nothing the director does isn't on purpose

Couple things.

1. I don't think that the whites-in-blacks worked as servants when there wasn't an active target on premises. They just wanted to stay around (since they live there, and want to be around family), but needed a reason to be there. The other white-in-black was just a regular dude, right? Until he got flashed?
2. I don't think they were racist in the sense of "black people are inferior", but more "black people are exotic". Post full-on-racism there has been a rising objectification of black people, in the vein of "once you go black, you never go back" that is dehumanizing of black people in a subtler way than southern belle racism.

It's been a long time since I have seen it, but if memory serves, they weren't working like slaves. The white people inhabiting their bodies were doing what they normally would do if they had young and healthy bodies, like jogging and yardwork. And the "servants" of the house are actually the grandparents pretending to be servants. One can assume that they don't act like servants when a potential victim is not around.

As for why they choose black people as hosts, there's probably a book's worth of content examining the interplay of superiority and inferiority complexes in the mind of a bigot. Hatred borne of the overlap between envy and contempt, and all that. But the movie gives an explanation, saying it's just easier to get away with kidnapping black people. This is a fairly obvious criticism of the racial prejudice inherent in the legal system.

My theories in order of your questions:

1. We see them acting like the help only when the MC is (going) to be there. They’re playing their role so he doesn’t get suspicious. I think as soon as he is gone they go back to doing whatever it is rich white people do.

2. They view the black mind as inferior, but the black body as superior. You can see when they invite everyone over to the auction, they’re very curious about his physical traits and build, but never ask about school or anything like that.

Idk it’s been a minute and I’m not a critic, but I thought the movie was pretty good.

It's been a minute since I saw it, but the root reason was that they were taking these young bodies to more or less extend their lives, maybe indefinitely. They kidnap black people because their missing reports are given a lower priority than whites, which is shown in the scene when Andre's TSA friend (Rod?) goes to the police and they dismiss him about finding the missing black man from the beginning of the movie. Granted, his story and theory about the abduction is hard to believe, but there should've been some response to the guy being seen more than "he looks found to me"

And don't get it twisted, the white people are racist, but they weren't skinheaded, card-carrying, hood-wearing, hard-r racists. They were a modern affluent family you could find in many suburbs. Neoliberal type racism

And the behavior of the people who were already taken over? They wouldn't be acting like servants normally. That's why they seemed so strange, because they were putting on an act to get Chris taken over, and the only way they knew how to act out a black person was as a servant.

Someone give me answers

I don’t know. I haven’t seen it.