Beyond The Sunken Place: Get Out and the Realities Regarding the Black Body Part 2

In the case of Get Out, organ harvesting is the purpose behind the Armitage family’s annual gathering. Jeremy and Dean remove certain organs of Black bodies to either implant them into White bodies or steal the Black body to insert into it the brain of an Armitage family member. This again reflects reality as Black people are often abducted and murdered for organs that are then sold through the black market. In 2014, for instance, the body of 24-year-old Ryan Singleton was found in a California desert with his organs removed. The death of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson is hauntingly similar—his demise gruesome. Many of these cases involving organ harvesting become cold cases that receive minimal media coverage. The entire concept of people being kidnapped and murdered for their organs is dismissed as a conspiracy theory concocted by hoteps. However, the stories of Black bodies being violated by medical facilities is historical fact (i.e. The Tuskegee experiment, Henrietta Lacks, the creation of gynecology). So it would not be surprising if these so-called conspiracy theories are revealed to be true.
In regards to the mental health profession, there are various reasons why the majority of Black folks decline assistance from those in the field. Besides the stigma associated with a having a diagnosis, there is the fear of disclosing their deepest fears to a complete stranger—especially if that person is White. Missy is a psychiatrist who uses her skill as a hypnotist to control Chris, Georgina, Walter, and Logan, robbing all four of them of their emotional/physical autonomy and ability to consent. Though Chris denies her services initially (I’m assuming it’s because he does not trust this White women with whom he has no connection), she deceives him anyway by hypnotizing him under the guise of wanting to converse with him. Just based on his reaction to what is called the Sunken Place, however, the main character rarely discloses his deepest trauma. Many of us do not in real life, in fear of having those same devastating experiences used to emotionally and mentally control us. Chris’s trauma is utilized as a weapon against him, his body paralyzed and controlled whenever Missy taps her spoon against a tea cup. Yet there is the difference between Chris and the other Black characters trapped by the Armitages. While Georgina, Logan, and Walter represent the ones who remain controlled by White supremacy, Chris represents every Black person who resists it and regains regaining his physical autonomy. Chris speaks up and is in-tuned to the racism surrounding him, taking note of the strangeness of the people. And though bamboozled to a certain extent, he eventually regains control of his own body and mind, thus reclaiming his overall freedom.

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