“Sinners,” directed by Ryan Coogler, was a masterfully executed horror movie that—vampires aside—featured historically accurate depictions of ways Black people survived Jim Crow. This was probably the most clever way to disguise a history lesson I have ever witnessed. What I loved most about the movie was its contextualized imagery of Black people.
You can rarely find so many examples of positive Black male imagery within films. I remember going to see “The Color Purple” and thinking, “I hope my boys never see this film because of how poorly it depicts Black men.” The problem I had with “The Color Purple” movie and many other historically celebrated Black novels is that they show the pathology found in Black culture without context. They allow the consumer to view Black pathology while omitting what contaminated the petri-dish; the disease of dysfunction was grown in. In these novels, characters appear to be the poison of society rather than having been poisoned by society.
Unlike “The Color Purple,” within “Sinners,” any behavior that appeared to be maligned was artistically woven into a context that forced viewers to recognize the murkiness of good and evil. I want to acknowledge the obvious critiques of my praise of the Black male imagery in “Sinners”: The main characters were violent thieves who sold alcohol.
On the surface level, you would likely ask, “How is this any different than any other stereotypical depictions of Black males in mainstream media?” My response would be that the characters displayed intent.
Most often, within stereotypical images of Black male characters in mainstream media, the intention is selfish, compulsive and careless. However, the Black male characters in “Sinners” appeared to be the opposite.
The main characters, Smoke and Stack, fought in wars, worked in criminal empires, and stole weaponry before returning home with the skills and resources to defend themselves and their community against Klan terror.
They stole booze, but they used it to employ community members and to create not just a liquor store, but a place where music, dance and communion could take place to release the steam valves of stress experienced under the crippling conditions of the Jim Crow South.
Even the misogynistic behavior was done with a little more depth than normally displayed. Stack talked to his younger cousin about how to make sexual experiences more pleasurable for women, for example. Stack’s distasteful behavior toward Mary, the mixed character passing for white, was revealed to be out of love and protection. It was revealed that he desired for her to be safe in a society where the relationship was dangerous for both of them.
If there were any changes that I would make to this movie, it would be the scene where Annie and Smoke are intimate. I would have loved to see her handled with more tenderness and adoration. It was great to see the break from Western beauty standards in the casting of a love interest, but I do believe there was a missed opportunity to center her care and pleasure in their intimacy.
Overall, I liked the depiction of masculinity and femininity displayed throughout the movie. Black men played the roles of protectors and providers, and not just for the nuclear units, but for the entire community. These men could be sad and vulnerable, and they could grieve loss. Men in this film could teach community children the art of negotiation and decide their own path rather than let the beliefs of others extinguish their dreams.
I especially enjoyed the complexity of femininity displayed in the character Annie. As a medicine woman, Annie used her gifts to sustain herself, to support an independent Black economy and to heal her community. I loved that her character did not chase love, but was compassionate and not closed off to it. She conjured and communicated with the spirit world to the benefit of the community, even in her own grief and loss. “Sinners” shows that women can be protectors in ways that look different than brute force. Women can use their intuition, keen observation and spirituality to create safety.
I think this movie, with discussion, could lead to a more nuanced understanding of what it means to be masculine in a society that has not created favorable conditions for healthy masculinity. I think it could lead to more compassion for yourself and others when “wrong” is done for the right reasons.
We have read required fiction texts like “The Bluest Eye” in schools; I think it is time to introduce its more contextualized contemporary. I believe “Sinners” should find its way into curricula and schools that reach and teach young people and young adults about Blackness in the Jim Crow South in a way that doesn’t just show dysfunction.
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