Sinners. What can be said that hasn’t been already said about this fantastic piece of cinema. Funny, thought-provoking, insightful, witty, suspenseful. A film that’s truly genre-fluid because it incorporates so many other genres seamlessly into the overall narrative that you can’t quite put it in only one box.
Ok, that’s enough of the formalities.
This fucking film was fan-fucking-tastic.
I don’t want to spend this time speaking on the story and whatnot. Instead, I want to go over specific takeaways that I got from the films. I broke it into 9 parts so let’s begin.
- The Music Scene
You know what scene that I’m talking about. That scene was one of the best scenes that I’ve seen in a movie in a very long time. It was visually stunning and encapsulated so much culture. Not just African culture, and black culture, but highlight Chinese culture as well. It showcased just how powerful music is in all our lives and is a direct tie to generations past and generations yet to be born. In black American culture, black art is the foundation of so many genres, regardless of how others attempt to whitewash it. With every genre we create, it is immediately demonized, devalued and overlooked before it’s immediately co-opted, gentrified and assimilated into the larger society, where it will then be praised, whitewashed, and gutted of its cultural origins. It happened with the Blues, Jazz, Rock, Grunge, Punk, Country, and they’ve been trying to do it with hip-hop. They attempted it with R&B, but that wasn’t happening.
Music within the black community is such a powerful medium because it was how we communicated with one another when our native tongue was stripped from us. When planning for rebellions, it was music that got our messages across to one another covertly. When our pain, physically, emotionally, or spiritually, was too much to bear, it was music that gave us an outlet to release that frustration for even a moment of reprieve. You saw that when Delta Slim was informing Sammy and Stack about what happened to his friends. When he started speaking on how one was lynched based on a lie, his grief became so great that he began to hum through the sorrow. It’s a guttural pain that we’ve either experienced or have witnessed others channel that same reaction to a great trauma. That scene truly displayed how music can transcend time and create a through line that every generation can connect to, relate to, and experience together. Another interesting tidbit that I gathered was…
2. Hoodoo
Now, I’m not going to sit up here and front like I’m super-duper knowledgeable about the art of Hoodoo. What I will say is that how it was done in the movie was greatly appreciated. Annie used root work as a tool of protection for the people that she loved showcased that Hoodoo isn’t an innately evil medium. It was a robust tool that our ancestors used in their continued fight against oppression. Far too often, due to the doctrine preached at churches, African spirituality/hoodoo is always looked at as “demonic” no matter how it is used, while Euro-centric belief systems don’t receive any level of scrutiny. Hoodoo, and other African spiritual mediums, are treated as if they just spawned at random with no regard that these were systems that were brought with us from where we were stolen from. This isn’t something that we just “picked up”. I don’t want to turn this into a “bash Black Christianity” session because nothing will be gained from that. However, I will say that as a collective, you need to get over yourselves. Shunning parts of your culture (because that is part of your culture too) while simultaneously not doing any form of research, look through, or even giving any form of credence to the fact that our people performed these actions out of survival due to the immense amount of danger that they were in, is just a shameful and ignorant disservice to your own history. You may want to start looking into some of your family “traditions” or even some “quirks” that your grandparents may have done (i.e. fixing black-eyed peas during New Years, making sure that all the laundry is done prior to New Years. etc.) because your lineage may not be that far off from the hoodoo that you stigmatize. In short. Do the Knowledge. Don’t reduce it to…
3. Church Hurt Church Trauma
This will be the section where we will bash black Christianity. NOW, WHEN I TELL YOU THAT THESE MOTHER FU-no, just kidding. This is where we will do a brief dissection of this patronizing phrase and repurpose it for what it is. A man that I follow on Threads, Kyle J. Howard, highlighted, “Church Hurt is a term created by pastors who have a track record of enabling church abuse. It is a term intended to downplay the realities of church abuse both to the congregants as well as to those who’ve experienced abuse & are dealing with faith-based trauma (not mere hurt).” If you want to show support, please subscribe to his Substack here https://findingfaithk.substack.com/
In Sinners, we saw that while Sammy’s father was the pastor of a church and cared for his son’s spiritual well-being, he shamed him for his musical dreams and passions. Even when Sammy came back from a night of living hell, his father’s first thought wasn’t to check on his son to see what happened and how he was from a father to son perspective. He instead uses his son’s trauma as an opportunity to shame him in front of the congregation and demand that he gives up his passion on the altar of “repentance”. It wasn’t repentance to the Most High, it was subservience under his father’s rule. While Christians may view this as salvation by means of turning from your “wicked ways”, what is displayed is assimilation. Much like the vampires who only saw Sammy for his talents, his father only saw him a marker for virtue signaling. Whenever we encounter trauma that the church causes, whether it be judgements in lifestyle choices or passions, or something more severe, and victims of said trauma attempt to demand the church as an institution to repent from their wickedness and judgement rooted in misinterpreted verses and their cult-of-personality pastors, it is immediately met with patronization, humiliation, or even excommunication. If the church, as an institution, is unrepentant of how they mistreat their congregation, then reconciliation isn’t a viable option for the victims of said trauma. You all may want to do a self-evaluation because downplaying and gaslighting victims of abuse, the victims of your abuse, is a form of abuse. The only thing that’s “hurt” here is your pride. Get over yourselves… Any who…
4. Assimilation
What his film absolutely shows are the very real and costly dangers of assimilation. Remmick, the head vampire, would constantly preach about the benefits of unifying with him would be a wonderful experience filled with love and acceptance. All they needed to do was “let him in”. This was and is something that all cultures, especially black culture, can relate to. It’s the same song and dance. “Hey, what you all are doing is making us uncomfortable. That’s why we keep harming you. If you would just conform to the American way of living, your lives will be so much better.” Selling us a dream just to strip us of our identity and cast us aside. Freedom is the lure, and willful subjugation is the reward. The ones who demand assimilation do not seek freedom for the oppressed, only silence in their chains. What the vampires were offering was not freedom. Just a new landlord for their oppression. The oppression being…
5. White Supremacy
What I’ve spoken about up to know highlights the very real threat of white supremacy. White supremacy only cares about upholding the social construct of “whiteness”. It does not care about any culture that has influence above the one that it has established as “Superior”. For groups like the Irish, they were mistreated heavily and treated as a “lesser” group until they opted to assimilate into white culture. However, unlike the Irish, black people only received the illusion of assimilation. Doctrine and heavily edited text utilized within the church that actively promoted whiteness as the standard, the slaves perpetually subservient to them, and demonizing any spiritual practices that the slaves attempted to perform did substantial harm to the black community in every regard. Black people simply existing was treated as a form of rebellion and protest. We constantly cite stories of prominent townships like Tulsa, OK, East St. Louis and others and how they were burned down, flooded or exterminated. What we also need to highlight is the simple fact that white people didn’t need a reason to harm us, and it didn’t matter the socio-economic level. As Killer Mike said, “even if you made 7 figures, you still a nigga”. The constant threat of harm and death was rampant during the 1930s and it didn’t matter if you were a pastor of a small church, a sharecropper trying to make it through the day, or a couple of twins with an entrepreneurial spirt, the very act of survival was resistance. And in that resistance. we found…
6. Joy & Pain/Joy is Revolutionary
Even during all of this, they still found time to celebrate. Despite the circumstances, the threat of harm and death, they found joy within their pain. I go back to the scene with Delta Slim resorting to humming when the trauma became too great. He chose to celebrate for the ones that couldn’t be there. Every single person that was in that juke joint that night chose to celebrate, chose to live, chose joy in that moment. Choosing joy amid danger is revolutionary. I know that folks throw that word around all willy nilly, but in all seriousness, choosing joy with the very real threat of death at every turn is an act of defiance. It’s an act that deliberately chooses self when the world wants you to falter. It’s an act of rebelling against the oppressor’s desired outcome of fear in perpetuity. Choosing joy demoralizes those who only rule through insecurity. Once you see through the facade and realize just how weak the enemy truly is, then the real revolution can begin. Speaking of which…
7. Vengeance can be cool sometimes
We really need to get out of this notion that we have got to meet our enemy with love and all that garbage. That “you go low, we go high” shit is for the fucking birds. Imagine telling Smoke, “Hey, I know that the Klan pretty much set you all up to die in that barn, but hey you got to be the bigger man and forgive them.” Fuck. That. Shit. Forgiveness isn’t an excuse to forget the consequences of your wicked deeds. Folks treat “forgiveness” like it’s just this cure-all for you doing fucked up things to others without any repercussions of your actions. Forgiveness is only a step in the reconciliation process and forgiveness isn’t something that should be expected to be given. Folks sit up here and say, “well, you need to forgive this person for yourself because that’s going to be weighing on your heart/soul”. if someone set me and my people up to get killed, that “weight” would be non-existent because forgiveness would be a myth. You can’t demand someone to forgive their oppressors or to forgive their abusers. That is on the victim to offer that and even then, they have every right to withhold it if they want to. Quit trying to rush the victim’s timeline of your forgiveness because you’re feeling guilty about your misdeeds. The only person that’s holding a weight on their soul is the one that chose to place it there.
8. Cookout invites
You can’t let everybody come to the party. You don’t know who’s there to sabotage. You don’t know who’s there to steal. You don’t know who’s there to snitch. One of the highlights of the movie was when Remmick and the other two vampires tried to go into the party and was immediately met with hostility and a resounding “no”. Random white people “stumbling upon” their juke joint in the middle of the night in the 1930s with the real threat of the Klan in the area? Yean, nah, take your asses up the road. This is a lesson in listening to your gut. This is a lesson in relying on your lived experiences. This is a lesson in acknowledging that when shit doesn’t look right, it’s most likely because it isn’t right. Lastly, this is a valuable lesson in protecting the spaces that you deem sacred. Not everyone from outside of your culture deserves to be let into the fold. Hell, some of your own skinfolk ain’t kinfolk. Utilize discernment and if they start complaining about how you need to be more accepting…. fuck em.
9. The Illusion of Allyship
Which brings me to this final point. We have no allies. Only folks with shared interests. The wife of Chinese store owner, Grace, was viewed as an ally throughout the film. She helped with creating signs for the party, helped cook the food, and was an overall positive to the entire group…. That is, until her husband got turned. Once that happened, her faculties began to start slipping and she started to become irrational, putting the entire group in jeopardy. Once Remmick mentioned their daughter, all restraint went out the window and, in her fury, she sealed her, and the entire collective’s, fate by defiantly inviting them into the barn. Now, some folks will say, “well, she was grieving her husband’s death, and she didn’t want her daughter to be harmed. What did you expect her to do?” To that I say, I expected her to shut the fuck up and wait until sunrise like the rest of the people. She wasn’t the only one who lost someone that night. Smoke lost his brother. Sammy lost his cousin. Everyone lost family and friends and just the grief of random attendees getting caught up in that mess and dying. Everyone was in pain, but everyone else was on code. They couldn’t allow their pain and their thirst for vengeance to get in the way of their survival. She was on the same plan until it hit home for her. Until that danger came to her doorstep. Instead of realizing that she can’t afford to lose her composure, she allowed her rage to consume her, effectively dooming the entire group. We see this constantly being done in the current day with our so-called “allies”. They will march, post, or even participate in a boycott or two. But when that danger reaches their doorsteps, then you will see their true colors come out. All a sudden they’re vying for roles that should be designated for other impacted groups. They’re compromising the collective because they no longer agree with the mission. They’re fading into the background because the heat is too great. Don’t be fooled by the allure of allyship. Until they prove themselves to you and your cause, treat them as support and nothing more. This can be summarized with three bars from the song, Mortal Man:
“As I lead this army, make room for mistakes and depression
And with that being said, my nigga, let me ask this question
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?”
I’m sure that there’s plenty of things that I may have missed or didn’t fully expound on but those are my thoughts. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, go and see it. If you have, go and see it on IMAX. If you did that also, then salute to you. If you’ve made it to the end, shout out to you. Until the next stream of consciousness post that I make, take care of yourselves.
TCI
The Cool Intellectual 
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