Antebellum Movie is an Ominous Warning to Black Americans
If you are
a Black American and you haven’t seen the movie Antebellum, I suggest that you
do because it will remind you of why you shouldn’t be complacent about the rise
in White Nationalism. Organize and arm yourselves now because as you party and
play video games many racist Politicians and racist Radio pied-pipers are openly
advocating for America to return to the glory days of the Antebellum South. It
won’t be long until the events of this movie comes to pass.
This is not
a movie review or a critique but merely a personal analogy and if you think I’m
“reaching” then you don’t know history. We all experience things in different
ways and different things are created so that different people will get a
different experience or enjoyment from them. Antebellum is simply a movie that
uses historical truth to deliver a message in a creative way. I did not enjoy
the movie because I hate all movies with slave topics. However, I did find it intriguing,
which is why I chose to analyze the messages that the movie is attempting to
deliver.
Antebellum
is billed as a horror thriller and it is played in three non-chronological
Acts. The main actor is popular singer and actor, Janelle Monae and since most
of the plot centers around her character I will focus on her experiences. The
first Act introduces us to Janelle as a Cotton-picking slave who, along with
dozens of other Black people/slaves are stuck in what appears to be a
Confederate Army camp. White men in Confederate army clothes patrol the camp
and oversee the slaves as they pick and process Cotton for shipping.
The cruelty
of the soldiers towards the slaves is stereotypical of everything we’ve ever seen,
read, or heard about slavery in the American South during mid 1800s. They kill,
brutalize, and rape the slaves at will and the slaves are made to labor and
serve them while being forbidden to even communicating among themselves. All
the slaves seem to look up to Janelle for some reason, as if she had some sort
of secret supernatural powers that is yet to be unleashed or maybe it was simply
because she was the General’s concubine. Whatever she was, we could tell that
she was just as scared as everyone else.
As Janelle
laid next to the sleeping General, probably after her nightly raping, she
stares hopelessly into the darkness. The scene cuts to Act two and surprisingly,
we see that Janelle is now in modern day. She is not only happily married with
a husband and young daughter; she is an accomplished author and academic
professor too. Her life seems as hectic and rushed as any modern professional’s
life would be as she tries to keep a happy home while faithfully pursuing the professional
success offered to her through her belief in the American Dream.
She jets
off to Louisiana to attend the launch of her new Book but while there she is
kidnapped by a couple of white people; one of them is the Lieutenant of the
Confederate Army we saw before. At this point I thought of giving up on this
movie because I thought it was corny as hell. 18th century ghosts
are kidnapping Black people and returning them to slavery, I thought to myself. This can’t be the
horror that the movie was billed to contain.
Act three
opens with Janelle back in the Army camp the day after we left her in Act one.
New slaves are brought into the camp and the cruelty continues. Then after one
of the new slave girls hangs herself Janelle and another slave decides that it
was time to escape. She waits for nightfall and after getting raped one more
time she also waits for the general to fall asleep. It was at this point that
the plot of the film was revealed. A cell phone rings and the General gets up,
goes outside to his horse and answers the phone.
The rest of
the movie is the most exciting part but there is no need to explain the movie
any further. It is here that most people will realize that the movie is not set
in the past, it is all taking place in modern days Louisiana. The General and
all his Confederate soldiers are engaged in Cosplay but their victims and
actions are 100% real. They are white racists who believed in the greatness of
the Old South Confederacy before it was defeated and dismantled by the Northern
Union. This is the America that racists refer to when they say they want to
Make America Great Again.
All the Black
people are captives from everyday society. They are upper-class professionals, Black
activists, and people who white people either envy or don’t like. They were
lured, kidnapped and held captive to play the role of slaves and servants. The
camp they were held in was part of a vast heritage resort fittingly called
Antebellum, which is a real term that refers to a romanticized view of the pre-Civil
War South when white life was only regulated by minimal government, minimal laws,
and white Christian values.
If you as a
Black person watch this movie and you do not see the potential for something
like this happening in America given the current racialized atmosphere, then I
suggest that you go back to sleep. Go back to thinking that Trump and his MAGA
movement involves you. Go back to thinking that white people are actually
afraid of you instead of seeing that their supposed fear of you is just an
excuse to get away with murdering you.
Antebellum is a warning to Black Americas that
if Trump gets re-elected and white nationalism continues to grow unchallenged, you
will soon begin to notice the disappearances of a lot of prominent Black people
from society. These “trouble-making” Black people will end up as captives in
concentration camps ran by white militias but while your concern will grow, law
enforcement won’t do a damn thing about your fears because a lot of them are
white supremacists themselves. 320ro.com