Don't Invite Them In

I went to see Ryan Coogler's new film, Sinners, yesterday. I absolutely loved the movie and it's my favorite movie I've seen this year thus far. It's a movie that I felt had a lot to say on various topics such as black American music, the music industry, race relations, community, etc.

The movie takes place in Mississippi during the 1930s and involves twin brothers Smoke and Stack — also known as the Smokestack twins — who return home after having left to be in Chicago. They come back with the intention of opening a juke joint in town where folks can gather around to listen to music and congregate. The movie shifts gears at some point, a la From Dusk Til Dawn, where it becomes a vampire horror flick. The vampires are fairly generic and can be hurt or killed using the usual garlic, wooden stakes, sunlight, etc. The movie plays with the concept of vampires not being allowed to enter a home without being invited, and that's what I want to talk about here.

The twin brothers have varying patience on getting a return on their investment for opening up the juke joint. Since most of the community in this movie are sharecroppers they have very little disposable income, but with time and adjustment it seemed like this could be still be a viable business for them. Three white people — who are actually vampires — show up to the juke joint and ask to be invited in. They're also musicians and so they play a folk song to demonstrate. Despite their performance being enjoyed by those who heard it, it clearly isn't the style of music that would be mix in too well with the blues and traditional black music being played at the Smokestack twin's juke joint. There is additionally the danger involved with inviting in strange white people, since there are many scenarios that can lead to death for any black person once they are involved. In the end they are turned away, but the only white person at the juke joint — Mary who is an 1/8th black and was romantically involved with Stack — convinces Stack that their money could more quickly lead to a more prosperous business. Stack succumbs to greed and allows her to go potentially invite the vampires in.

This is where the movie begins to go down hill as Mary is bitten and turned into a vampire. She is then invited back into the juke joint since she was already there to begin with. This has me thinking about who the vampires are supposed to represent? The main obvious choice could just be white people, but I think Mary being invited in the first place should dispel that notion. While Mary's whiteness certainly is a reason for things going downhill, her choice to exit presents the real problem. Another character who is black, Cornbread, gets turned while he's out to take a leak. To me that exit is symbolic to leaving the community and having turned your back to it. When Cornbread returns after having been turned he asks to be invited in. He is quickly reminded however that he should feel comfortable entering because he's never needed an invite in the past. His inclusion into the community meant that his invitation was implicit, however since he's exited he now feels the need for an explicit invitation.

Mary being white passing means she often straddles the line between two communities. She is married to a white man, however, and hides the fact that she has a black ancestor. She lived as a white woman and used her privilege to her advantage, even trying to use it to try to become cordial with the vampires to save the business. Because of the one drop rule, her life would have been materially worse had she lived truthfully and not hid this aspect of herself. This is still a choice she made at the end of the day and this choice is what put the rest of the black community in danger. Despite being welcomed she did not fully embrace the community and thus to me represents who the vampires truly represent.

Don't invite those in who do not embrace you.

There are going to be differences within any community that lead to issues, but within a community of those who embrace each other those differences can be hashed out. The danger lies in those who don't fully embrace you as those individuals could lead to the destruction of your community. This isn't to say community isn't something that should be unwelcoming and rigid in it's ways, but the old adage of "Be careful who you surround yourself with" rings true in Sinners.