I'm also surprised to see discussions about Mary in Sinners and a lot of (younger?) people not realizing the politics about her being white-passing and not simply just white, especially in the era of the One Drop Rule. Only going to address the white people doing this, is this not something that's taught outside of the South?
I canāt speak for everyone, but I went to school in southwest Pennsylvania and we learned about the one drop rule when discussing black codes and segregation and slavery. And Mary, if I recall, had about the same amount of black ancestry genetically as Homer Plessy of Plessy v. Ferguson. I also took AP US History in high school so I may have learned more than average in the classroom itself too, but I didnāt learn about this for the first time in that class.
Yeah, I think Plessy had a Black grandmother, and Mary's said to have had a half-Black grandparent. And even before she revealed that, as soon as she was up there at the train station openly confronting Stack about them having had a relationship and him ditching her, as well as her mother having looked after Stack and Smoke, I clocked that she probably wasn't white white (because what white woman during this time would ever in public).
And it's interesting - and potentially alarming - that a lot of younger viewers seemed to not have picked up on that or even put it together after her ancestry was revealed.
Yeah, Iāve seen plenty of weird takes about Maryās ancestry being irrelevant cause she looks white and likeā¦ okay I get that her race would be viewed differently today than in 1932. The actress also has a black great-grandparent if I recall and from what Iāve seen people just kind of consider her a white woman. But thereās a reason Cornbread let her in the moment he realized who she was and Stack talked about people killing her if they found out about her ancestry like. Iām not even thirty until November but how uncurious about this countryās history are white twentysomethings? š
The One Drop Rule isn't even old history, it's not even a hundred years old. If whites found out about her ancestry, she would've become a target for the Klan, too. Her proximity to whiteness - and specifically the angst it causes her in her relationship with Stack - is integral to her character and leaves her an easy target for Remmick when she uses that proximity to try and gauge whether he and his minions really passed the sniff test or not. Simply viewing her as just a regular white woman and ignoring the One Drop Rule hanging over her character pretty much ignores everything about what actually drives her.
It's not that she's simply a white woman in love with a Black man, it's that she grew up with Black people because she had a Black ancestor.
(And complete non-sequitur but when she spat in Stack's mouth and he swallowed, that's when I knew he was gonna match her freak).
LITERALLY. Itās all that historical and cultural context that defines the logic of Maryās actions and motivations. Going to the juke for a sense of community and openness she doesnāt have in Arkansas with her rich white husband, knowing using the social capital she has to see if itās safe to let Remmick & co in to spend their money and help the business stay afloat. Like Iām a horror and specifically vampire fan whoās also a history buff and I like dense, smart films so maybe I came in totally biased but it seems like everyone whoās had bad things to say about it I find out theyāve missed out on some kind of historical context that elevates the story that much more.
This isnāt even going into how people totally miss Remmickās character as an obvious poster child for perpetuating a cycle of violence and abuse that he himself was subject to on a cultural level either which is just. Lol. Like heās a bit sympathetic for that but come on, there is a step where any former victim doing horrid shit graduates to āperpetratorā and that threshold was obviously miles ago.
Also RE: the sex scenes. I just have to say, if theyāre an indication of anything Iām happy for Cooglerās wife lmao.
White people who misread Remmick are especially frustrating because he's otherwise such an excellent take on vampirism as a metaphor for whiteness - possibly the best example (that I've encountered, at least) - and it's because of what he represents. It understands not only the insidiousness and predatory nature of whiteness, but also the tragedy of whiteness.
It's easy to hate the Klan (and boy was that ending š¤), white people by and large aren't going to be seeing themselves in the KKK. But Remmick is not the Good White substitute.
