“Get out” and “ Unsetting the Coloniality of Begin/Power/Truth/Freedom”

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Get Out” falls into at least two genres: science fiction and horror. Science fiction shows the speculative situations that human beings utilize science and technology. When science and technology are no longer under human’s control, they would become the horror. The uncontrollable robot, the unpredictable technology from and in the outer space, the aliens that have higher intelligence than human beings, the missing and manipulated memories and dreams are all the horrors of this type. However, in “Get Out,” the horror comes from the intention to control instead of the out-of-control situations. Science and technology can be useful to the ones utilizing them (ex: resisting aging and gaining a stronger and healthier physical body) and at the same time threatening and lethal to others (ex: losing consciousness and being stolen the brain).

Here, we see that there are (at least) two human subjects in science fiction. One of them does not only intend to control but also dominates the power and tools to control, whereas another is destined to be controlled. If we borrow Fanon’s idea, we can say that the former subject is actional, and the latter is reactional. Fanon also says that human should not be just reactional. A person is merely reactional and passive because he is arbitrarily defined by the social norms as not being able to be actional and active. In other words, a not-actional person is considered not-fully-human or not-qualified-as-human. We can say that while the first human subject is with no doubt recognized by the social norms as Human (with the capital “H”), the second human subject is the human (without the capital “H”) of disability. S/he is not able to be actional or control the environment and other living beings with science and technology. Thinking with Sylvia Wynter’s idea, we can say that the second human subject is being wrongly represented by the first Human subject. The Human subject is the overrepresented Man that erases the other possibilities of being human.

Usually, we don’t object to the idea that science and technology define what it means to be human, but we very often lack a critical vision to the subject who is using science and technology. In “Sorry to Bother You,” we find that a certain kind of subject uses his own body technology to mimic the standard human’s voice and make himself more human. In “Get Out,” we find that the body technology is utilized to achieve a certain kind of physical evolution for individuals as well as collective. Science and technology always carry a specific worldview, culture, and system of thinking and relating. Rather than universalizing science and technology and the Human subject using them, we need to historicize and specify them all. Who is the subject using science and technology? Is this subject being understood as Human, subhuman, or non-human? Can a subhuman or a non-human use science and technology? If they can, does it mean that science and technology are no longer exclusively Human’s civilization? How do they connect their bodies (and minds, of course,) to science and technology differently from the norms?-