Melanin – A White Woman’s perspective

Its a saturday afternoon and i’m scrolling through TUBI and find the film Melanin. Now i’m a huge huge fan of any kind of ‘freaky friday’ genre of movie, where people body swap. So when I read that this film is about a white man who takes a pill and becomes a black man, I knew i had to watch it.

The Civil Rights movement has always captivated me, I find inspiration in the fact that Racism seems so much further along in the fight than Sexism. Yes selfishly, I am a feminist first, and an Anti-racist second. I wanted to know how and what this movie was about primarily for tips.

The first thing I found extremely interesting, was that the main character Mike is already sympathetic to the cause. In body swap movies concerning sexism, it is often the fact that a misogynist gets turned into a woman like in the 2018 french film I am not an Easy Man. So already I was fascinated.

Who is Mike?

Mike works as an advertising executive, and we are shown their next brief is to work on a skin tanning pill, called Perfect Tan. The ad goes on to say how it can give your already beautiful white skin a healthy glow. This isn’t far fetched. As a white woman I am surrounded by other white women who spend countless hours and countless dollars on these kinds of products, as well as the newly introduced weight loss drugs on the market, the idea of a tanning pill is all so real and all the more ironic considering how racial prejudice continues to this day. There is a fantastic moment where the advertising execs bring in their Diversity & Inclusion team, a white woman, and a black woman. And the Black woman points out the line regarding “White skin” in the ad, and even then she is forced to frame her concerns with this line in terms of limiting the consumer base of the product as opposed to the implication that white skin is automatically beautiful. I found that really poignant. How capitalism has morphed the fight for justice into a fight for money.

Mike’s marriage to his white wife Parker is on the rocks, and  he spends his free time chilling with his black female friend Carrington. She tells him he is family, and one night he is invited to a club where he is the only white man and is having trouble being served at the bar. He gets drunk and pushy towards Carrington and it’s a good exposition to show that Mike isn’t really fitting in anywhere.

He watches the news with his black friends as another racially motivated police murder occurs. Mike tries to apologies on behalf of white people, and he is rightfully denied recourse, since it doesn’t take away the pain of this continuing injustice. I thought it was very interesting that Mike’s empathy is what lets his black friends feel safe enough to share their pain and anger with him. It speaks so strongly about the need for oppressed people to have a platform for our rage, and the fact that it can only be shared around people from majority groups who have demonstrated empathy for the cause.

Why does he take the pill?

One day, his life really falls apart. His wife serves him with divorce papers, and as he goes to get drunk, he is situated in line behind a MAGA hat wearing openly racist white man. Of note, Mike says and does NOTHING. Just steps forward when its his turn, and buys his alcohol. As he’s drinking in the car, a brick is thrown at his window. Mike gets out to investigate, only to be confronted by three black men who think he is the trouble maker, and a line was spoken that I have never personally heard about. They say “Do you think this is some kind of Sundown community?”

I had to google that one. And because i’m writing this stream of consciousness style, I decided to let chatgpt summarise this long and hateful history for me;

A sundown community, also known as a sundown town, refers to a town or neighborhood in the United States where African Americans or other minority groups were systematically excluded through discriminatory local laws, intimidation, and violence. The term “sundown” stems from the practice of posting signs at the town’s boundaries warning that people of color had to leave the area by sundown. These communities emerged primarily between the late 19th century and the mid-20th century, with their peak during the early 20th century.

The practice became more widespread after the Civil War, particularly during the Jim Crow era, which lasted from the late 19th century until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. In this period, many towns, especially in the North and Midwest, implemented these exclusionary practices. For instance, by 1930, some estimates suggest that thousands of towns across the United States were sundown towns.

The Civil Rights Movement, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s, brought national attention to racial segregation and discrimination, leading to the decline of sundown towns. However, the legacy of these practices has had long-lasting effects on the racial demographics and social structures of many communities. The existence and impact of sundown towns have been extensively documented by historians such as James W. Loewen, who has highlighted their significant role in the history of racial segregation in America.

So Mike is battered, bruised, drunk and soon to be divorced. He goes home, sick of it all, and decides to enlist in the clinical trial for Perfect Tan. His delivery arrives, and he takes it, and goes to sleep.

The next morning, he wakes up black.

How will Mike transition into Blackness?

Incredulous, his first taste of racial profiling is as he is leaving his apartment complex. He forgets his keys just as he is walking out of the door, and a white woman is inside already. This is where it gets VERY INTERESTING for me as a white woman. She is giving him a hard time about letting him in. As a woman, i’m all for her stance. It has nothing to do with his race, and everything to do with his sex. This is where this movie could have benefitted from some intersectionality. But in this film, this point of conflict is cleverly sidestepped when the woman’s ex comes down, confronts her for stalking him and it in fact turns out, that it was she who had no right to be on the property. Either way, the door is opened when her ex boyfriend pushes her out (For just being a one-night stand – once again – my women’s rights brain starts asking questions about the treatment of women by men here) and Mike manages to get back to his apartment.

Next he needs to deposit a cheque at the bank. This is obviously fraught, as his photo ID looks nothing like him, so he doesn’t present it, and instead presents his bank card. That should be enough. But alas, in modern day United States of America. It isn’t. This scene is actually really pivotal for me, as Mike uses his knowledge of how the systems work in order to convince the bank teller to cash his cheque. He references consumer law. He asks to speak with her manager regarding her racial profiling of him. Its this kind of systemic knowledge and power to use it that is often denied to oppressed groups, so it was a really fascinating scene for me.

He goes to work, and manages to convince Tyrone of his Mike-ness. This is the sort of ‘fun and games’ section of the movie where Tyrone gets to educate Mike on black culture, telling him he needs to moisturize now to prevent them looking ashy and takes him to a soul food restaurant where he eats collard greens for the first time. The funniest part is in the barber shop, where an inexperienced Mike ends up looking like Coolio.

Does reclamation of racist language work?

Back at work, Mike and Tyrone are sitting having lunch when another black man joins them. Mike – in an effort to fit in – uses the N word. Tyrone takes Mike outside to blast him, educating him on the flipside of that word. This is where once again my point of view as a feminist comes into play. For me, reclamation does. not. work. Yes women – and even australians which is where i live – like to pretend sexist language is either a playful word game, or a cultural icon, but for me, i don’t believe in it. So the lexicon where the N word is only reserved for black people, I believe, to be a misstep. I don’t think white people should ever say it, but I also don’t think black people should say it either. Words fall out of style over history. Its a thing. If we stop using a word, it ceases to exist. Have you ever called someone Rebarbative? Rantipole? or how about Jackanapes? I’m going to guess not, and that is why I don’t believe in reclamation and believe that racist and sexist language needs to simply be unacceptable, no matter if its coming out of the mouths of the in-group, or the out-group.

Back to Mike & Tyrone, Tyrone pleads to Mike about how this isn’t a game for him. Mike’s perfect tan pill will wear off in a week. But Tyrone is a black man in America for life.

Mike goes to his wife’s parents house to convince her he is Mike. Parker, his wife, does believe him, and bring him in to tell her parents what he’s done. They are all ofcourse incredulous, but he is believed and Mike and Parker go home. Once again my feminist lens comes out to play here, as his wife immediately wants to jump his bones, and the act of sex is demonstrated as follows; she gives him head, and then intercourse occurs. This is such a male-centric point of view of the act of sex, I cannot help but eyeroll and wish for some deeper treatment of sexuality if the movie had to include it at all. I’m guessing here it was speaking about the sexual fetishisation of black people, and that is ofcourse extremely valid, and in regards to intersectionality, I am probably wishing for what “could be” instead of showing “what is” and this scene definitely shows the current zeitgest in regards to the cultural definitions of sex. No regards for the warm up time needed for women, no regard for mutual oral, and a play into the stereotypes regarding black men and their bodies.

The next day, the news shows another injustice. This time, it is in his friend group, where a couple has been stopped, and the cops have shot the man to death. Mike is starting to feel it now. The psychic assault against oppressed groups is ongoing, and there is a scene where Mike tries to rub at his skin. This speaks to the idea that when a human being hates another human being based on the colour of their skin, it is natural for the oppressed group to identify the site of the hatred as living on their skin, as opposed to where the hatred is actually located, which is in the hearts and minds of the prejudiced people. The same thing occurs to women, as we are hated for our female bodies, and so often is the case, where women direct their anger at this injustice onto our own bodies, as it is simply too dangerous to confront those who hold the hate.

Why won’t Mike eat his KFC?

Mike goes to a protest in regards to this murder, after the cop is found not guilty. Here is where I would like to list the names of those who have died in such unjust ways. However, it is too many. Breonna Taylor. George Floyd. Atatiana Jefferson. Alton Sterling. Korryn Gaines. Philando Castile. I could go on forever, but here is a site mapping police violence if you want to read more.

After the protest, Mike is invited to a service. Before he goes, he is back at home where his wife Parker has arrived with KFC. Mike is offended but his wife does counteract that with – Its KFC? Everyone loves it. And that is a fair point. I think this scene points out something else important about living inside oppression, which is where we suffer from false positives. When you start to really SEE racism and sexism, it is so all encompassing and so thoroughly impactful on our lives, that some things that aren’t intended as racist or sexist can be seen as such. In error. Its a funny scene, however I was truly confused when these two human beings acted like nobody I know, when they left their freshly purchased KFC on the counter to leave home and attend the service.

Why doesn’t sexism exist in this movie?

Mike has talked to his wife about the prejudice he is facing, and she too sees it. She is a newsreader who has to impartially and without bias report the news, and she is revealed to also be empathetic towards the cause. One thing that stuck out to me, was when Mike was explaining to Parker, his wife – a woman – that she has no idea what it’s like as a black man. I was truly expecting her to say, um yeah, but I am a woman? Remember sexism? Thats a thing. But not in this movie. Sexism is not yet ever acknowledged to even exist in this world, so once again I am left yearning for some intersectionality. On saying that, I get the fact that this movie has a singular focus, and that is racism.

Do I suffer from White fragility?

They go to the service, and are welcomed in. A minister performs a prayer, and during this prayer, the movie shows us bodycam footage of police actually murdering people. Here is where i start to have a bigger issue. I have now since emailed Darren Brown Films to confirm whether or not this footage is real, because it sure seemed like it. As of writing this, half an hour later, no response which is to be expected.

Do we need to watch the actual killing of people in order to have empathy for those killed? Me, personally. I believe the answer to be no. I believe watching real murder happen on film is snuff. I believe it is disrespectful to the victim and those who love them. I think the same thing about women’s oppression. I do not need to watch a rape occur to have empathy for the victim of it, and I would find anyone who needs to watch that, incredibly suspicious. I would question why do you need to see this to believe it? We are telling you this is happening. Listen to us. In the case of women, the video footage of our oppression is still used by millions of people as entertainment, it is called pornography, and considered harmless. So my relationship with video footage of real life oppression is – I don’t want to see it.

One could argue this is my white fragility speaking when it comes to the matter of racist police shootings. I will admit my stomach churned at this footage and I looked away, believing this footage to be real. The trauma involved with watching murder is not something I believe humans are built for. I don’t think Peace will occur faster because I watch murder. I need to keep my sanity, I need to self care, in order to stay politically active. So I look greatly forward to hearing back from Darren Brown films in regards to this part of the movie.

Are Black funerals better than white funerals?

After the prayer and the montage, there is a wake where everyone celebrates. As a white woman, I have never been to a funeral. I have had very close loved ones die, however due to timing or circumstance, have been denied the experience of a funeral. I do however suspect white funerals to be very different from black funerals, and not that I should judge, but I’m going to, and that is to say, I think black people do funerals better. It seems more to be a celebration of life, which is something human beings need to feel when in grief. Mike and Parker are shown dancing and drinking, and to me, that sounds like a restorative practice during mourning.

Next thing we see, Mike is in jail.

Is there any justice for Mike?

Now we find out, Mike and his wife Parker were pulled over by the police. This resulted in the deaths of two people. And we come to find out, one of the victims was Parker. The rest of the movie is this ongoing court case, and i’m left struggling to see how this could even be the case, when the facts of the matter include Mike being stood against his car, hands behind his back in handcuffs as the shooting occurred. Isn’t this a clean cut case? I was thinking maybe there would be a twist where Parker raged out and stole the policeman’s gun and shot him first and then he shot her. But no, in the final reveal it is simply the fact of a trigger happy policeman who shoots Parker as she approaches him, and as Mike runs for cover, and the officer attempts to shoot him, the other policeman is shot in the crossfire. Why was Mike saved? If this cop is so trigger happy it stands to reason Mike would not be spared. He is the only actual black person in this confrontation. It seems a little foggy on the writing here, but there are still great points made.

When the lawyer representing Mike finds out he is actually white, he wants to use that in his defence, and Mike rightly asks him then, what does he believe? If he would use his whiteness as a proxy for innocence, then he is not furthering the cause for justice. Rightly so. I also liked when the policeman who did the shooting was made to read out his facebook posts, bringing the online world of racism into the real life world of racism was a clever move.

The ending scene is interesting, the jury are in to call their verdict. And Mike sits there as a defendant, and a white man. The ruling is about to be called out. The end.

This kind of cliffhanger ending has been used to great effect in other movies, but here I really just needed Mike to be found not guilty. Is that my white fragility? Or is it simply the fact he was not shooting the gun? How on earth can anyone believe that simply being in the presence of a police officer is a death penalty criminal offence? I immediately ran to the youtubes and watched a conversation with Darren Brown about this film and he spoke of wanting to display the systemic aspect of racism. So I believe in that regard, he is successful with this film. Socially, Mike was empathetic, not quite across the actual feelings of being oppressed for the colour of his skin, but certainly Mike saw himself surrounded by other human beings. The state of the police in the United States, and the criminal justice system, continues to deny the humanity of black people to this day, and that is an injustice we all need to fight against.