Being White and "Hood" - Blindspotting

By: Rafeeat Bishi

         I watched a movie a while ago called Blindspotting that I thought related to our conversations about  non-black people being in hip-hop, saying the n-word, or people in general being apart of lifestyles that aren't necessarily theirs.

         In this movie, two best friends, Collin and Miles  are forced to confront the racial dynamics of their friendship after one witnesses the shooting death of a black man by a white cop.

         Miles is white and wears grills, listens to rap, has a black girlfriend and speaks in AAVE. He's a native of Oakland. The movie also talks about how Oakland is becoming gentrified, and he is one of the biggest critics of this change.

        Throughout the movie, his girlfriend and Collin refer to him as n*gga. It's not talked about. Often times, Miles feels as if he needs to prove his "hardness" because he is white. He even complained about it being his biggest struggle (-_-). (I find that funny since many black people want to avoid fitting a stereotype. Collin just got out of jail, and is trying to stay out of trouble.

        In the climax of the movie, Collin confronts Miles because he beat up a black dude at a party after a black dude assumed he was a poser. They get in a heated argument and Miles judges Collin for not acting hard enough (he may even say Black), and being a somewhat coward. Collin was attempting to explain how the racial tensions of society make it hard for him to fit that stereotype, and how one slip up means jail for ever. It was a very disturbing encounter, and in the heat of the moment Collin called Miles n*gga again and asked him to repeat it. 

        Mind you, not once in the entire movie had Miles used the n-word. Ever. He was all slang, and the grills and the music but he never said it. He always used "breh/bruh".

        It was interesting because when Collin asked Miles why he didn't say it, Miles couldn't explain why he didn't (or shouldn't) use the n-word. And Collin asked him if there was something wrong with that.

       I didn't really know what to take from it, but I think it prompts a good discussion. It also made me wonder if it was Collin's way of proving to Miles that despite their environment, they're not the same. Collin says that Miles is the epitome of a black stereotype, and that he is more of a "n*gga" than Collin himself. This guy had been all about "the culture" but never once thought to use the n-word. Is it on a case-by-case basis? Why can't other non-black people seem to do the same? He wasn't a poser, it was the life he knew and he wasn't putting on a front. Yet he showed restraint

          Here's a link to the scene for more context. This was a very good movie to watch especially on the topic that we discussed in class, I'm pretty sure it's on Starz (or if you want a link lmk). The scene can be found on youtube (it's blocked on chromebooks) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-5uS8fYMH0