Comparing The Interracial Relationship In The Human Stain And Coleman

In both Peele’s Get Out and Roth’s The Human Stain, the black protagonists must take on a variety of unique hardships in relation to their interracial relationship. All of these hardships are directly related to their race, and the unknown or suspected bigotry of their significant others. Be it stress, rejection, or enslavement, Chris and Coleman must suffer for their race.

Leading up to the visit in both Get Out and The Human Stain, the audience sees both Coleman and Chris, one a visitor and one a host, mentally preparing themselves for the encounter before them. In The Human Stain, Coleman describes his preparation for the visit as, “the same concentrated way he used to prepare mentally for a fight” (121). Coleman believes he must prepare

for the visit as he worries Steena will receive his true identity negatively, due to her dislike of black people or because he had lied to her for so long. He hid this information from Steena as he believed that should he tell her the truth, she would automatically associate his family with the racist interpretations of black people that “she saw in the movies… or heard about in jokes” (118). The portrayal of black and other minority stereotypes has plagued American media both historically and even today. As seen through Coleman’s fear of mischaracterization, the effect of this portrayal is significant. One reason for this significance that is pertinent is housing segregation, like that seen in Do The Right Thing, which creates environments where white people have no interactions with people of color to debase these representations, and thus accept them as true. Coleman recognizes this and lies to Steena so she will give his family a chance, showing how racism impacts his life and relationship.
While assuming a different role than Coleman, as he is the visitor, Chris also worries about the reception of his race leading up to the visit. Chris has been led to believe that Rose’s family does not know he is black, causing him to worry about how his ethnicity will be received. This worry about people of color entering white neighborhoods and homes is touched upon multiple times within the film, paralleling it’s prevalence among people of color. It first appears in the opening scene as Andre, soon to be abducted, insightfully states on a phone call “you know how they do black folk out here” (Get Out). It is further emphasized by both Rod, who warns Chris “Don’t go to a white girl parent’s house”, and Chris, who fears that he will “get chased off the lawn by a shotgun” (Get Out). While Coleman fears Steena will simply be upset, Chris fears violence from his white hosts, touching on the history of both white on black violence, and people of color being terrorized and assaulted for being in ‘white neighborhoods’. This highlights an important difference between Coleman and Chris’s visit, as Chris is entering a white neighborhood and is thus in danger.
Steena’s true character reveals itself at the climax of the visit, as she cannot handle the truth of Coleman’s race.

On the way home from the visit, Steena breaks down, exclaiming “I can’t do it!”, meaning she cannot date a black man (124). The fact that this meltdown comes after she conversed with the Silk’s for some time demonstrates the insubstantiality of her inability to date a black man. For the entirety of her stay with the Silk’s, Steena was able to be civil and amicable, as Coleman describes their interaction as one of “unflagging rectitude”(124). Coleman goes on to say that should everyone have been blindfolded, the conversation would have been the same, highlighting Steena’s convincing ability to converse and interact regardless of race (124). Furthermore, Steena already has been able to “do it”, as she and Coleman have been in a relationship for some time. Steena’s evident capacity to be in a relationship with a man of color illuminates her supposed inability for the insubstantial racist belief that it is. Coleman is right in his previous assumption that should she have known of both his family and his own identity, she would revert to the racist representation of black people that she is used to. For the time they were dating before the visit, Coleman’s race had no impact on their relationship as it does not impact the character of a person. Yet, the destruction of their relationship at the hands of race shows how powerful bigoted beliefs can

be.
Like Steena’s meltdown, Chris also experiences a traumatising ending to his visit, be it far more extreme, as a result of his race. Peele chooses to end the visit with an attempt to enslave Chris, possibly to highlight how white americans still have immense power over people of color as they have since the founding of this nation. While Chris’s ‘buyer’ says that Chris was not chosen for his race, the viewer is shown Rose’s trophy gallery of previous victims, all of which are black. This clearly indicates that the Armitages target people of color, either because they will receive less attention from the police force, as seen in Rod’s attempt to report the situation, or because a disdain for their race. The latter is supported by a quote from Dean at the beginning of the visit, where he talks about his hatred for deer; “I say one down, a couple hundred thousand to go...they’re taking over, they’re like rats, they’re destroying the ecosystem.” (Get Out). This rhetoric seems to be aimed at Chris and people of color, as Chris's imminant enslavement means one more black man “down”. The language also mimics that of hate speech, as a common argument of racists is that people of color are “taking over” their society, or “ecosystem”. In analyzing this quote, the racist motivation for Dean and the Armitage’s targeting becomes apparent.
The Armitage’s have made a business trapping black individuals and selling their bodies to white owners, making them slave traders just like those in previous centuries. By making Chris’s situation parallel enslavement, Peele highlights how white americans have just as much power over people of color as any other time in American history. When Chris enters this white home, he becomes vulnerable to any crime they wish to inflict upon him and is unable to defend himself. Even at the end, after he frees himself and kills the family, a cop car pulls up which prompts him to put his hands up. While the alternate ending was scrapped for the comedic one, it does a better job driving home this point, as Chris would’ve certainly been arrested and sent to prison just because he is black.