Equisapiens
After watching Sorry to Bother You a ~very pressing~ question comes up: why horse people? But thinking about it in terms of the rest of the material that we've covered this semester, it seems to make more sense. Particularly in Invisible Man, Beloved, and White Boy Shuffle, surreal things like ghosts, or government assisted mass suicides seem to be useful tools in making arguments about American society. So what are the "equisapiens" being used for?
The equisapiens seem to pretty clearly critique capitalism and the dehumanizing effects of factory labor in modern society. Transforming humans into more cost efficient, more effective slaves that are an infinitely replenishable labor source represents the end goal of capitalism, where the producers are valued less than the products they create. The suffering of the horsepeople, and the inhumaneness of their transformation seems to be a clear critique of the way that capitalist systems treat their workers.
The equisapiens also seem to critique the dehumanizing way that prisoners are treated in America. As Bella mentioned in class, they are sometimes forced into labor environments that are inhumane or dangerous, with little to no benefit for themselves. They end up doing jobs like telemarketing, and fighting fires where they make no money, don't gain any skills that they could use once they got out of prison, and in the case of the firefighting are extremely dangerous. They basically get forced into the jobs that other people don't want, with even fewer benefits than if an ordinary citizen had the job.
Though it was more unclear, there also seemed to be a racial aspect to the equisapiens. Steve Lift chooses Cassius Green, who is black, to be "their Martin Luther King". One of the only Equisapien who speaks other than Cassius once he is transformed into an equisapien is from East Oakland, a historically black area of Oakland. They also seem to have been transformed without their permission, which could be a reference to the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, where black men were experimented on without their permission.
One thing that confused me was why Steve Lift described his idea of a fake leader of a liberation movement as a Martin Luther King. Maybe he just meant that he wanted Cassius to pretend to be like MLK jr. which would make sense for my last argument, but what do you guys think?
The equisapiens seem to pretty clearly critique capitalism and the dehumanizing effects of factory labor in modern society. Transforming humans into more cost efficient, more effective slaves that are an infinitely replenishable labor source represents the end goal of capitalism, where the producers are valued less than the products they create. The suffering of the horsepeople, and the inhumaneness of their transformation seems to be a clear critique of the way that capitalist systems treat their workers.
The equisapiens also seem to critique the dehumanizing way that prisoners are treated in America. As Bella mentioned in class, they are sometimes forced into labor environments that are inhumane or dangerous, with little to no benefit for themselves. They end up doing jobs like telemarketing, and fighting fires where they make no money, don't gain any skills that they could use once they got out of prison, and in the case of the firefighting are extremely dangerous. They basically get forced into the jobs that other people don't want, with even fewer benefits than if an ordinary citizen had the job.
Though it was more unclear, there also seemed to be a racial aspect to the equisapiens. Steve Lift chooses Cassius Green, who is black, to be "their Martin Luther King". One of the only Equisapien who speaks other than Cassius once he is transformed into an equisapien is from East Oakland, a historically black area of Oakland. They also seem to have been transformed without their permission, which could be a reference to the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, where black men were experimented on without their permission.
One thing that confused me was why Steve Lift described his idea of a fake leader of a liberation movement as a Martin Luther King. Maybe he just meant that he wanted Cassius to pretend to be like MLK jr. which would make sense for my last argument, but what do you guys think?
I thought the reference to MLK was part of the larger post-civil-rights era critique of non-violent protest, and a characterization of MLK as a “sellout” to white people. I think calling Cassius the equisapien MLK was supposed to be a commentary of how people in power saw MLK at the time: a tool that could be used to placate the massive unrest. I don’t know how much I personally agree with that critique, but that is definitely how I understood that moment.
ReplyDeleteI thought, since it was coming from the boss, that the MLK reference was more of an attempt to make it seem like Cassius would be doing the right thing, since he obviously had qualms about the morality of the whole equisapien problem and it would seem like he was helping the equisapiens.
ReplyDeleteI also was wondering about the equisapiens, because while I was watching it it seemed to me like there was definitely something fishy about who exactly was being experimented on - I got the impression that it was mostly black men, but again I could be wrong. I think your connection between the equisapiens and the Tuskagee syphilis experiments is really interesting, but I also totally see Solomia's interpretation so I honestly don't know what to think.
ReplyDeleteI think Steve Lift simply wanted Cassius to become an equisapien simply to act as someone who would undermine any attempts to start a revolution. I agree with Solomia's idea about the specific reference to MLK. As for why equisapiens specifically, I think it just has to do with the idea of a work horse.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Izzy and I think that Steve Lift was trying to get Cassius to join his side by offering him leadership and power, which is what he thinks Cassius would want. But I also see Solomia's point as a correct answer. A great question and nice post.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was watching the movie, I thought the MLK scene was just playing into Lift's uncomfortable racist persona. There are other really weird interactions between Lift and Cassius throughout, and I feel it plays towards building Lift into this really weird character. Like, it makes him more likely to be a person who would turn black people into horses, if you know what I'm saying.
ReplyDelete