Judas And The Black Messiah Writers Discuss Black People Not Being ‘Perceived As Human’
Kenny: You go back to Emmett Till. He’s a baby and he was murdered by forces because they saw him not as a child, but they saw him as a monster. And I think that’s the thing about white supremacy, historically, is that African Americans aren’t perceived as human. We’re perceived as this other worldly thing that has to be neutralized or destroyed or controlled or contained. It’s just very strange when you’re like, look we’re people.
Keith: But at the end of the day, it’s all projection, right? Like you have these forces who, they’re the animal, the devil, the monster, and they project that onto the “other” – they project that onto us. And we see it in the film, that [J. Edgar] Hoover is the monster. History is going to remember Hoover as the monster, but he saw us as the monster and he had the power.
