Boots Riley and the Art of Being Human
SHOW DISCIPLINE
There is a common analogy that involves a frog being placed in a pot of water. As the analogy goes, if you place the frog in water that is already boiling it will jump out, but if you slowly turn up the heat the frog will just adjust to each temperature change until the water is boiling and by then it is too late. The analogy is often used today to look at the worsening conditions we all face and how we shouldn’t allow ourselves to become complacent for fear that we will not notice the final crank of the oven nob. While this sentiment is certainly one I agree with, I always felt that the analogy is a bit incomplete because it is typically only described with one frog. For most of us it is through the confirmations of others that we gain the confidence to say that something is wrong with the current situation we find ourselves in. Even when horrific conditions are normalized amongst the oppressed, there is an understanding that the water is a bit hotter than it used to be. It is our need to socialize and for community that defines us and when it comes to exploring this distinctly human characteristic there is one artist that I feel is tapping into it better than most, Boots Riley.
In the worlds that rapper, director, and writer Boots Riley crafts the water is boiling at high temperature and groups of people recognize it immediately. In his directorial debut 2018’s Sorry To Bother You and his new Amazon Series “I’m A Virgo”, characters attempt to navigate a world that seems determined to pull them apart mentally and physically, from themselves and from each other. With that description you may think the solution is a foregone conclusion in each story that Riley chooses to tell, everyone come together and solve the problem, simple! But, unfortunately the problem that always arises is a familiar one. No one can understand each other.
The bases of Boots Riley politics and Art lies in humanities ability to communicate. What is often seen as a lack of subtlety in select moments of his work are to me the exact opposite. By bringing us into worlds that mirror our own in their murkiness, and inability to make the text of the world legible, the moments of extreme clarity that Riley provides are needed and much appreciated relief. For example “I’m a Virgo” is a critique of the superhero genre and features several characters who possess superhuman abilities including a girl named Jones whose power quite literally to go into a persons mind and illustrate to them ( and by extension the audience ) that she is right about myriad of different topics like the States use of violence for control of the population. If executed differently Jones easily could have become a truly insufferable character but because Riley tossed us unsuspectingly into a world that features a 13 foot tall black kid, State sanctioned police violence, and perhaps the most disturbing animated sequence ever created, by the time Jones comes on to just tell what's really going on, we are quite literally begging for some dose of stable reality that explains why this water around us is getting so hot.
Riley’s critiques of human communication don't stop at the need for a clear statement of the issues. He also takes aim at the way individual personality is commodified and marketed making some people be seen as inherently more valuable than others. The way Riley chooses to present this is in the most surreal ways possible in “Sorry To Bother You” the main character, Cassius, is able to advance quickly and gain favor at his telemarketing job because of his ability to perfectly channel his “white voice”. Instead of having the actor portraying Cassius (Lakeih Stanfield) attempt a Richard Pryor style white guy voice for the duration of the movie, Riley instead opts for a Voice Over from David Cross. This creates an unnerving experience not only for us as the viewer but also for the other characters in the world who begin to see the voice as a divider between them and Cassius. After Cassius has been promoted to a power seller and has effectively sold out his friends who are attempting to unionize their workplace we see how the breakdowns in communication lead to bigger problems for all involved. In one scene in particular Cassius wakes up in his new luxury apartment and says good morning to his fiance named Detroit, but mistakenly is using his white voice. This leads the couple to a passive aggressive fight over bed sheets and Detroit gives Cassius an ultimatum. He can either leave the power seller job or lose her. This exemplifies that barrier that exists between these characters as they wrestle with the trappings of rugged individualism and the hard fought but worthwhile road of collective action. What Riley does is make it impossible to ignore the realities that these characters are facing which clouds their good intentions.
Cassius was at risk of losing his garage that he was renting from his uncle and driving in a car that more resembles a chimney than anything that should be on the road. For him and many of the characters in Riley’s worlds the question is “Do I have time to wait on collective action?” and before an answer can be provided they are thrust back into situations beyond their control before finding their way back to the collective. These are people acting on survival instinct whatever it is they have to do to protect themselves they are able to justify even to the detriment of others. It is no accident that Cassius is taught the skill of the white voice by an older black man in the office, showing that these people understand what it takes to survive but lack the ability to come together for true lasting change. This is also later shown in the film through the actions of Detroit.
At her art show, we see Detroit use a British accent to curry favor with the high-class art buying elites at her show. In one view it can be seen that these characters use their voice and methods of communication as a shield from some of the harsher aspects of life under white supremacy, but that shield also prevents the characters from truly communicating the full depth of the issues they face.
Where Riley truly shows his understanding of human connection is in “The Hero” from “I’m a Virgo”. The main character of the show, “Cootie” spent his life hidden out of fear of what the outside world would do to him because of his size. This led to him seeing the highly manicured image of “The Hero” that was created by the media and “The Hero” himself. That image was one of the ultimate do-gooders, who only dished out punishment to those who truly deserved it. In reality “The Hero” is little more than an insecure and narcissistic man whose police brutality gives even the Chicago Police Department a run for its money. The examination here is two-fold as Cootie navigates the world he often throws off those around him with his love and admiration for The Hero, it is that communicative failure that leads to much more dangerous positions because of the naivete associated with believing in that force of good. For The Hero we see that the status and power he wields completely strips him of his ability to communicate with anyone. The man cannot even go on his own dates to solve his loneliness and hires an assassin in an attempt to kill himself just to have the feeling of someone else being around. This is the alienation that exists when we are propped up beyond each other and treated as if we would never need another person. The simple reality is regardless of who you are or what you do, we need each other.
What makes the works of Boots Riley’s so human is their familiarity, While the places he takes us may seem strange at first they are truly not so different from our own times. We are all in a crisis of communication it seems, attempts to make our language kinder and more inclusive are met with vitriol and anger. All of this happens as our world heats up both figuratively and literally. The hard work of being human exists in each story thread created by Boots Riley and it is important we listen together to the message he continues to deliver because without effective communication how can we organize?