Sacrifice: White & Wake

A common theme we have explored in Professor Tananarive Due’s class is the exploitation and experimentation of Black Bodies. The short films White directed by A. Sayeeda Clarke and Wake directed by Bree Newsome both have a sacrificial character. White is about a low-income family who is struggling to cover the hospital bills as they are about to welcome a new baby and Wake is about a woman who kills her father in order to conjure a husband. The main character in White, Bato, sacrifices his melanin for money to be able to cover the hospital bills. A research lab was collecting Black bodies in return for money and Bato, who is poor and in a corner, turns to this lab in order to provide for his family. Poverty and the lack of an adequate healthcare system are some of the reasons that led Bato to give over his skin, his own body for money. This short film highlights how inescapable poverty is. Poverty makes people go to extreme lengths to protect those they love even if the consequences are harsh, like in the short film. However, being the head of the household, Bato knew his responsibility was to his family and took to those extreme lengths to protect them, even if it cost him his life.

Talking about family, in the short film Wake, a sacrifice is made but in a different way and for different reasons. The protagonist Charmaine, a single, middle-aged woman kills her father and sacrifices him to conjure a husband. She takes his ashes and using the practices of voodoo, she meets with a woman who makes her wish come true. Charmaine is able to have a husband but this husband is not exactly who she wants him to be. In a karmic way, Charmaine pays for sacrificing her father. The lesson is clear in this film, don’t sacrifice your father for a husband, but I think the broader societal issue is important in this film. Yes, Charmaines father seemed like a pain, but that was no reason to kill him, especially not for a husband. But one thing that stood out to me about Charmaine asking for a husband instead of like money or good health, was how engrained the idea of a union between a man and a woman is. Charmaine literally killed her dad for something society expects from her. Similar to Bato, Charmaine sacrifices a body for superficial, materialistic things capitalism has told people they need. In White, Bato has to sacrifice himself for money, something that really has no value and in Wake, Charmaine sacrifices her dad for a husband, an idea consistently pushed and advertised onto women by society. Although both films sacrifice Black men for different reasons, in both films we are able to see the importance and value Black people hold. In White, skin color is desired, while in Wake the dad is worthy of the spell.

Black people’s lives, culture, and practices have been historically used and stolen without reparations. Both of these films speak to the broader issue that Black lives are not disposable and they do not have a price tag.