Sinners, the Blues, and the Souls of Black Folk

image from Twitter/X

There’s a lot to unpack with Sinners, so I’m going to go for the most obvious observations. At least these are the most obvious observations to me.

Sinners, to me, was about music—the blues, specifically. I couldn’t escape this line of thinking. It doesn’t matter that Ryan Coogler isn’t a musician. It doesn’t matter that there was so much explored with the plot: horror, the exploitation of Black Americans, religion, generational trauma, racism, slavery/sharecropping, and the elusiveness of freedom for Black Americans.

Perhaps it wasn’t only about music, but, rather, art.

And, of course, the blues was a metaphor for all things Black aka the culture.

We all know the thing with cultural appropriation is that something seen as crass, vulgar, and for the low-class is suddenly “in vogue” when it’s taken from the culture and appropriated by white society. It doesn’t matter if it’s a genre of music, a hairstyle, or a physical attribute.

A central struggle in Sinners is that the lead vampire, Remmick, wants the soul of Sammie “Preacher Boy” Moore in order to access his otherworldly musical talent. And, make no mistake about it, in modern times, the blues has been co-opted by white musicians and white America. It even started with Elvis. When he started shaking his hips…