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The Movie “Sinners” and the Illusion of Racial Freedom
Film highlights Sophie’s Choice Black people confront in America
Released in theaters on April 18, 2025, “Sinners” has been an instant box office hit.
Starring Michael B. Jordan, it’s a story set in 1932 about twin brothers leaving their troubled life in the so-called free North to return to home in the Mississippi Delta to start over.
Millions of Black Americans escaped the overt racism of the South to the North in the Great Migration, only to discover that the North’s racism was alive and well, just more dangerously subtle.
Dressed in fancy suits and driving luxury cars, flush with cash they likely gained through Mafia dealings, they decide to open a nightclub in the heart of rural Mississippi so their poor community, which has suffered through Jim Crow, sharecropping, penny wages and the Klan, can enjoy the fun life. And so the twins can make money.
Club Juke, as they named it, was to be an escape from the daily trauma of Jim Crow South. Live music. Dancing. Liquor. Gambling. The works.
On opening night, as Black revelers laugh, dance and enjoy the sweet sounds of blues geniuses, an odd group of three white folks shows up and asks for entry to the party. They even promise, “we…
