Who Is ‘The American Society of Magical Negroes’ For?

In addition to the frustratingly naked bones character growth of Aren, we aren’t informed a lot about this magical society past the truth that it dates again to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello property. Its chief, a larger-than-life Dede (a criminally underused Nicole Byer), floats within the air and presents the ultimate and most essential rule of the society: must you ever put your wants forward of the consumer’s, all of the magical negroes will lose their powers. It’s a frightening and virtually too on-the-nose reflection of the discourse that pierces via the Black diaspora at present. Ought to the wishes and objectives of the entire supercede the person’s? What about when these objectives don’t make sense anymore? These are questions (and subsequent solutions) that I so desperately needed The American Society of Magical Negroes to dig into however, once more, the movie by no means fairly will get there. Any movie about Black individuals is inherently a movie about group, so it’s disappointing that we don’t actually see that group in any sturdy or substantial manner. Why does the society nonetheless persist at present? What retains them in such strict loyalty to 1 one other? What are Roger’s motivations to stay inside it after a long time of service? What group does Aren even come from?