How Black Horror Helps Us Face American History with Professor John Jennings

Black History Year

PushBlack

History, Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we’re diving into the real revolution happening in Black horror, from its roots in resistance folklore to today’s groundbreaking films. Joined by Hugo Award-winning and NYTimes best-selling writer and graphic novelist John Jennings, we’ll explore how scary stories expose systemic fears, why horror can be unexpectedly therapeutic, and how classic films like Night of the Living Dead, Get Out, and Beloved flip the script on the real monsters. Whether you love horror or avoid it completely, this conversation will change how you see the genre—and maybe even help you reframe your own fears. To check out John Jennings' incredible work, visit https://www.johnjenningsstudio.com/. — Explore what it means to adapt and evolve together. Check out Say More with Tulaine Montgomery wherever you find podcasts — This podcast is brought to you by PushBlack, the nation’s largest non-profit Black media company. You make PushBlack happen with your contributions at BlackHistoryYear.com. Most folks do 5 or 10 bucks a month, but truly, anything helps. Thanks for supporting the work. With production support from Leslie Taylor-Grover and Brooke Brown, Black History Year is produced by Cydney Smith, Darren Wallace, and Len Webb, who also edits the show. Lilly Workneh is our Executive Producer and Black History Year's host is Darren Wallace. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:27.8	slash UK slash AI for people. What you do is you open up those bags and you got demons and monsters
0:34.0	and ghosts and scary things, all this type of stuff, right?
0:41.3	But when you name something and you give it a form, you can defeat it.
0:58.5	What comes to mind when you think of horror films, especially when it comes to blackness?
1:03.7	We've all noticed the tropes, the black character dying first, or blackness being framed as monsters in general.
1:05.3	It's frustrating, right?
1:07.0	But there's an exciting shift happening where black creators and thinkers are reclaiming horror to address our ongoing fears, concerns, and generational traumas.
1:16.6	They're showing us that horror doesn't have to be one-dimensional jump scares or pure gore.
1:21.8	In fact, the blackening of horror might be one of the most unexpected forms of therapy you can find.
1:28.6	I'm Darren from Push Block and you're locked into Black History Year.
1:36.5	I'm gonna be honest. Before diving in today's conversation, I didn't see horror as a tool for
1:41.4	Black liberation or Black agency. I dismissed it, thinking it was just about shock value.
1:47.3	But then I started to look closer at movies like Tales from the Hood.
1:51.6	Now, you might remember dolls hopping out of the frame, but look closer,
1:54.9	and you'll see it confronts the issues of urban violence and the drug wars of the late 80s and early 90s.
2:00.4	And let's not forget about Candyman.
2:02.7	A film that, beneath all this terrifying imagery,
	...

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