How Sinners Uses Mississippi Vampires To Explore Racism (Even Beyond The United States)

The following contains spoilers for Sinners, now playing in theatersAmid all the great action, strong performances, and fantastic music, one of Sinners' most interesting elements is how it explores the impact of larger bodies of racially charged authority (like the KKK of segregation-era Mississippi) and how empathetic but forced assimilation can threaten marginalized communities. Sinners is very purposefully set in 1932 and explores a period and region of American history where structural racism wasn't just the norm, it was often the law.