Kobi Libii’s Sundance Premiered ‘The American Society of Magical Negroes’ is almost as if last year’s ‘American Fiction’ and Boots Riley’s ‘Sorry to Bother You’ had a baby and that infant had a hangover from rewatching Harry Potter over and over. While Libii’s film is never able to completely realize the satire it is aiming for, there are some interesting ideas here that need some proper diving into. The ending of ‘The American Society of Magical Negroes’ feels fairly conventional until that post-ending rollback that might make you rethink it all over.
In the following article, we will take a look at the film in detail, analyzing the themes as we discuss the plot progression and connection. Please make sure that you don’t read further if you haven’t seen the film because this is going to be full of spoilers.
The American Society of Magical Negroes (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The first time we see Aren (Justice Smith), he is visibly distressed, not because he has a big gallery showing his artwork but because he is extremely anxious and scared of being around a room full of white people. While we are not aware of this extreme form of fear that he holds close, years and years of conditioning of being in America as a Black person can be attributed to much of his identity and his response to it.
When he has an unsuccessful gallery showing, and no one buys his work due to his introverted personality, he starts walking back to his place. However, on his way there, he gets into trouble when a really drunk white woman and her friends start to lash out at him for barely doing anything at all to cause a scene. Basically, it is one of those situations where he finds himself in the wrong just because he is a black person.
However, before the situation escalates and becomes violent, Roger (David Alan Grier) intervenes. He was the bartender at the art gallery and had been sneakily following Aren. He uses his charm and what feels like some kind of spell to bring back the situation in Aren’s favor as the white people leave. Later, he talks to him at a nearby bar, realizing that he has been facing this issue all his life. Whenever he has been around White People, he feels like he is obliged to make them feel comfortable. He is not just scared but always apologetic about what he is doing, even though what he is doing is just as basic as being himself.
What is The American Society of Magical Negroes?
Roger listens to him patiently and then offers him a job interview, knowing that his gallery showing didn’t go well and that he is broke. Aren is surprised at this job offer that he is not aware of, but before he can investigate this client-service position, Roger does another one of his spells, and the two of them are teleported to a barber shop that a front for ‘The American Society of Magical Negroes’ a secret society that operates in hush-hush tones and no one is aware of what they really do.
Roger makes Aren sit in a recruitment class that offers a PowerPoint-like presentation (one of those magical kinds) about the history of what society really does. The presenter plays tapes for candidates who will be selected to be a part of the society as ‘Magical Negros.’
What is a ‘Magical Negro’?
Still confused about what he is supposed to do there, Aren is to become a part of this society that offers services to White clients who have an extreme reaction towards Black People. Basically, as the opening scroll mentioned, a Magical Negro is supposed to be like a supporting character in a White Protagonist’s story.
The satirical edges of the film become really sharp at this point as it explains how Aren is supposed to be one of these Black supporting characters for a White Person, ensuring that they don’t get uncomfortable around them. Basically, his job would be to shadow and be around a White Person who has a triggering meter of white guilt that can somehow lead them to do terrible things to Black folks. He would thus be ensuring the well-being of hundreds and thousands of other Black people by ensuring that he is boosting the morale and ego of his White client. In Roger’s words, in society, they ‘fight white discomfort every damn day,’ and Aren would be an integral part of this world-saving deal.
To convince him and make him a part, he takes him on an experimental example. He shows him that every Magical Negro will be able to see a meter that measures ‘White Tears.’ Basically, the more distressed a White person is, the more likely they are to lash out at Black folks. He shows him how he talks to a White Policeman and calms him down. They later decide to meet him at a club because he has been feeling old and unnecessary. While Aren is still skeptical, when he is able to see the White Tears meter, too, he decides to join the TASOMN.
What does Dede Booker, the president of the society, warn Aren about?
And just like that, Aren is a part of the society. Everyone welcomes him, including Dede Booker (Nicole Byer), who tells him one of the most important things about being a Magical Negro. She tells him that if he uses magic selfishly, doesn’t put his client first, or does something that he shouldn’t, the collective power of society gets lost. So, after acclimatizing him with the basic details, he is officially made a part of the collective and receives an old, gold stopwatch that, to my surprise, acts as a video call device that he will use to connect to his on-point person, Roger.
Who is Aren’s client?
After having a meet-cute with a young woman at a coffee shop, Aren reaches his assigned client who works at MeetBox – a social media platform that is currently all the rage. Jason (Drew Tarver) – the white man, that Aren is supposed to shadow is on the same team as Lizzie (An-Li Bogan), the woman he met earlier at the cafe.
Aren makes sure that he does his job right which basically involves hyping Jason and giving him therapeutic advice on his low days. However, he is unable to put his finger on the reason why Jason’s tear meter triggered last week, to an extent that a magical negro needed to be assigned to him. This in addition to the fact that he starts developing feelings for Lizzie keep putting him away from his aim. Confused, he one day unknowingly sets Jason up to go for Lizzie as a love interest.
What setback does MeetBox face?
MeetBox’s owner Mick (Rupert Friend), a textbook, casual racist is caught under fire when his platform fails to recognize the people of Ghana in its face recognition software, basically triggering a major backlash. Mick wants to turn it over and assigns his group to find a solution to this problem. Now, Jason who wishes to be on par with someone like Mike wants to become the face of this new operation.
Aren is in splits because he now has to fulfill Jason’s double wish which is to suck up to Mick and also date Lizzie while he is at it. When the three of them are out for a drink, we realize for the first time that Jason is the kind of casual racist person who doesn’t even know that he is being racist.
Lizzie and Aren bond some more when Lizzie’s idea that will help MeetBox recover from the backlash is transferred to Jason, who becomes the face of it. Lizzie is really down, and Aren helps her feel at ease by himself. The two of them almost kiss each other, and we can clearly see that they share something truly special with one another. However, Aren doesn’t kiss her because he is suddenly called back to the society, presumably for misusing his power. He barely escapes when it is someone else who is responsible for it. This sequence sets up one important fact: the society’s wobbly central idea about catering to white people while slowly killing one’s own desires and wishes.
Being close to Jason makes Aren realize how he has been misusing his white privilege while being completely oblivious about how it affects other people like Lizzie, who have worked all their life to get things which are served on a platter to people like Jason. We can see that he is itching to tell that to him, but he holds it all inside waiting for it to burst out. He is also scared that if he does burst out and do something wrong with his magic, he will have his memories (which also have Lizzie in them now) erased. Not saying anything starts eating Aren from the inside, and when he proposes being just friends with Lizzie, we can clearly see that he is distressed about it.
The American Society of Magical Negroes (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
The American Society of Magical Negroes draws its final curtain as MeetBox is about to present their new idea after the backlash. The idea is to be presented by Jason along with Aren even though Lizzie had been at its center.
The online demonstration starts with Mick introducing Jason, but when Aren points out that he would stay away from the presentation, Jason’s racist persona comes out as he claims that he wants Aren on stage so that he can use him as bait to introduce how diverse MeetBox is.
Aren, who is full of repressed thoughts, finally blurts out on a livestream how he has finally realized why he has always put white people before his own thoughts. The whole freakout is about how black people are often so uncomfortable around white people because they are always living in fear of triggering something in them, which will eventually harm them. After completely unraveling his magical negro duties, Aren knows that he will soon lose his power, which is why he rushes towards Lizzie and takes her to the Empire State Building and confesses that he doesn’t want to be friends with her like he previously promised but something more. However, before he can kiss her, he is called back to TASOMN.
Does Aren get his memory erased?
Once back to the society, Aren tells everyone how the society’s work is more regressive than helpful to black people. However, he is punished, and Roger takes him to an alleyway to erase his memory, but for some reason, he decides not to. On the other hand, Lizzie, who is now in New York, flies back to LA, and the two of them kiss walking towards the sunset.
The movie doesn’t end there, and we get a little stinger where we see Lizzie also walking into a nail salon, which works as a front for SOSWAG (Society Of Supportive Wives And Girlfriends). Now, the film doesn’t care to explain this bit, but we can assume that Lizzie was working under the instruction of this society either to support Jason or Aren. Either way, this nugget towards the end feels sort of inconsequential because if she is supporting Aren, then the film’s point of view about racial mistreatment in America becomes not so strong after all.
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