Key & Peele- Racial stereotypes

In the video done by Key & Peele, called ¨Alien imposters,¨ they bring up the issue of racial stereotypes and how they define how people relate to one another. In the video, the world is taken over by aliens who can make themselves appear to be human and have some sort of superficial human knowledge. There are two human survivors, who are both black males. They use common racial stereotypes to guess who is human and who is an alien that appears to be human.  

Their first interaction is with white male redneck, who appears beyond a pile a trash, saying they created a community of survivors and he inquires if they want to join. They both look at each other as one of them was confused as to what they should do, but the other slowly turns to face the red neck again and lifts up his semi-automatic gun and fires several times. As the creature falls, it turns into its true alien form. The first man, Keegan, asked, "How did you know!?" in a very confused manner. The man who shot the alien, Jordan, says in sarcastic tone, ¨A redneck wants us to join his community of survivors, really, us?" Here he is referencing to the stereotype that all why rednecks hate black people. This comes from the before and after the civil war.  Southerners, or ¨Rednecks,¨ wanted to keep slavery alive; they thought very little of black people, as if they were animals, and they treated them accordingly. By bringing this stereotype, they are challenging us to let go of the past and not make assumptions about someone, just because of their heritage or where they are from.  

Their third encounter is with a white female. As they turned the corner with their guns ready, the girl seems them and immediately tosses her hands up saying ¨Don't hurt me, uh uh, my best friend is black and I uh love JayZ, and my favorite movie is think like a man.¨ Clearly she not scared just because two men have guns, but because two black men have guns. They turn their heads to faces each other and sit there for a second, before Jordan says ¨She´s good.¨ They ask what her name is and she responds with Emily. You hear a slight laughter in their voices as they say simultaneously, ¨Of course it is.¨ This stereotype determines who is dangerous and who is not. They convey this stereotype through the fact that Emily is scared that there are two black men in front of her. My guess is that if someone were in an apocalyptic scenario, they would be glad to see other humans, specifically those carrying guns, that could provide safety. They are challenging the stereotype, that someone can be deemed dangerous or not, sole based on their skin color. We all have reflags that warn us about certain person or situation, but skin color should not be one of those flags.   

I believe the point of this video, was challenge and destroy stereotype that involves race in America. There are several more examples of this in the video, but these two strongly portray their idea that stereotypes need to be broken down and taken out of our society.