During our first weeks of class, we’ve discussed and defined the word diaspora/diasporas as the movement of a group of people. Since then, we’ve discussed the limitless amount of reasons why people might move-whether it be forced or by choice. This idea stuck in my head, I kept wondering why people would move from their home, what would drive them to leave behind everything they knew to come to a place that seems as far away as a dream to them.

Then- I watched a movie called “They Cloned Tyrone”, which is currently available on Netflix. It’s directed by Juel Taylor, in his feature film directorial debut and I would go so far as to say that this movie is an instant class. On Netflix, it’s described as a pulpy, sci-fi movie mystery. In reality, this movie is steeped in the politics of diaspora and what it means to move when you are forced to stay.

There are three main characters: a pimp, a drug dealer, and prostitute. Most film critics agree that Taylor specifically chose these characters as a nod to stereotypical type-casting in the early 70’s and 80’s and then transformed them into heroic, brave, intelligent, and incredibly deep and varied characters, as a “fuck you” to the stereotypes and assumptions. It seems like he was trying to humanize and give voice to people in society that are minimized because of their color and class in society. Pimps, drug dealers and prostitutes have no representation in media besides being cheap stand-ins to a plot, which is an attitude that carries over into real life. In reality, pimps, drug dealers and prostitutes have a long and varied list for doing what they do the same way someone who works a 9 to 5 goes to work everyday despite loathing it. Yet, this is rarely the lens people will choose to view them through, but it is the lens Taylor makes us watch through.

Now, I have to give you an obligatory Spoiler Alert. From here on out, you’ll be ruined for all insane plot twists in the movie as I give a brief description of the plot. Fontaine, the drug dealer in the story, gets killed one night outside of Slick Charles’ motel room (the pimp), yet wakes up the next day healed of his fatal bullet wound, and remembering his murder. He goes on a mission to figure out how this was possible with the help of Slick Charles and Yo-yo (the prostitute), who is the eyes and ears of the town. Eventually they discovery that their entire town is fake. They are all clones, programmed by the government to create a neighborhood so undesirable that the government could conduct their insane and illegal work under cover. How does the government do this? By preying on racism and racist infrastructure. They create towns full of black clones all over the country, purposefully “programming” them to be drug dealers, pimps, and prostitutes and selling a bunch of products like food and relaxer and even the wine at church that are laced with drugs that keep them unaware and obedient. They force feed them poverty, and drugs and hopelessness to make them stay-which is crucial for the government to keep their secret bases hidden. Now, the government’s objective is to create a single type of human. They “believe” that having one single, generic white human will. solve the world of all hardship and conflict.

This film has brilliant commentaries on racism and classism and how they go hand-in-hand, and the erasure of Black people in society, and so-forth. I encourage everybody to watch it, it’s a film that can lead to limitless discussion. I wanted to touch upon the idea of forced “remaining”. In class, we’re discussing diaspora and the movement of people. Yet, I think it would be interesting to look at the other side of the coin. For example, during the Atlantic slave trade, what happened to the people who remained in African nations? What was their experience of colonialism like and how are their experiences both similar and different to the people who were moved across nations? Even on a smaller scale, just thinking of the alienation of being the member of the family who left versus the shame of being the one who stayed, are the same forces that push people to leave the same forces that trap people where they are?

I don’t if I have the answer to these questions, but I believe Juel Taylor has an idea. Towards the end of the movie, the entire neighborhood joins forces, enemies coming together, to storm the government base and destroys their data, their base, and free hundreds of clones, and in doing so- air the secret out across the nation.