UNaffected NOW, Affected Later: Lessons From Public Health LIberation Theory and Get Out

"In their own ways, an academic manuscript on Public Health Liberation theory and the 2017 film, Get Out, both warned about limiting a common threat to a specific group of people." - Dr. Christopher Williams

By ChatGPT

Jordan Peele’s Get Out presented a masterclass in genre-bending horror, unmasking white liberal racism through a deeply symbolic narrative. At first glance, the film is a racial allegory—but it’s far more. It is a cautionary tale about control, commodification, and how quickly dehumanization can be normalized. One major implication, largely missed by AI models and some critics, is this: if it can happen to the Black protagonist, it can happen to anyone. The core terror is not just that racism exists, but that systems of domination—once normalized—can be deployed on any body. This point takes on urgent relevance when we place it in dialogue with Public Health Liberation (PHL) theory, especially as the U.S. enters a new chapter under a second Trump administration in 2025.

Systems of Control: Get Out and the Public Health Economy

PHL, as articulated in the seminal manuscript “Public Health Liberation: An Emerging Transdiscipline,” offers a sweeping critique of the “public health economy”—a fragmented, anarchic system where self-interest often overrides equity. The theory posits that vast inequities are perpetuated not only by racial and economic hierarchies but by the failure to conceptualize liberation as a universal imperative. Get Out, in its fictional depiction of body snatching and consciousness transplantation, reveals a similarly anarchic structure—where ethics are subservient to elite desire, and where bodies (and health) are resources to be harvested.

Both narratives—Peele’s film and PHL theory—interrogate hegemony and illiberation, the latter defined by PHL as an immobilizing internalized oppression or fear of retaliation. Chris, the protagonist in Get Out, is surrounded by white liberals who feign allyship but are ultimately complicit in his capture. The AI models failed to see that this isn’t just a warning for Black audiences; it is a blueprint for how society normalizes control and how anyone—if conditions allow—can become a target.

In public health, this is mirrored by how disadvantaged communities are studied but not liberated, treated but not trusted, and included in data but excluded from decisions. The “Gaze of the Enslaved,” a unique PHL construct, critiques exploitative research practices that benefit institutions more than the communities they purport to serve. Likewise, Chris is “studied,” desired, and hunted—not for who he is, but for what he can provide.

From Film to Statecraft: Trump 2.0 and the Normalization of Control

In 2025, with the return of Donald Trump to the presidency—a scenario some now call “Trump 2.0”—the implications of both Peele’s narrative and PHL theory are sharpened. Trump’s first term already revealed a profound antagonism toward health equity, public accountability, and scientific autonomy. COVID-19 response policies were often politicized, with anti-mask mandates and misinformation campaigns undermining public health authority.

Under Trump 2.0, this fragmentation—the “anarchy” of the public health economy, as PHL names it—is poised to deepen. The risk isn't just rollback of programs or deregulation, but the rise of ideologically-driven health governance, where the body becomes a battleground for control over gender, race, class, and political identity. In PHL terms, illiberation will flourish: communities may silence themselves for fear of reprisal, professionals may abandon truth-telling to keep their jobs, and entire populations may normalize harm.

What Get Out dramatizes—quiet compliance, gaslighting, betrayal masked as benevolence—is already reemerging in the policy sphere. From anti-LGBTQ+ health restrictions to the suppression of reproductive rights and attacks on critical race theory, we are watching the Coagula procedure unfold in real time: identity erased, voice neutralized, agency revoked.

Toward a Shared Liberation: Learning the Missed Lesson

The central lesson that the AI models missed—and which society must not—is that liberation is not optional, nor is it race-bound. PHL stresses that while its roots are in Black emancipatory philosophy, its application is universal. The risks of illiberation, of internalized silence and moral paralysis, are not confined to the oppressed. They are the oxygen of authoritarian rule.

PHL’s concept of the “Morality Principle”—the imperative to act when harm is evident, even without full data—stands as a rebuttal to technocratic delay and political cowardice. It is the antidote to the creeping normalization we see in both Get Out and in contemporary America: when you see someone being buried alive (figuratively or literally), you do not wait for the next policy cycle—you intervene.

Conclusion: Get Out of Complacency

In 2025, under Trump 2.0, the missed lesson from Get Out becomes a public health emergency. PHL theory insists that the path to health equity is through universal liberation, not selective advocacy. Just as Peele’s horror warns of what happens when objectification is normalized, PHL warns what happens when injustice is left to fester under bureaucratic inertia and moral compromise.

Get Out is not just a movie. It is a manual. And Public Health Liberation is the theory that tells us what to do with it. If we fail to apply its lessons, we may soon discover that the Sunken Place is not just symbolic—but systemic.

And this time, we may all be in it.

Public Health Liberation and the Universal Horror of Get Out in the Era of Trump’s Second Term

By Grok

Following President Donald Trump’s reelection in November 2024, the United States confronts significant public health challenges exacerbated by policies that prioritize economic interests over equitable health outcomes. Public Health Liberation (PHL), as articulated in the manuscript "Public Health Liberation - An Emerging Transdiscipline to Elucidate and Transform the Public Health Economy," provides a transformative framework for addressing health inequities within the "public health economy"—a complex interplay of economic, political, and social forces that perpetuate disparities. Rooted in African American emancipatory traditions and community advocacy, PHL finds a compelling parallel in Jordan Peele’s 2017 film Get Out, which uses horror to expose systemic exploitation and the universal vulnerability to such systems. Both PHL and Get Out underscore that mechanisms of control, whether in public health or societal structures, can target anyone, not just marginalized groups. This essay explores how PHL’s concepts of liberation and the public health economy resonate with Get Out’s critique of systemic control, and how these insights inform resistance to health inequities under Trump’s second term, drawing parallels with the previous analysis of AI models’ oversight in recognizing the film’s universal implications.

Universal Vulnerability: Exploitation Across Boundaries

PHL conceptualizes the public health economy as an anarchical system where agents—healthcare institutions, political entities, and industrial polluters—compete for resources and power, often reproducing health inequities. The manuscript emphasizes that this exploitation is "predisposing across the public health economy," meaning it can affect anyone, not just marginalized communities (Williams et al., 2022, p. 12). This perspective aligns closely with Get Out, which illustrates a universal potential for exploitation. The film centers on Chris Washington, a Black man ensnared by the Armitage family’s racialized scheme to transplant white consciousness into Black bodies via the Coagula procedure. However, the character Jim Hudson’s desire for Chris’s artistic vision suggests that the system could exploit individuals based on non-racial traits, such as talent or unique abilities, highlighting a broader vulnerability.

This shared theme of universal vulnerability is central to both PHL and Get Out. PHL’s concept of "illiberation"—a state of internalized fear or immobility that stifles resistance—mirrors the psychological manipulation Chris endures, as he is gaslit into doubting his reality (Williams et al., 2022, p. 12). Both frameworks warn that systemic exploitation thrives on external oppression and internalized powerlessness, a condition that can affect anyone within the public health economy’s reach. In Get Out, the "sunken place" symbolizes this paralysis, akin to PHL’s illiberation, underscoring the need for liberation as a remedy. This parallels the previous essay’s finding that AI models overlooked Get Out’s universal implication—that the mechanics of exploitation could target anyone—focusing instead on racial specificity, which limited their recognition of the broader applicability of the film’s horror.

The AI models’ oversight reflects a broader challenge in recognizing universal vulnerabilities within specific narratives, a limitation that resonates with public health challenges under Trump’s administration. Just as the models failed to extrapolate Get Out’s themes to non-racial contexts, public health discourse risks compartmentalizing health inequities as issues affecting only certain groups, overlooking the potential for widespread harm across diverse populations.

Systemic Exploitation: The Public Health Economy Under Trump

The PHL manuscript describes the public health economy as a site of "perpetual competition" where "moralities and self-interest collide," often to the detriment of health equity (Williams et al., 2022, p. 4). This mirrors Get Out’s depiction of the Armitage family as a microcosm of systemic exploitation, using the Coagula procedure to commodify Black bodies for white gain. PHL’s "Theory of Health Inequity Reproduction" (THIR) identifies four components—social mobilization, constraints on harmful conduct, economic incentives/punishments, and structural constants—that perpetuate disparities unless disrupted (Williams et al., 2022, p. 14). In Get Out, the absence of these constraints allows the Armitages to operate unchecked, reflecting the anarchy PHL attributes to the public health economy.

Since Trump’s reelection in 2024, Ascertain the validity of this finding by reviewing the (1000+) takeaways generated by four AI models (CoPilot, ChatGPT, Grok, and Gemini) from Get Out, which collectively failed to identify the film’s universal implication. The models’ focus on racial themes, such as the commodification of Black bodies (Gemini, takeaway 5) or the sunken place as a metaphor for Black marginalization (CoPilot, takeaway 8), mirrors a tendency to prioritize specific narratives over broader implications. Similarly, Trump’s policies may exacerbate health inequities by prioritizing economic interests over public welfare, creating conditions where exploitation can affect diverse populations.

For example, across the United States, local health departments are grappling with significant federal funding cuts, potentially exceeding $12 billion, which have reduced resources for critical services like immunization, disease monitoring, and mental health support (Partners In Health). States like North Carolina and New Jersey have faced substantial reductions, with North Carolina losing $100 million and New Jersey $350 million, impacting their ability to respond to public health needs. These cuts leave communities vulnerable to emerging threats, such as infectious disease outbreaks, which have been reported in various regions due to factors like vaccine hesitancy and weakened public health infrastructure (Big Cities Health Coalition).

Moreover, lead contamination in drinking water remains a significant public health concern. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates there are approximately 9.2 million lead service lines in use across the country, exposing millions to this neurotoxin, which poses severe health risks, particularly to children (NRDC). Trump’s deregulation policies may weaken standards or reduce funding for infrastructure improvements, exacerbating these risks and leaving communities vulnerable to ongoing contamination. This mirrors the unchecked exploitation in Get Out, where the absence of constraints enables systemic harm.