Ryan Coogler's 'Sinners' Teases Survival Responses Related To Financial Trauma & Nervous System Regulation

If you haven’t watched ‘Sinners’ yet I’m letting you know right now there are no spoilers in this reflection. You are safe.

I just got back home from the movies… for the SECOND time.

This is the first time I’ve ever in 35 years paid to see a movie in theaters TWICE and within a day of each other but the movie was THAT good as it hit on so many interconnected themes related to the Black southern experience in a very unapologetic and authentic way. So I don’t give away the plot of the movie I’m going to focus on the themes that stand out to me and why they are relevant to the work I do (and am working on). Those themes are :

• Institutional Financial Trauma

• The Fight/Flight Response In Response To Trauma

• Indigenous Somatic Healing Practices

Let’s kick off the with institutional financial trauma.

Institutional Financial Trauma

The setting of the movie is in the Jim Crow era south which is a time period that comes immediately following the abolition of slavery. Though formally abolished, slavery didn’t just go away, it morphed into share cropping, chain gangs and the prison industrial complex, and fear based control of Black bodies through terror and torment via groups like the Ku Klux Clan. This theme sticks out to me in particular because it’s a subject that has earned an entire chapter in my soon to be released book “Overcoming Financial Trauma”. Institutional and Systemic trauma has an impact on our present day behaviors with financial systems due to the fact that the trauma was never resolved. There is scientific evidence that demonstrates how that trauma not only changes the expression of genes, but can also affect the expression of genes in future generations. The effects of trauma doesn’t just impact the individual experiencing (or inflicting) the trauma, but those individuals who come after. You see this theme surface throughout the movie subtly with declarations being made around money being power, or skepticism around how a Black man could amass any wealth. These themes are reflected in real life, present day as we navigate misinformed money scripts around “money being the root of all evil” and the influence of the Black church on Black submission and compliance as both a means for control but also a mechanism for survival. During this period, White people could take a Black person’s wealth with little to no consequences. This included banks, grocery, transit workers, or any form of establishment. If you are Black and you have more money than you are expected to have, a White person can accuse of any manner of crime and take that money from you. These practices aren’t just moral practices, but institutional ones because the institutions have been run by the same people who could take money from Black people. Although these institutions don’t have a corporeal form, the trauma becomes stored operationally as policies, procedures, and institutional culture that has persisted through the generations.

The Fight/Flight Response To Financial Trauma

The brain is both a sophisticated and primitive thing whose main job is to ensure your continued survival. The triune brain theory is a conceptual framework that explains how the human brain has evolved over time to do just that. The reptilian brain, starting at your brainstem handles basically the functions a baby has—breathing, using the bathroom, etc. The mammalian brain, also known as the limbic system, acts as the seat of emotions and is shaped in response to experiences. The reptilian and mammalian brain works together to look out for your welfare and is responsible for the fight or flight responses. The neocortex is the third part of the brain and is responsible for language, abstract thought, planning, imagination, etc. While the former parts of the brain jump into protection mode automatically based on the funneling of stimuli from the amygdala, the later and most recently evolved part of the brain works to recognize, categorize, and defuse perceived threats. Threats however real or perceived are difficult if not impossible for the brain to distinguish between which means if your brain thinks you are in danger, then the response to that danger will be just as intense as if you are actually in danger until you are able to regulate the response or remove yourself from/destroy the source of that danger.

I think this is a necessary science to share because so many of the responses to threats of bodily and philosophical harm are triggered survival responses. The twins played by Michael B Jordan developed responses to each other’s triggers as a necessary survival tactic which can be easily overlooked as the twins just looking out for each other. The fight or flight response was also triggered by radicalized trauma in most every instance a Black person had to interact with a White person.

The skepticism? The mistrust and feelings of unease Black people feel around White people (and vice versa) is a body response due to past trauma. Which ties into the institutional trauma because who runs and controls the institutions?

Indigenous Somatic Healing Practices

This was probably my favorite theme of the movie due to the fact that it’s such a focus area for me in understanding how to heal trauma. In his book, “My Grandmother’s Hands”, author Resmaa Menakem declares that trauma is a body occurrence not a mind one. These body responses will not be metabolized or resolved through talk therapy alone which is why somatic healing practices need to be employed. What’s interesting about somatic healing practices however is that are largely indigenous practices. The center of Blues music in this film and the undercurrent of its healing nature is more than just metaphor, it’s now evidence based. There is a scene in particular that stands out as the transmutation of pain into energy is demonstrated through tapping, stomping, wailing, and singing. This is cultural. This is spiritual. This is healing. While effective on its own with one person, leaning into community amplifies its energy and its impact.

This film was soul medicine. You can tell how intentional writer and director Ryan Coogler was in developing it. He deserves everything coming his way for what he birthed and demonstrates in this film and without spoilers I have BARELY begun to scratch the surface of this masterpiece.