A 'Sinners' Syllabus

Books, films, videos, music and art to take you deeper into the film's themes.

It’s been an incredible month of talking, thinking and writing about Sinners.

I’ve reviewed the film, discussed it in podcasts, broken down its role in showcasing the evolution of slavery, and documented white Hollywood’s racist response to it.

For those who wanted to go even deeper on the movie’s themes in person, I created our first live event, Black Girl Watching Presents: Club Juke! A ‘Sinners’ Movie Discussion & Dance Party on June 1, 2025, in Los Angeles, CA, where we talked about this film in “fellowship and love” followed by dancing! Watch our recap:

And for paid subscribers, I’ve also curated this in-depth Sinners Syllabus, citing books (some free PDFs too!), films, videos and art to expand on the themes from the movie. From Black Capitalism to the Blues, Hoodoo to Abolition, here is your Sinners Syllabus:

BLACK CAPITALISM’S FAILURE

“Show me a capitalist and I’ll show you a blood sucker.” — Malcolm X

In Sinners, everyone who touches the white man’s gold succumbs to the soul-death of vampirism (Burt, Joan, Mary and Stack). Though Smoke and Stack believed their Black business was the pathway to freedom (which they define, under capitalism, as having money and power), the three vultures circling the old saw mill as Smoke and Stack prepare to buy it from the (secret) KKK grand dragon let the audience know this pathway to “freedom” was doomed from the start and was always going to lead to death—either physically (Smoke) or spiritually (Stack).

Because capitalism inherently requires the exploitation of workers and the environment to function, many Black revolutionaries have warned about the trap of the Black capitalist class as the antithesis of Black liberation and have provided political and social solutions that will actually lead us to freedom instead.

“We say you don’t fight racism with racism. We’re gonna fight racism with solidarity. We say you don’t fight capitalism with no Black capitalism; you fight capitalism with socialism.” from “Power Anywhere Where There’s People!” speech by Fred Hampton at Olivet Church, 1969.

Here are some resources on understanding why Black capitalism fails and solutions for how we collectively get free:

The entire Sinners Syllabus is available for my paid subscribers below. Thank you for supporting Black Girl Watching!