How The Purge intricately explores black female rage

By focusing its TV iteration on a professional black woman, The Purge subverts the racial politics it was built upon — to great effect

Amanda Warren and AzMarie Livingston.
(Image credit: Patti Perret/USA Network)

Throughout each of its four films, The Purge has made one message very clear: White men in power will do anything to maintain it.

To that end: The government's New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) party, tired of co-existing with disenfranchised, mostly-minority poor people, has instituted an annual holiday, grossly called Purge Night. The holiday, on which vicious murder is not only legal but encouraged, allows the mostly white men of the NFFA to maintain their lock on power.

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Candice Frederick

Candice Frederick is a freelance TV/film critic living in New York City. You can find more of her work here.