It was illegal for stack and Mary to be together. It was dangerous for both of them. Stack couldn’t just LET her chose. As you suggested.
TMIMITW
2025-08-14 22:14:07 +0000 UTC
Stack was telling Mary that they couldn’t be together because of the economy they grew up in. All it took was either a black person (who didn’t know Mary) to see them together, or a white person to see them together, and they’d both be killed because word would spread to the Klan
Also “Sinners” applies to all them as they commit 1 of the 7 deadly sins:
1) Lust: Pearline (flirts with Sammie) & Mary (chasing Stack when she has a man)
2) Gluttony: Delta Slim (excessive desire for beer)
3) Greed: Stack (schemes Delta Slim & Cornbread for money)
4) Sloth: Cornbread (let Mary in as a vampire & abandoned his duties) & Preacher Boy Sammie (neglects his spiritual duties, leading to a spiritual lethargy)
5) Wrath: Smoke (is ready to shoot & kill many people throughout the movie)
6) Envy: Remmick (wants Sammie’s gift of music for himself)
7) Pride: Grace (puts her daughter in front of their safety, resulting in the vampires entering).
And the nuances of the storytelling, from religion, whitewashing of cultures, the vampires being an allegory of whitewashing & sin, “pick poor robin clean” and it’s many interpretations, Remmick being Irish (the Irish connections to Africans vs White people), and many more.