A Conversation About Race is a documentary by Craig Bodeker. In the movie, Mr. Bodeker attempts to debunk racism. The film centers on interviews of people in Denver, Colorado who answered a Craigslist posting entitled “Ending Racism Now” as well as people interviewed on street corners presumably at random. Mr. Bodeker presents clips of these interviews and provides narration. According to Mr. Bodeker, the film’s purpose is to expose the myth of racism and show how the White race suffers from reverse racism and double standards (Dispatch Inc, 2013).
The film opens with a quote by Reverend Jeremiah Wright, “Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run!...We [in the U.S.] believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God.” (Dispatch, 2013). As I read this quote, I was determined to view this film with an open mind. The film transitioned from the opening quote to a speech given by Barack Obama wherein he refers to Reverend Wright’s offensive sermons about America. Mr. Bodeker speaks stating, “…I also can’t think of another issue that is more artificial, manufactured and manipulated than this whole construct called racism.” (Dispatch, 2013). Mr. Bodeker continues, “This construct of racism is not an objective term. It has no concise definition. In fact, it’s used too often as a tool of intimidation, like a hammer, against Caucasian Whites.” (Dispatch, 2013). The interviews conducted asked questions such as, “Do you see racism in your daily life?”, “What is racism?”, “Can you give an example of the racism you see?”, “Are Blacks better at basketball than Whites?” Mr. Bodeker states, “I’m not trying to make anyone look foolish but the conventional wisdom on r...
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...an only see how other races are “attacking” the White race. To Mr. Bodeker the White race is the real victim but to me this is a ludicrous notion.
Ultimately, it is my opinion that this film is a perfect example of what is wrong with society. Society and the social “norm” dictate what is acceptable. Society (or a select few in power) has determined that racism is an acceptable practice. Society is oblivious to the fact that this acceptable “norm” is something that can and should be changed. Until the day that the “races” can come together and demand equal treatment of all, regardless of race, racism will persists.
References
Dispatch Inc. (2013, January 6). A conversation about race [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNRVL8tibOo&noredirect=1 Schaefer, R. T. (2012). Racial and ethnic groups (13th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
For the most part, reviews are positive and praise this film. I completely agree with them, this film informed me of an issue I wasn’t even aware had occurred. Before watching this film and taking this class, I was naive, I believed that after we had gained our supposedly “equal rights” everything was okay. Now, I have realized the struggles Chicanos have had to face, my eyes have been opened to these injustices and made me aware that many are still occurring today. This film and class has inspired me to take action against these injustices and stand up for what I believe in.
Crash is a good movie that portrays all the racism and stereotyping that people and communities are facing. There are more issues than what I found during the movie but I will talk about the ones that stood out to me. One thing amazing about the movie is how the story develops and how all the stories tie into one another. Crash evokes the "racial" problem that faces the United States because of its diversity that should be an advantage but in general, it is not often the case. It often does not work as expected because of stereotype, discrimination and racism that face different minority communities. Whether emotion, terror and rage, Crash depicts the brutal realism of cynicism, or the American collective fantasy into force of a dominant race.
Firstly, the movie showed physical violence against someone because of their race. This is portrayed when the combined teams arrived at Gettysburg College for camp. One black man puts a poster on his wall above his bed. Another white man says to take down the poster. When the black man refuses, tension rises, and a fight breaks out. If another white man had put a poster above their bed, there wouldn’t be a problem. When the black man did it, it was not accepted. Another time physical violence was displayed because of someone’s race was when a brick was thrown into Coach
Watching this movie has truly transformed my views on different cultures – how we should not judge a person by their culture or skin color. As I witnessed in the movie the characters assumptions prevented them from understanding and seeing the real person standing in front of them.
... supremacist gang, to rioting in an Asian owned grocery store, to finally brutally murdering someone. We observe as family ties become increasingly strained in every way, the viewer can easily conclude that Derek’s racism as well as his eventual influence on his younger brother ultimately contributed to their own downfall. As controversial as this movie maybe for the offensive language and brutal violence, it is a movie that deserves to be seen, and even discussed. It really provides insight into some factors within society that cannot be contained by the law or even deterred by even the harshest punishments. Even though American society is becoming more modernized as time goes by in terms of tolerance, racism will unfortunately always be prevalent in society and inevitably it will also lead some individuals to violently express their distorted mentalities.
For example, Amadou Diallo, an immigrant from West Africa was shot in New York City in 1999 because of how society defined him. He was not seen as an immigrant, he was categorized as black; blackness was put on him, resulting in his death. Barbra and Karen Fields explain that Diallo was shot because of oppression, but instead of addressing racism, society will focus on the race using phrases like, “They shot him because he is black,” instead of phrases like “He was shot because the shooter is a racist.” This allows him to then illustrate to the audience how race may not be real biologically, as is was a created, but it is real in its consequences, meaning that it is used as the ideological framework to “justify wars… and subjugation of all kinds of people” (Jones
There are two main issues in the movie the “The Color of Fear” that I will discuss. These two issues include grouping people of color on the basis of the way one looks, and the attitudes of different races towards one another. Including also the idea that the white “do-gooder” feels that subconsciously racism is being taken care of, when in all reality it isn’t. The eight men in The Color of Fear candidly discussed racism not only as "whites oppressing blacks," but also the less addressed sides of racial trouble in America. A white man earnestly stating that he had never oppressed anyone in his entire life, and a Hispanic man talking about being afraid of driving in front of pickup trucks with gun racks, shows how there needs to be more progress towards ending these feelings in America. Stereotypes were openly declared, from Asians as "the model minority" to blacks as "lazy, violent, and dangerous."
In this essay I will argue that the key to end racism is to understand race and ideology and how this two concepts relate to each other.
Yet, the manner in which BLM is handling ‘racism’ is harming communities around the country. There are cultures that should be feared, ones that breed violence and crime, but there are strong black cultures that have risen above the stereotypes that haunt them. Based on the culture that people are raised in, they are more inclined to commit violent crimes (Shaw 15). There are so many successful black people in the world. In the article “Making Black Lives Matter,” Mitchell Shaw gives a powerful example of that when he says: “Racism is incapable of holding black people down. Evidence of that is easy to find. Not only is a black man sitting in the Oval Office, but blacks hold power in cities all across America. That would never happen in a world that was holding black people down” (Shaw 13.) When taken into consideration, there are many African Americans that have accomplished amazing feats, even something as taken-for-granted as graduating college and getting a middle class job. They are the true American heroes that this country was founded
Ava Duvrernay gives a clear and perfect insight on how racial oppression has continued and what are the causes for this continuation of racial injustice. This film could
I have always believed that all races have their good and bad. Their is never going to be the perfect race. This movie definitely set a powerful message that life is not perfect for any race and that even though people are from different cultures, they are all interconnected somehow. The filmmakers did a great job at showing us that individuals should not be based on first impressions such as skin color or the social status.
The film observes and analyzes the origins and consequences of more than one-hundred years of bigotry upon the ex-slaved society in the U.S. Even though so many years have passed since the end of slavery, emancipation, reconstruction and the civil rights movement, some of the choice terms prejudiced still engraved in the U.S society. When I see such images on the movie screen, it is still hard, even f...
This demonstrates to us that no matter how much your legal or moral laws are violated, what matters is how you as an individual react to the situation, justly or unjustly. This movie is centered around the notion that if you are a person of ethnic background, that alone is reason for others to forsake your rights, although in the long run justice will prevail
The purpose of the film was to show that no matter what skin color you are what only matters is who you are on the inside. The movie fails in this attempt to display a political statement in a comedic manner in the sense that in reality it depicts that people need to be aware that we should be equal regardless of skin color but it makes a mockery out of the fact that we are not equal in a non-hysterical manner. This movie is not a comedy in the sense that the jokes are funny because they truly are not funny especially for those who face these discrimination issues daily. The movie is basically promoting conformity in the idea that we all know that equality is a far stretch and that we are not there yet so let us just deal with it and turn it into a mockery.
Many people, especially those associated with racist groups, find it necessary to put down other ethnic groups in an attempt to strengthen their own. This mode of thought and reasoning usually results in extreme hatred of other races and an overall sense of bigotry. Reasoning in this manner equates to many associated with racist groups. Pride in one 's race may eventually lead to covert racism thought.