Blog #7: Reflection on Beyond The Color Line
Blog # 7: Reflection On Beyond The Color Line
I think the movie is interesting. Granted, we haven’t quite finished it, but I do think it is interesting to hear African Americans speak openly (or at least try to, because maybe some people feel uncomfortable about speaking openly about their racial experience, which is a problem in itself) about their lives and racism and how it has affected them. Parts of the movie that I remember as especially interesting (so far):
1) Part about Martin Luther King Jr.
2) White woman in an interracial marriage joining African American gospel choir
3) People’s experiences that they remember from being younger. How it was not so long ago that the world was like that, and that some people still think that way.
4) Man who opened an integrated church: his racial views were changed by Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, completely transformed him as a person
5) Police force is mostly racially tolerant and respectful, as is the army
6) Morgan Freeman: even though the south is sometimes racially discriminate, Freeman lives in the south because it is his hometown, it is where he grew up, and where his roots and ancestry are.
Question to ponder:
How can we/I help to erase racism in the United States and eventually the World?
1) Talk to people
-ask them why they think they are better than another racial group of people
-have diversity retreats like Face It where people can talk openly to each other about their views and opinions about racism, and reveal their experiences with racism.
2) Get people to stop talking about other people in derogatory terms or thinking that they are better than someone else because of their race or ethnicity
-talk back to them
3) Respect people of different nationalities and their cultures. Get interested in what they do to preserve or continue their traditional culture
-erasing racism isn’t about being color blind, it’s about respecting other people and their culture and it’s about not making derogatory comments about someone else or disrespecting them because of their race
-erasing racism is about accepting people for who they are, whatever their differences, and whatever their beliefs, respecting people no matter what.
This blog is 353 words, but I actually want to write a short follow-up blog once we have actually finished the movie so that I have a true sense of what the film is about. Thank You.
