We are often taught about racism in a traditional classroom setting. We read chapters in textbooks that reference main events in history that have been either driven with extreme racism and cause horrific happenings, such as the Ku Klux Klan, or are turning points in discrimination, such as Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat. As students we receive handouts on events like these, or study court trials that are linked to racism. In English classes we even learn about racism through literary works such as To Kill a Mockingbird. A student can read these textbooks and study these cases, but until they are able to see racism first hand, they will not truly have developed an understanding of it all.
Cinema is a type of media that allows for this. By not only documenting the evolution of racism, film also makes it possible for us to essentially travel back in time and view what had been captured through the lens as through seeing it with our own eyes. So sit back and (try to) relax, as I point out the racism our country has created through out history as portrayed in film.
