Analysis Of The Movie ' Fruitvale Station '

Fruitvale Station depicts the real-life case of Oscar Grant III, a young unarmed black man shot in the back by a white police officer on January 1, 2009 in Oakland. The movie begins with cell phone footage of Oscar Grant’s death recorded by bystanders. Grant’s life was tragically cut short due to a white man’s racism and stereotypical perception of a young black man. The BART police officer Johannes Mehserle abused his authority and shot Grant for no other reason but hatred and racism. At the time of the shooting, Grant was unarmed and pinned on the ground in handcuffs. The movie then walks you through the last twenty-four hours of Grant’s life. As you watch the movie and research the aftermath of Grant’s death you a forced to ask yourself a few questions; why does the media have the right to take away Oscar Grant’s humanity? Where do we draw the line between racism and holding others responsible and will the public’s perception of black men and women ever change? Lastly, we must focus on how this case and others impacts African American society and culture. We also must focus on the necessary changes African Americans must make in order to survive in a world that does not value black lives.

"Double-consciousness this sense of always looking at one 's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one 's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity" (Dubois, 8). W.E.B. Du Bois had a perfect definition of double-consciousness. The action of viewing one 's self through the eyes of others and measuring one 's soul. Looking at all of the thoughts good or bad coming from others. This is present in the main character of the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. The Absolutely True Diary is about a boy named Junior that is fourteen years old and living on the Spokane Reservation. Junior was born with too

Zora Neale Hurston’s “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” can be interpreted as a reverse response of W. E. B. DuBois’ concept of “double consciousness” that he describes in “The Souls of Black Folk.” Hurston shows that not all African Americans experience a sense of double consciousness and that some are instilled with the self confidence required to embrace one’s “blackness.” First, it may be helpful to define consciousness before attempting to explain the notion of double consciousness. Consciousness is defined as the state of being mentally aware of something: oneself, in this essay. Therefore, we can now define double consciousness as the state of an individual being mentally aware of “two selves”: one as you see yourself and the second as

DuBois’ double-consciousness is quite simply the twoness of American Negroes. It is this sense of “always looking at one’s self through the

naturally endured identity issues. I feel that W.E.B Du Bois’ idea of double consciousness comes

“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.” (Dubois)

It doesn’t take long to figure out that race and ethnicity issues continue to affect America - a quick glance at the news will show the latest riot, hate crime, or police brutality incident. This centuries old struggle has given rise to a number of literary works on the topic, many of which take a different approach to the issue. W.E.B. Du Bois, for instance, published the work The Souls of Black Folk in 1903, arguing for blacks’ right to equality in a horrifically segregated society. In these essays, Du Bois coined the term “double-consciousness,” wherein those with black skin must view the world both from their own perspective, and from the perspective of the predominately white society. The short story Recitatif by Toni Morrison explores this concept through the removal of the characters’ races, and the film Do the Right Thing, directed by Spike Lee, tells a story to demonstrate it. While the former shows double-consciousness through the usage of ambiguity, the latter almost directly references the concept. Taken together, these two sources argue a multi-faceted version double-consciousness, wherein society alienates the characters in ways that go beyond just the color of one’s skin.

The cinematic film Get Out, directed by Jordan Peele, presents a scenario in which African Americans are targeted by white people mainly for their physical advantages. The plot follows Chris Washington, a professional African American photographer who goes away for the weekend to visit his white girlfriend’s family. Chris’ best friend, Rod Williams, is a TSA agent who is concerned about Chris going to a white family’s estate. Throughout the movie, Chris discusses to Rod the strange events that occur in the Armitage house. Get out displays how two people use their intelligence and ability to identify social cues to escape from an arduous situation.

New Year’s Day, 2009, a man is brutally shot by the BART Police of Oakland, California. Fruitvale Station, written and directed by Ryan Coogler, took audiences by surprise as it resonated with twenty-two year old Oscar Grant, a man who was shot down by the BART Police. This movie takes viewers on an emotional expedition as it takes a peek into the life and death of Oscar Grant and his family. The struggles of originating from an African-American background become apparent as Oscar Grant struggles with steering away from racial stereotypes and the misunderstandings of racial profiling.

Several years back, W.E.B. Du Bois coined a term “double consciousness.” He used to term to describe the phenomenon of how African-Americans lived their lives with two different “scripts” or how to behave. The first script, was the one that applied to anyone regardless of race or identity. The second was unique to blacks, who often felt obliged to view themselves through the lens of the dominant white group. Du Bois’s ideology was absolutely correct. Not just for the African American but also for most other minority groups as well. Nowadays, I feel like I go through the same phenomenon myself as an American Muslim.

Robert Penn quotes Du Bois' The Souls of Black Folk. He sums up this concept beautifully: "It is a particular sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One never feels the two-ness-- an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder." (Penn, p.19)

Double consciousness is a concept proposed by W.E.B Du Bois in his book, “The Souls of Black Folk”. The concept of double consciousness illustrates the feeling that one does not have one identity as it has been split into, if not two then more, therefore making it a challenge for individuals to develop an identity which is true to the individual.

The idea of dual, or double, consciousness comes from the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois, specifically, The Souls of Black Folk, where he describes the feeling of a person being unable to choose between two identities, the identity of their people and the identity of their new home country. This inability to choose leads to constant insecurity and feelings of inadequacy, blocking the foreigner from obtaining inner peace and, therefore, happiness. Furthermore, the native people treat these outsiders differently, which exacerbates the problem of dual identity that these immigrant groups face. Du Bois, however, is only able to focus on how dual consciousness affects African American people, as that was the type of double consciousness he personally

Double consciousness as defined by Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk: "It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity." (The Souls of Black Folk, pp.453-470) harkens to the double consciousness felt by Lae Choo in "In the land of the Free" by Sui Sin Far. Like Du Bois, Far illustrates through the personal experiences of the characters the way whites saw people of color and how they were treated as a result of it. The "color line" as mentioned in The Souls of Black Folk is something universal when it comes to white and non white interactions. Regardless of race, non whites were treated with prejudice by whites and made to suffer through hardships because of their non white status. Both sbook discuss the theme of struggle and hardship through racial difference that leads to change and reflection. Although differing in setting, protagonists, and layout, share the same kind of pain that is universal regardless of race, gender, and age.

A clockwork orange is an adaptation of Anthony Burgess novel of the same name, it’s also probably Kubrick’s most faithful adaptation. This may be because a screenplay was never actually written. Instead, Kubrick worked it out as he went along, working directly from the book as he did. The thing about Kubrick that drew me to want to explore this movie so just how bizarre and deprived it is, but yet the all of its wild and crazy parts are able to come together to create one beautiful unique dystopian future. The reason is the attention to detail, he was meticulous to a tee and that attention to detail shows. When you worked on a Kubrick film you brought you’re “A” no matter what department you were one.