Fruitvale Station Documentary

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.

Regarding the labeling theory, the theory holds that behaviors are deviant only when society labels them as deviant. As such, conforming members of society, who interpret certain behaviors as deviant and then attach this label to individuals, determine the distinction between deviance and non‐deviance. Influential people within society—politicians, judges, police officers, medical doctors, and so forth—typically impose the most significant labels. Labeled individuals may include drug addicts, alcoholics, criminals, delinquents, prostitutes, and sex offenders, to mention a few. The relation to the movie is that, the stakeholders used to, or maybe still label the people of color have higher tendency to do criminal activities compared to Caucasians, and that’s what the media portrayed back then, thus the case of mass incarceration of people of color, seemed not to be a big deal for the States in which the majority of individuals who resides here are the whites. Compton and other majority black areas that considered dangerous might arise because of this labeling

As a young colored women living in LA County, I have always been fascinated with the police approach and attitudes towards minorities and rural part of LA. I was aware with the gangs’ situation in major cities of country, including LA. Yet, I was unaware of the history and rise of gangs etc. When I came across the movie,”Bastards of the Party”, I was thrilled and excited. I could relate to this documentary with the theories such as racial segregation and white supremacy. I was also able to relate to this documentary with Coates reading the “between the world and me.” Coates work is not a work of inspiration or optimism. It is not written for white people - not written to comfort them, pat them on the back for their occasional acknowledgment

“ Some of these early productions have racial themes which reorganize the world in such a way that black heritage is rewarded over white paternity; they are schematic renunciations of the prevailing order of things in white American society where, historically, the discovery of black blood meant sudden reversal of fortune, social exclusion, or banishment.” (Gaines, P.3) Within the movie the amount of mistruths about African Americans was sad. Within the movie you notice that the blacks were always or seem to be yelling, acting uncivilized and doing

The article “Life in Mississippi: East St Louis, Illinois” is one that is not taken lightly. The article shows one the injustice that African Americans face in the city of St. Louis. The article all together is shocking and heartbreaking. To know that in a country that is suppose to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, there still is so much injustice is not only eye opening but also upsetting. One of the 2 most heartbreaking parts for me was when Kozol describes the old men leaning on his cane listening to Jesse Jackson and crying. This is something so powerful to me because this is someone who has experience all of the hardships that east St. Louis has to offer and he has to live knowing that not much has change and maybe Jesse Jackson was the only one promising the change they deserve. The last scene was when one of the students goes up to Kozol after class and tell him that what Dr. King did was nothing because they are still living in such horrible situations. For a teenage kid to think and feel that way, they must have had to suffer through so much, which is exactly what the article is able to show us, the injustice that these kids face on a daily basis. Having read this is shocking to one because we live in a different area where we aren’t prone to see such things and because we have grown up and taught to believe that racism and poverty is almost non existing because this is American a country that doesn’t fail the people.

In society, social problems are often brought to the public’s attention through popular culture and media. The compelling film, Fruitvale Station, directed by Ryan Coogler is a nod to many social problems found in the United States of America today. The film portrays social problems like poverty among minorities, racial profiling and especially police brutality through the last 24 hours of Oscar Julius Grant III’s life. The star-studded film not only pays homage to Grant but also to the ideas of poverty and police brutality. The film all but shouts at the audience that the minorities, especially African Americans, suffer from many economic and social disadvantages that needs attention. At the 2013 Sundance Movie Festival by means of great

While restaurants and businesses start closing down or relocate to elsewhere, the job opportunities carry with them and it is causing more white people to move. With this dilemma, the Black society is not succeeding and getting profit, leaving them nothing but abandoned buildings and no jobs to provide necessities in life such as food, clothes and education for not only themselves but their family as well. Much of the community remains of young black families who are striving for the middle class and older white homeowners. According to Umar Lee disagreement on the film about the focus of the media tends to overlook at the trendy of one specific crime area as a whole.

In the movie Fruitvale Station Michael B. Jordan represents many of the African Americans throughout history and today regarding police brutality. I feel that throughout the year’s people of minorities have been singled out by the law and handled more inappropriately than people of the Caucasian descent. In the movie Fruitvale Station I feel like Oscar could have been have been handled more lawfully but since he fit the description of a young black hoodlum he was treated as if he was a complete criminal, Even though he had a troubled past but was trying to correct that. That’s a big part of police brutality today being an African American and looking as if you’re a criminal or you’re doing some harm to somebody when that’s not even the case, sometimes you don’t even have to look the part you can be a completely good African American or

Police Brutality has stemmed from racist attitudes, discrimination, and prejudice to African Americans. In the movie “Fruitvale Station” the subject of police brutality is touched on through the true story of Oscar Grant III an African American young man who was assassinated in 2009. The movie follows Grant who is played by Michael B. Jordan in his final twenty-four hours of life. The shooting takes place after Grant and his girlfriend are on the subway returning home in the early morning on New Year’s with some friends. After a fight breaks out on the subway the police are called and Grant and his friends are taken off the train and handcuffed after a verbal altercation between Grant and the police officers one of the officers takes out and shoots Grant. Grant is taken to the hospital where he passes away. The officer who assassinated Grant was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and spent a year in jail. The main theme this movie follows is police brutality. The reason I chose to discuss this movie is because Police brutality is a very large issue that has occurred too often in the past few years in this country. Oscar Grant is one of the many African American men who have lost their life and left behind a family because of senseless police brutality. Police Brutality is a very difficult issue to discuss because people should feel protected around police rather than fear for their lives and for many people of color this is their reality. Police brutality solely stems from racist attitudes, discrimination, and prejudice of African Americans in the United States.

There was a recent movie that came out called “Detroit“ and in this movie the city Detroit went wild. There were riots and chaos everywhere, seems like every day. They were fighting for equality, the white cops would randomly search blackmails walking down the street. When others so they would walk up and make it worse. The city of Detroit was a rebellion a positive calls to help start the group called the black panthers. A pro black group, by 1968 the black panthers have roughly 2000 members across the country some in Detroit, whom wouldn’t care less of the consequences.

Reflecting on the film a piece that stood out was how the young men's environment discouraged a sense of belonging to their community. They both suffered a loss of identity because of the false beliefs that society placed on them (Davis, 2009). Societal views assumed that they were unable to achieve a higher education or deserved access to better living conditions. However, the young men's perceptions held that societies view of them were based on prejudicial beliefs that all black youth are involved in criminal activity (Davis, 2009). Kendall (2009), argued this point by saying that not everyone living in Regent was a troublemaker. In a cultural context, social exclusion perpetuated marginalization, stigma, and deprivation of racialized minorities

The movie Crash (2004) is intended to be a microcosm of life in America in regards to inequality. Set in Los Angeles, it probes social and cultural stereotypes, race and social biases, and the conflict that often ensues as a result. The blatant manner in which these sociological issues are revealed is often startling for the viewer, but the shocking nature is intentional in order to promote self-examination and reflection. The movie is presented in the conflict perspective which assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of tension between groups over power or the allocation of resources including housing, money, and access to services. The movie shows the lives of various individuals in different social classes and ethnicities.

Continually the director uses the subplots- the stories within the story-to show the hierarchy of oppression and privilege in America to show how people think of others in a particular way in which they take people’s dignity. The way people treat and look to others is really off and they go with their thoughts to really far places and they imagine things that may not happen, in which they oppress another person.another scene “-come on man keep driving i said i'm not laughing at you ...fine you want me to show you i will show you ,do you want to see what's in my hands i will show you” In the scene, it shows how the cop mistreats the boy just because he is black. This scene is related to the message because the cop kills a person who did not do anything to him, he just thinks that he has gun but he is not sure about it, then

When we try to understand why the characters act as they act and what drives each of them, the viewers are inevitably drawn to the conclusion that they are just like them. They realize they are human; they have both good qualities and bad qualities. Spike Lee also makes them understand that at times they may make terrible mistakes, and that at other times they may display admirable heroism, and that sometimes they simply act without knowing why. Spike Lee does more than try to show his viewers that despite tensions, this Black neighborhood is a community. What Lee does is he makes the viewers think. He simply presents events as they are leaving the viewer to figure out the motives of the characters and the ‘why’ behind the course of events. Lee doesn’t really put a positive light on any particular race while shadowing the other ones. He doesn’t try to make conflicts have an obvious solution. Lee simply re-creates a piece of life, with a little twist of extreme (yet realistic) drama for deeper effect, and by doing this he tries to simply make his audience think and question.

Racism, prejudice and stereotyping, as the main themes of the movie, control all the sub-stories that are somehow linked to each other. Moreover, as the stories go on and events develop, it becomes possible to see how characters start to have changes in their perspective and attitude towards each other, either in a good or a bad way. An incident which can demonstrate our thesis on racism and stereotyping and how it might change in just one moment which brings people closer could be shown as the conflict between the racist police officer and the African American woman who gets harassed by him, and whose life is saved by him on the next day. The first encounter of the woman and the officer resulted with the woman