Story We Tell Documentary

Imagine being born in a place where people don't mix with one another and keep to their own kind. Imagine not being able to walk into a store because it is white owned. How would it feel if you were black, lived in a city that was run by a white government, where poverty, unemployment and lack of education were all problems of everyday life? If everyone were treated equally, then it would not be a problem. But for inner city African Americans that isn't the case. As humans, there is only so much we can take when it comes to segregation before we act out. There is only so much hate a person can take before letting it be known, once a person is pushed over that threshold there is no holding back. Overwhelming hate and anger with

Analyse how the use of film features shaped your response to one or more themes in the film.

Possibly a result of the lingering sentiments of racism from the time of slavery, politicians remained unwilling to confront the idea of discrimination. Hopeful candidates running for any public office had to appease as many voters as possible, and this often meant not angering those who still held onto racist ideologies. One can clearly see Taft attempting to skirt the issue of discrimination in his inaugural address in 1909. Here the president states that racial inequality in the South was a non issue and should be allowed to fix itself. One year later in 1910, Roosevelt gave his “New Nationalism” speech to the people of Osawatomie, Kansas. He makes the declaration that the government should not be influenced by special interest groups, which is essentially a nice way of saying that he will do nothing about discrimination. Both presidents, who were considered by many to be progressive approached inequality with a lazy, slothful demeanor, so it is hardly surprising that the issue was

For example, the question "Does race have true meaning?" is challenged often. With science proving that race is not a concept of value, the film shows how humans over time have ignored that fact. Science has abandoned the idea of race but society hasn't. Some humans still believe that race is a justifiable way to categorize the human species. The science of genetics shows us that the genes of every single human being are more than 99 percent identical. Even with this fact, many Americans believe that there are three races Caucasians, Negros and Asians. Americans were raised to believe this because they were taught to believe this was true but this has been proven to not be true, according to the film. The concept of race is hard to debunk because of the fact that people look different. Although people do in fact look different, there is not enough variation to qualify any group of people as a sub-species, according to

In life you begin to learn that things never stay the same because things, people, politics, or anything in fact will eventually change for the good or the bad. For example, Richard Spikes is the inventor who invented the automatic gear shift. He saw that not everyone could not drive successfully with a stick shift, therefore he took the initiative change the way of driving a car. Richard Spikes changed the way cars are and that was a good change, but not all changes are for the best. There are unfortunately changes that are made and they do not help people. In fact some changes hurt or harm individuals. The political change in African American Ghettos during the years of the 1990s until the year 2000 did more harm than good to the African American Ghettos.

There is still inequality here in the United States, but back then it was terrible. There was even a reconstruction era to try and fix these racial tensions but ultimately failed. After the civil war the reconstruction era began to develop to reconnect the eleven states that left the union and welcome to newly freedman as "equals". There were newly formed groups like scalawags, carpetbaggers, and freedman that help make a new form of government, also there were amendments made to make sure Africans were treated a regular citizens. Even though there where positive things like these many things caused the downfall and eventually killed reconstruction. Ultimately The South destroyed the rebuilding process by forming terrorist groups and discriminating

7. How did this film change any misconceptions or stereotypes you had about the subject matter? If so, what were they?

Racial disparities and inequality dates all the way back to slavery: when whites abused, raped, tortured and killed black people. “Slavery transformed America into an economic power; the exploitation of black people made the south the richest and most politically powerful region in the country” (ABS). Black people did not have any rights, instead they were forced

Just fifty years ago, America was a society of segregation and racism. The dictionary defines racism as “the belief that a particular race is superior to another.” Although it is clear times have changed, racism is still seen in modern american society. It’s also clear that relationships between African Americans and whites are generally better than they were in the forties and fifties. Today, it is rare to witness a black man walk down the street and step off the sidewalk to let a white man walk by, or to see a black man sitting on a different section of the bus or train because a white man told him he has too. But superiority of races is still happening. A lot of this has the do with the ignorance of others. Passed down generation to

In America there are still several parts of our society that remain racially unequal including, the workforce, the wealth gap between minorities and whites, as well as incarceration rates and police behavior. The unemployment rates in America are relatively high and because of how hard it is to get a job, the employers prefer to hire someone that they feel more comfortable with, which typically aren’t minorities. The wealth gap between minorities and whites is continuing to grow as the years move on and because the wealth gap many people are starting to turn to criminalism. Because of the amount of people turning to criminalism, the incarceration rates of minorities is steadily increasing. Racial inequality in one section of our society can affect all of the other sections as well. It is a “snowball effect” of sorts. One small aspect of racial inequality can lead to another and another and so on and so forth until our whole society is unequal. Racial inequality has a negative impact on our society

Racism was very “popular” as you should say back in the 1930’s . Whites had all the power while blacks and other minorities were suppose to fear them. In Maycomb , Alabama racism was around and had effects on citizens. Segregating whites from blacks is a horrid thing. It’s inhuman to say you're better than someone else because of their skin color. We as humans are equal some may be more wealthy than others but when it all comes down to it we will all go in the same box in the same ground. Racism was and still is a horrible thing and it affected a lot people.

From my experience within my community, I sadly still see today the occurrence of race-based residential segregation in our society. There was one incident that I remember from my childhood, where an African American family was looking at a home across from my family and the older neighbors were in an uproar about their property value going down. As a child, I really did not understand what the big deal was or what difference it made to have that family move into the neighborhood.

Racial conflicts have plagued the United States from its very beginnings, in particular driven by racial prejudice and discrimination against African Americans. Although the civil rights movement triggered the elimination of Jim Crow segregation several decades ago, African Americans are still at a disadvantage in most areas of life.

Racial inequality still existed long after the Civil War. It's only been around sixty years since the civil rights movement, and it is clear that outlawing explicit racial discrimination has not closed most racial divides in our country.

Today many people believe that we have obtained racial equality. However there are multiple reasons and statistics that contradict those arguments . For decades African Americans has been deprived of basic rights, “If America had racial equality in education and jobs, African Americans would have two million more high school degrees…(Raines)”. There are many drastic racial gaps from education to owning property. Throughout America’s history blacks have been limited, when it comes to education, property, and other things. If people truly believe that after four hundred years of enslavement and limited rights, can be fixed within one generation they are wrong. The African American community has faced