Racism in the Spotlight
Last night, I had the privilege of seeing the documentary film "Two Towns of Jasper" on PBS. The movie was about the hate crime that occurred in Jasper, TX, where a black man was dragged behind a truck for several miles down a deserted road until he eventually died. The documentary was filmed by two men, one black and one white. The black families were filmed by the black director, and the white families were filmed by the white director. The filmmakers were both raised in middle class families, and both attended ivy league colleges (Harvard, I believe). They did an excellent job of keeping the black and white views as pure as possible, in other words, the people filmed were very honest about their feelings and it showed. There was a piece on Oprah about this movie earlier in the week which is what prompted my interest. I highly recommend this movie to everyone. Granted, the details of the crime are very gruesome and may turn your stomach, but the movie is about more than just the crime. It's about racial tension, why it exists, and with any luck, what we can do about it.
