My name is Nathan Staples and I work here in the Youth Office at the Unitarian Universalist Association. A few people working at the UUA who are concerned about racism got together and watched movies that dealt with racism. While this was a good time, we also talked about what was going on in these movies beyond the surface. We talked about things like institutional racism, the way racism has changed since the Civil Rights movement, the way different racial groups are depicted in cinema today, and many other issues.

The reason for all of this was to develop a resource for Youth groups that would begin a discussion about anti-racism. Talking about racism is very tough and this resource helps ask the right questions.

We assume that you as a facilitator are also learning about anti-racism so don’t feel that you are the one who has to have all the answers. You don’t have to follow these questions exactly; they are just a starting point for you. Feel free to let the conversation go in different directions and let the group ask questions. If you have any troubles we here at the youth office are here to assist and are more than willing to take consulting calls about dealing with racism. Keep in mind that this isn’t the final version of this resource; we hope to be able to add more detail in the future. A final version should be available through the Youth Office by the end of summer 2000. Remember the most important step in the first one. Use the following suggested program format for all the movies (see below).

YRUU Youth Office 25 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108
(617)742-2100 x352 or x351
The People who made this resource happen include Christine Murphy, Robette Dias, Duncan Metcalfe, Jen Harrison, Nathan Staples, and Matthew Riederer

Program Format
Opening Words
Read Movie Description
Things to Think About
Watch Video
Discussion
Closing Words

American History X
Description/Overview: American History X is a deeply disturbing and brutally violent film about the white skinhead movement in contemporary United States culture. Not only does this film depict the most disturbing and flagrant aspects of racism, but it also shows how close hate movements are to mainstream, middle-class, white Americans.

A fictional story told through the eyes of a youth who is being recruited in the white power movement, this film shows how racial hatred is part of American culture. It also shows the lengths to which white people will go to maintain their privilege, particularly when they feel their institutional and cultural dominance being encroached upon.

American History X is also an important film because, if examined closely, it shows the interconnection of oppressions. The culture that allows for racial hatred also enforces gender roles and requires violence to enforce all aspects of its hierarchy. The same world-view that allows for the devaluation of people based on skin color requires a culture of dominance that permeates all aspects of life.

Caution: This film comes with a serious caution to the facilitator. It is profoundly violent and disturbing. There are a number of scenes that depict gruesome murders in detail. There is a rape scene. The language is angry and hateful. The whole movie will feel like an assault on your senses. However, it is worth seeing. It is well done and meaningful. The violence is not gratuitous, but rather it is used to make the viewer understand a disturbing piece of reality. This film asks us as Unitarian Universalists to grapple with the theological concepts of hate and evil as they are embodied in our world today. Please make sure that you provide the pastoral resources and support necessary to deal with this kind of subject matter.

Things to Think About: As you are watching the movie try to think about institutional racism, how are people of color treated differently? (for example prison, school, etc.)

Discussion Questions

1. How do you feel right now?
2. What emotions has this film evoked in you?
3. Where do you think these feelings come from?
4. What personal experiences does the film bring to mind?
5. What do you think this film says about racism in the United States today?
6. How is racism different today than it was thirty years ago, before the Civil Rights movement?
7. Do you think white people have access to more power and privilege than people of color do in the United States? Why do you think that?
8. What do you think of affirmative action programs and other efforts to combat institutional racism?
9. What and/or whom could you relate to in the film? How are these attitudes related to attitudes toward people of color in this movie?
10. Do you know people with racist views?
11. What do you do when you hear racist remarks?
12. Are there organized hate groups in your community?
13. How does your congregation respond to these groups?
14. Do you think we can end racism in America? How?

Mi Familia
Overview/Description: Mi Familia is the story of the Sanchez family’s experience of life in the United States. Spanning three generations, this film shows the various relationships that the family members have toward their cultural identities and their desire to become "Americans."

This film also deals with the systemic oppression that people of color, specifically Mexican Americans, face in the United States. Set in East Los Angeles from 1920 to the present, Mi Familia traces the immigration policies, police brutality, and cultural ostracism that mark the experiences of the Sanchez family.

In "Mi Familia," we find a complex understanding of how identity and systemic oppression shape individual and community life. The first generation of the Sanchez family which emigrates from Mexico, desires both to hold on to its cultural traditions and values, and succeed in the American Dream. The second generation finds that this ideal is impossible. The children of the Sanchez family are faced with the choice of becoming either Mexican or American (which means Anglo) in their identities, while the outside institutions continue to define them.

Things to Think About: All people who immigrate to the United States face these issues to a certain degree. While watching this movie, think about your own family's heritage(s) and its history in America.

Discussion Questions

1. What is your cultural heritage? What does that mean to you?
2. Have members of your own family faced cultural assimilation here in the United States? How did your family deal with that assimilation? What was their means of survival? What did you gain and what did you lose through that means of survival?
3. What are some examples of institutional racism in this movie? What are some examples of cultural racism in this movie? How do these examples affect the Sanchez family?
4. What do you think are the defining characteristics of American Anglo culture? What part of the Sanchez’s family’s culture does not fit with American Anglo culture? What part does?
5. What makes it difficult for the Sanchez family to assimilate into American Anglo culture? Why do some of the children resist assimilating? What is the experience like for those who do assimilate?

SLAM
Overview/Description: SLAM portrays the experience of a young African American man caught in the Washington, DC correctional system. Set in a real prison, using real convicts as supporting cast, SLAM explores the institutional, cultural and internalized aspects of racism in a current urban African American community. SLAM also explores the use of poetry as a way towards liberation through consciousness and community building.

Things to Think About: Think about the way the prisoners are treated, and the way they treat each other: why do you think this is? (Keep in mind that most of the actors in the prison are actual inmates.) Also think about the power that words and poetry have.

Discussion Questions

1. What are some examples of institutional racism in this movie? What are some examples of cultural racism in this movie?
2. What are some examples of internalized racism in this move? How do these examples affect Ray and Lauren and the communities that they live in?
3. In the Civil Rights movement, white people and African Americans often worked together on systemic issues such as segregation and voting rights. In the Black Power movement, however, African Americans often asked for a separate space so that they could work on issues that dealt with internalized racism and rebuilding their communities. How do you feel about this need for people of color to have a separate space to work on internalized issues? How can white people support people of color in their community building? Do white people need to get together and talk about their own issues around racism?
4. What implications does this movie have for white anti-racists?
5. When in this film do white people who want to make change have the most power to do so?
6. What things could your congregation do to support Ray and Lauren and their community? How would you go about doing this?
7. What power did poetry have in the movie, and how did it help Ray through his experiences? How has art helped you survive through difficult times? Can you relate his use of poetry to other situations you’ve been involved in or know about?

Smoke Signals
Overview/Description: Smoke Signals, written by Coeur D'Alene Sherman Alexie, directed by Cheyenne/Arapaho Chris Eyre and starring American Indians, is structured as a picturesque "road movie." Based on Alexie's short story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Smoke Signals depicts a journey from the Coeur D'Alene reservation in Idaho to Phoenix by two teen-aged Indians, Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) and Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams). Victor's father, Arnold (Gary Farmer), has just died and Victor is sent to return his ashes to the reservation. Thomas, whom Victor regards as something of a pest, pleads to be taken along. Their relation to each other and to Victor's dead father supplies the central dramatic impulse for the film.

Much of the film's power has to do with its honesty, both in the way the characters are depicted and also in its use of on-location filming at the Coeur D'Alene reservation which, like most reservations, is in the middle of nowhere. It is a mixture of rugged mountainous landscape with meager ramshackle housing and tacky general stores run by whites. Director Chris Eyre has found a way to capture both aspects of the reservation, so the audience understands both the lingering attraction of the reservation and what drives its inhabitants to desperation.

Things to Think About: Think about the troubles that Victor and Thomas have travelling across the country: why is this? Would you have this same problems?

Discussion Questions

1. Smoke Signals is the first commercially successful film in which the writer, director, actors and crew are almost exclusively Native American persons. Why do you think this is important to the Native American community?
2. Discuss how the representations of Indian people in Smoke Signals differs from "Hollywood" style movies: include the old "Cowboys and Indians" western genre as well as more contemporary films such as Dances with Wolves and Geronimo"in your analysis.
3. Arnold (Victor's dad) goes through a process of "disappearing" in which he slowly disappears from his family, his community, and eventually from the world. Discuss this "disappearing" and how it relates to the invisibility of Indian people in contemporary society.
4. Storytelling plays an important role in Native American communities, also to the film's plot. What is the importance of story telling in Smoke Signals?
5. Discuss the relationship between Victor and Thomas as it relates to Thomas's role as the film's primary storyteller.
6. How does the relationship between Victor and Thomas illustrate the tension between Native American traditional cultural values and contemporary realities?
7. The reality of Indian people in contemporary U.S. society is part of the consciousness of the characters in Smoke Signals. For example, Victor and Thomas refer to the U.S. as a foreign country, Arnold and Victor's basketball game against the Jesuits is described as the first time the Indians have won since Columbus, etc. Discuss the interactions Victor and Thomas have with members of the dominant society (the white couple in the car accident and the police officer). What stereotypes are operating?
8. What expectations do the various characters have based on the way Indian people are stereotyped?
9. What do you make of the soliloquy at the end of the movie? What are the sins of our fathers which must be forgiven?
10. Where do you see the U.S. government as an occupying force in the movie?
11. What do the characters mean by "practice vanishing"?
12. How do Victor and Thomas treat their parents?
13. What does Thomas mean when he said they "plea bargain" it down to being an Indian in the 20th century? What do you think is meant by "The Cowboys always win"?
14. What would you have done if you had overheard the two guys on the bus kick out Victor and Thomas from their seats?
15. How do Victor and Thomas deal with their environment?

Additional Observations for You to Think About

• Seeing the U.S. as a foreign country
• Basketball game, Jesuits against the Indians, Indians won for the first time since Columbus
• Indians are invisible in U.S. society, use of culture as a way to destroy communities, cultural annihilation
• In order for Anglos to become "American," Indians had to disappear, one way or another
• Perception in Southwest that there was no one living on the land before the Anglos arrived; myths about Basque shepherds being first inhabitants
• Alcoholism in Native American communities is related to racism; alcohol introduced to Native communities as a way to destroy them as an intentional strategy.
• Added stereotype around Indian gaming
• Importance of the community