1. I watched Twilight all the way through and there were certain aspects of the film that I noticed. Some of them pertaining to the questions that were posted. One being that the silencing of the juror to me was like brushing truth under the rug. As if people don’t care much about what the truth actually is which at this point should not be as surprising as it was because we have seen recently, but really for centuries that some people only care for themselves and couldn’t care less about what the truth is, how lying hurts others, or whether or not the situation is just. The officers created their own narrative as to what was going on and that influenced the juror’s decision. This did not effect the one jurors view but as said before they silenced her to make themselves look better and to get the whole situation over with. This just goes to show that the justice system in this country is not just at all and that those who see problems within it are somehow hurting the system instead of trying to better it. It is the opposite. Something else that I thought was interesting was the hostility between the Korean merchants and the black communities that they were in. This is hostility is not new to me but seeing it portrayed in such a way intrigued me. There were already tensions between the two, but considering the riots the air thickened and that led to violence from both parties. The Korean merchants felt threatened by the riots and understandably so as buildings were being burned to the ground and stores were being looted. This along with their stereotypes about blacks led to them being violent out of fear that everything they worked so hard for would be burned to the ground. The blacks in these communities were angry. They were sick of injustice going unnoticed and they were sick of protesting peacefully. They needed to bring attention to this problem and they felt that violence was the way to do that.
Something else that was interesting to me was how Smith portrayed all the people from the interviews that she used. This highlights the privilege of people like Elaine Young who had the ability to leave the chaos and the guilt of people like the male juror who maybe didn’t at the time understand the magnitude of the situation until it was too late.
Both observations show a lack of knowledge about the situation the others were in. This can and often does lead to hostility between communities, but learning and listening to other groups of people’s situations can bring them together.
Maddie,
ReplyDeleteI loved your phrasing about brushing the truth under the rug. I think that the truth is something that is really ignored on a day to day basis and you connected that to the preexistent narratives of the officers. I also think that your observations around the justice system run parallel with Bryan Stevenson's work. I like how you took hostility and connected it to all different aspects of the film. It made me think how other aspects of the film could be connected to it and the similarities and differences of those connections.
Your point about the tension between the Korean and black communities is a good one. The more that I've read about both of these communities, the more I see their shared commonalities and struggles. But the same misconceptions and stereotypes that often characterize relationships between communities of color and white communities affected these groups as well. And none of this is likely made easier by the fact that the dominant culture (white culture) has misconceptions and stereotypes about BOTH groups and would probably much rather pit two marginalized groups against each other rather than recognize their own complicity in the situation.
ReplyDelete