ISU Post #3

In the documentary , "A Conversation About Growing Up Black" , it describes the issues in which young black men experienced throughout their lives in America. The black men interviewed  talk about many racist situations in which they had come across and the fact that the racist actions were extremely repetitive. They talked about the definition of racism to them and examples of it. For instance, a boy in the video named Shaquille shared his story of a situation. He explained that he once had to cross the street because he didn't want to scare the white lady that was on the street.Though this situation is small it still had strong racial content involved.Others in the documentary mentioned situations involving police officers and how they've been stopped for no apparent reasons while other white people were walking with them. They mention several issues in which they found to be really discriminating and racist that now have become a daily thing for them to come across.

This documentary relates to the novel , The Help because of the major racial issues that the characters in the novel and documentary face. Towards the end of the novel many of the characters such as Aibileen and Minny shared their experiences and everyday lives as The Help .They expressed their feelings towards their race being oppressed by the white people. By having their stories shared Miss Skeeter, a white girl, wrote a book about many situations to raise more awareness about this issue of discrimination.  This is similar to the documentary since the characters featured in the documentary also share their thoughts and experiences to their viewers. Both the characters face similar problems of oppression and want to do something about it and show people that racism exists. They live their lives by being hatred due to their race and find it extremely wrong.

Both the novels expressed strong ways in which certain races are being oppressed. They show how much of an extent of this kind of act they face, their reactions, and how they feel towards it. The documentary shows that racism still exists in present time and in one of the most "powerful" countries in the world. The novel shows the slow change of racist acts and the awareness it reaches towards the end. The question then remains, why do so many black people still experience discrimination today after so much progress in civil rights reform in the last four decades (especially in America) ?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/opinion/a-conversation-about-growing-up-black.html?_r=0