The horrible crimes against the Black community have once again spurred people to take action and fight for justice in the Black Lives Matter movement. Those of us who are not Black are looking for ways to educate ourselves on the topic of anti-racism, white privilege and how to become better advocates. Though we will never fully understand the struggle Black people face daily, we can develop empathy by researching our past and learning how to do better.
Here are nine documentaries about Black history that will help to educate you on this injustice and why the Black Lives Matter movement is still an ongoing battle.
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13th
13th is an Oscar-nominated documentary directed by Ava Duvernay (Selma and When They See Us). It challenges audiences to see the criminal justice system and mass incarceration for what it really is: modern-day slavery. The provocative film focuses on racial inequality in the United States, emphasizing the notion that the way we use incarceration is a way to control Black and Brown people. It's essentially slavery in disguise. 13th also points out the fact that not every person in prison is a criminal, and that not every crime committed is equal, however, the U.S. continues to fill its prisons with a disproportionate amount of Black and Brown people.
The Central Park Five
The Central Park Five is the story of five young men -- three of them African American and two of them Hispanic American--who were wrongly incarcerated for the assault and rape of a woman named Trisha Meili in Central Park. While there was no matching DNA nor congruent statements from any of the five boys, they were convicted of assault and other charges. These boys--Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana Jr., Korey Wise, and Yusef Salaam--were only teenagers. Their ages ranged 14-16, with the 16-year-old (Korey Wise) being tried and charged as an adult. They spent 6-13 years in prison, when finally a serial rapist came forward and admitted to the crime. Only then were The Five declared innocent and set free.
This documentary takes a hard look at the criminal justice system in the United States and how racism creates an unfair disadvantage within this system towards Black and Brown people. Because of racial prejudice, the officers interrogating the boys just assumed they had committed the crime, and pressured them to plead guilty. The Central Park Five can hopefully teach us to examine our own prejudice and take a stand for the justice system to actually become just.
The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha P. Johnson was an LGBTQ+ activist. A Black trans woman herself, she was a prominent figure in the Stonewall Riots. Because she was an outspoken activist in a time of great oppression of the LGBTQ+ community, her death was speculated to be a hate crime murder, though the official document read "suicide." The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson investigates further into her cause of death, highlighting the struggles that LGBTQ+ people of color faced. It also pays homage to the joy that Marsha P. Johnson brought to many people, her brave activism, her contribution to the LGBTQ+ movement, and the way she lived her life without the shame that larger society poured onto her.
I Am Not Your Negro
"You don't what's happening on the other side of the wall because you don't want to know." These relevant and powerful words were spoken by James Baldwin in I Am Not Your Negro. The documentary explores the history of Black oppression in America, from the early ages of slavery, to the Civil Rights Movement of Martin Luther King, Jr., to the current Black Lives Matter movement. The movie is largely centered around writer and activist James Baldwin's unfinished manuscript, Remember this House. His manuscript tells of the history of America's racism towards Black people. It also reveals Baldwin's own observations and perspectives as a Black man living during the Civil Rights Movement in his archived interviews. (It is also worth noting that Baldwin wrote the novel If Beale Street Could Talk, which was later adapted into a movie.) This documentary is a wake-up call to Americans, specifically those who are not Black.
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is about the organized party that rose in response to the police brutality and White supremacy during the 1960s. They exercised their Constitutional "Right to Bear Arms," and formed their own kind of police force, since the government's police were not protecting them as they should have -- and, in fact, were attacking them. Armed with guns and ready to defend, the Black Panther Party conveyed that Black people would not succumb to the horrible racism infested within America and would fight for justice. The documentary features archived footage from this era depicting police brutality, Black protests, and the Black Panthers standing up against injustice and oppression. It also features interviews with former Panthers and FBI agents.
Dark Girls
Dark Girls explores the prejudice against darker-skinned women, particularly African American women. The correct term for this kind of prejudice is "colorism." The documentary reveals how colorism began with racism, and has grown over the years to divide Black people against each other, valuing the lighter-skinned ones over the darker-skinned ones. This is a product of our culture's beauty standards, which are largely based on thin white women. It depicts heartbreaking interviews of Black girls telling of how they would pour bleach into their bathtubs in hopes of lightening their skin. Dark Girls is an eye-opening documentary about the subtleties of internalized racism in the form of colorism and how it stems from white beauty standards.
LA 92
LA 92 is a documentary entirely consisting of archival footage of the civil unrest that arose out of the brutal police beating of Rodney King. The documentary is jarring and inciting, and opens your eyes to the horrors of police brutality, racism, privilege and the United States' unfair judicial system. It reveals the undeniable injustice that Black people had to endure, and still have to endure today.
Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story
We're all familiar with the phrase, "Black Lives Matter," but it's important to remember the person who started it. That person was Trayvon Martin, a young African American boy who was killed George Zimmerman. Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story is a six-episode docuseries that looks back on the devastating murder of Martin and the legacy he left behind. This documentary educates on the fatal effects of racial profiling, and the origins of the Black Lives Matter movement that is still fought for today.
Whose Streets?
"Hands up, don't shoot!" is a common phrase that can be heard among the cries of protesters today. Whose Streets? recalls the tragic death of Michael Brown, in which that phrase originated during the protests that followed. The uprisings in Ferguson led to a nation-wide protest, where Black people all across America voiced their anger and hurt. Footage of the Ferguson protests is shown, along with interviews with Black people that reveal the inhumanity with which their communities are treated and the realities of police brutality.