For those of you who opted out of the viewing of The Black Power Mixtape, you were denied the opportunity to view the Civil Rights and, redundantly, the Black Power Movement through the unbiased eyes of those who were not American. Through the eyes of the Swedish, it is easier to see what America would normally have left out of their news. It is harsh, but, oftentimes, the American news only shows its audience what said news wants them to see. The Swedish, who compiled the footage shown in the movie, have no such qualms as it would not make their country look any worse for wear. They were more “free” to show whatever it was that interested them.
The movie is loosely strung together in a series of segments broken down by years ranging from 1967 to 1975. Although each segment cannot focus on each of the important events of the year, the film focuses on a variety of subjects important to the year. Here, my ignorance was made note of as many of the events and people spoken about in the movie were unknown to me before its showing. For instance, the film opened by showing various speeches given by Stokely Carmichael in 1967 concerning his views on Black Power and the Civil Rights Movement. Here, Carmichael was asked about Dr. Martian Luther King Jr. and whether or not he agreed with his peaceful protesting methods. Carmichael remarked that, while he agreed with and admired what Dr. King was doing, he simply did not have the patience to wait for the “white man” to do something about it. He is famously quoted saying that the nonviolent works of Dr. King would only work if the opponent of the protesting had a “conscience. The American government has none.”
The film also extensively covered the trial and incarceration of Angela Davis. Among this footage and coverage included past and present interviews from Davis concerning her stance and opinions about the situation in American in the late 1960s and early 1970s. According to the film, a young African American boy shot and killed a judge and several others were killed in the gunfire that resulted from the event and the boy was then arrested. The gun he used to commit the shooting was said to be owned by Angela Davis herself and was then arrested and charged with being an accessory to murder. The whole premise for this case seems ludicrous, but it was considered a credible cause to arrest Davis. To me, however, this seemed like an excuse to arrest Davis and to avoid her from “sparking any more trouble.” She was, luckily, found not guilty in front of a jury of her “peers.”
The most enlightening component of the film, in my opinion, would be the section concerning the increasing drug problem among African Americans and other poverty stricken people in the early 1970s. Most of the history concerning this time period is focused on the Civil Rights movements, segregation, lynching and other cruel treatments of blacks, but it never focused on the problem people dealt with. Cocaine, marijuana, and heroin, drugs still vastly popular today, broke out in the early 1970s and devastated the lives of thousands of African Americans and other poor people. One of the most heartbreaking points made in this section was during an interview with a young adult woman. She told the interviewer how she often stole from her mother and was eventually forced to prostitute herself in order to supply the money needed to “get her fix.” To me, it explains one of the largest problems in our country today. The media, and often political figures, only focus on one of the bigger issues and push the rest to the back burner. Yes, the civil rights of African Americans was extremely important, but it also eclipsed many of the other important issues that would have vastly helped blacks and the rest of poor America during the time.
There were many enlightening points of the video, and it would be a bit too lengthy for me to mention them all in one post. The aforementioned points, however, are those I remembered most and thought were worth mentioning. I would recommend the film to anyone going to study African American history or even the history of America during this time period.
I really hate that I didnt get the opportunity to share in this with everyone else. I feel like I could have benefited me to see these events through the eyes of someone else. Even as we learn about the Civil rights movement in high school and even college, we normally learn about the same events everytime. I’m positive that there were many aspects of these movements that will never see the light of day> I understand that every single little detail can’t be covered but some important topic get overlooked too often.
There is just a lot you were able to see that American TV surely would not have shown to the public. The footage was raw and sometimes difficult to watch, but it is our history and therefore necessary that we understand it. If we do not see what America has done in the past to African Americans, Japanese Americans, and Native Americans, we will not learn and therefore are more likely to repeat these mistakes with other communities like the impoverished or gay and lesbian community.
I did not mention it in my summary, but this film also allowed me to see how other countries viewed America at this time. At one point, we see a bus full of tourists, presumably from Sweden, traveling the streets of New York. When they approach Harlem, the tour guide asks his costumers not to venture into this part of town for it is one of the most dangerous. He stated that even the “better,” for it was the only word he could think of, blacks do not go into this part of town because of the dangers. These people had seen Americans treat this neighborhood as dangerous; if the Americans were afraid of this part of their own city, it was definitely not safe for tourists carrying a good amount of cash. It just seems ludicrous to me that a neighborhood was so bad, had such a bad reputation, that tour guides had to tell their costumers not to go there.
But, the film also showed us the “little people” who were fighting back against segregation and the racism and violence they were faced with. Like you said, our text books and history classes will not show us these people. The film shows us a man who owns an African American bookstore. In it, we saw familiar titles such as A Raisin in the Sun, Native Sun, and Coming of Age in Mississippi. I, for one, thought it was amazing that this man was courageous enough to keep a shop like this open right where anyone would have access to it. You know that he had to have been threatened at some point or another, but he still kept his store open. History does not typically show us men like this.
If you still want to see it, it is streaming on Netflix or you could have the DVD sent straight to your house.
I really did enjoy the film. Although there were difficult parts to watch, it was very informative and interesting because of the Swedish point of view. Since the film was solely an outsiders POV, it depicted a part of American society with raw…honesty? If other countries outside the Us have that kind of POV, then it should be humbling to Americans who have tried to ignore the treatment of African Americans. We see things that we would not have been privy to in our own history books, and on the news.
I was intrigued by the man with the bookstore, and even moreso when I recognized some books we had read in class. His personal convictions were powerful – and I loved that he was taking a stand for educating people through reading.
Overall, I enjoyed watching the film and I learned much from it. My opinions concerning past events, particularly the civil rights movement, have been affected, and changed. I have learned a lot from the various novels, films, poems we have read/seen and I have really enjoyed the process of learning as well in this class.