Why Is The Butler Still Relevant Today

The movie, The Butler, demonstrates the magnitude of change that can take place in one person’s lifetime. It is easy to forget how it was not so long ago that the U.S. was a starkly different place in terms of racial equality. That is not to say that we are truly equal yet, but only that the majority of the population has progressed past the point of such terrible actions as seen in the movie. I think that the movie brings up a lot of points, perhaps subtly, that are still relevant today.
Some of the more significant events from the civil rights movement as seen in the movie include; the start of the lunch counter sit-ins, the desegregation of schools, the death of Martin Luther King Jr., and the rise of the black panther movement. These events,

The movie also makes a point to repeat that Cecil must wear “two faces” in order to survive, one that white people will accept or like, and one that is their natural face or personality. It is a survival tactic fit for a world in which he is not protected by the law. Cecil’s interactions with the various presidents he has worked for, and his other white employers, demonstrates the way white Americans wish to view racial issues in the U.S.; that everything is fine (until it isn’t). Cecil’s position in the White House offers him the chance to give the presidents he’s worked for a different view of African Americans, contrary to the stereotypes prevalent in American history. This point is made in the movie by Martin Luther King Jr. when Cecil’s son, Louis, is ashamed of his father’s profession. I think the contrasting attitudes of Cecil and Louis towards politics and the issues of civil rights depict the different ways in which racial equality can be fought for in this country. Louis is outright protesting the treatment of African Americans as a whole, and later attempts to run for