White Like Me Essay

Name: Ho Wang Chung Frankie

Student id: 4053574

Course: LCE 1010_15

Critical movie review: White Like Me

White Like Me is a documentary movie about racism in America produced in 2013 directed by Scott Morris.

This documentary is set out to look into race and racism in the US in the perspectives of whiteness and white privilege through an anti-racist educator and writer Tim Wise’s viewpoint. In the beginning his personal story reveals how he came to see the world and figured out that race mattered at a very young age as he was sent to a preschool program at a historically black college, where people at school were mostly black. Then, through the example of the racial experiment Black Like Me Tim explains that to ask what it is like to be black

is like to ask what it is to be white. What follows next is the idea of being white has been far easier than being not white considering the very first law, the history of the US and the kind of systematic white privilege and race-based favoritism. What is more is that racial equality still exists with the dominant group rarely even thinking about these matters, though claiming that it has been a post-racial society with the election of President Barack Obama. The fact is that racial bias nowadays still affects how white people view others. The real problem with racism is not talking about it too much as if people did not bring it up, nobody would know anything about racism and actually implicit attitudes affect how people think of white and black people, showing a preference for whites over blacks by linking negative words and traits like “evil character” or “failure” with the faces of black Americans. In the end, here it goes the question, “should we be color conscious or color blind?”
This is a must-watch movie if you want to understand how racism and race came into being in the US through the history of white people versus black people.

The reason for recommending the movie is that the movie effectively arouses people’s awareness that race and racism do matter to them whether they are white, black, brown or yellow people. First of all, race and racism are still around the world even if most people have an ideology, believing that racism is long gone. The truth, however, is not what it seems to be. Taking the election of Barack Obama as an example, which brings people into a post-racial thinking, some glaring facts are actually being ignored. White Like Me precisely picks up the actual election results showing that although Obama won the popular vote solidly, it was not noticed by many that he lost the white vote by a big margin. The most significant case is that he only received 10% of the white vote in Southern states. Of course it does not mean that all whites voted against him just because he was black but undoubtedly it was the reason for some, clearly showing that racism still exists in which people should not ignore. Second, confronting the problems of race and racism is vital as the consequences can be very serious. Surely if people try to ignore and deny the history and decide not to talk too much about racism to avoid it, they do not actually help improve but worsen the situation. Besides, it is happening. Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American, was shot to dead in 2012 by George Zimmerman, a white neighborhood watch volunteer. No sooner had Zimmerman been acquitted of second-degree murder in 2013 than a large scale of protests in over a hundred cities broke out. Racism indeed causes casualties and widens the gap between different races. People just cannot laugh it off. Last but not least, if there are solutions towards racism, people will know they are able to make changes to relieve the problems of racism. As mentioned by

Tim Wise in the on-topic movie, one of the ways is to be color conscious, not color blind. People cannot drop their hyphen. It is everyone’s responsibility to see each other as they are to see the disparity, address and resolve it. Go grab your seat. Search this detailed and meaningful movie on YouTube. Perhaps grab a cup of coffee too. Lock yourself in and enjoy White Like Me. You will not regret it.
“White Like Me”
(http://documentaryaddict.com/white+like+me-13232-doc.html)