The purpose of this page is to generate ideas about racial differences and to express these thougthts on the message board.
There are ten different movies on this page, each has a brief summary of the film and a excerpt dialogue from the movie. Read through the summary and the discussion questions, then click on the title of the movie and there is a space where the answers can be posted.
This quote is taken from Snow Falling on Cedars, and is a dialogue between a Japanese American mother and daughter living the Northwest during World War II. They have just had their father relocated to a labor camp, and are in the midst of racial turmoil.
Mother: The hajukin (whites),They are no better than animals!
Daughter: Not all of them.
Mother: How would you know?
Daughter: I live here among them. So do you!
Mother: You speak with great assurance. The words fly from your mouth. I don't care what you say.
Daughter: Do you hear me? I don't want to be Japanese!
Discussion Questions:
1. Has there ever been a time where you had wished for a heritage different that your own?
2. Does being born into a country and living amongst it’s citizens constitute a heritage to that country?
3. In times of racial oppression, would you have the will to reject your own family’s heritage? What kind of person does this, a weak one or a strong one? More importantly, what does this say about the oppressive situation as a whole?
4. Has there been other situations in American recent history where racial biases of the media or the majority have led people to question their heritage, or downplay the pride of their race?
5. Why is it important present films on the racial injustices of the past? Is it disrespectful to relive such hate through film, or is it important to reopen such wounds to educate and inform each generation?
Instead of a quote from this movies, we leave you with just the movie images:
Discussion Questions:
1. What stereotype is being addressed in these movie posters?
2. How do these movie posters make you feel?
3. What affect do you think these movie posters have on the stereotype it is portraying?
4. What can you do to change this stereotype?
Guess who's Coming to Dinner (1967) is about a young couple, a black man and a white woman, who fall in love and are going to her parents house to announce their engagement. The movie focuses on the trials of inter-racial relationships during this time. At the end of the movie, the woman's father gave this speech:
Matt Drayton: Now Mr. Prentice, clearly a most reasonable man, says he has no wish to offend me but wants to know if I'm some kind of a *nut*. And Mrs. Prentice says that like her husband I'm a burned-out old shell of a man who cannot even remember what it's like to love a woman the way her son loves my daughter. And strange as it seems, that's the first statement made to me all day with which I am prepared to take issue… cause I think you're wrong, you're as wrong as you can be. I admit that I hadn't considered it, hadn't even thought about it, but I know exactly how he feels about her and there is nothing, absolutely nothing that you son feels for my daughter that I didn't feel for Christina. Old- yes. Burned-out- certainly, but I can tell you the memories are still there- clear, intact, indestructible, and they'll be there if I live to be 110. Where John made his mistake I think was in attaching so much importance to what her mother and I might think… because in the final analysis it doesn't matter a damn what we think. The only thing that matters is what they feel, and how much they feel, for each other. And if it's half of what we felt- that's everything. As for you two and the problems you're going to have, they seem almost unimaginable, but you'll have no problem with me, and I think when Christina and I and your mother have some time to work on him you'll have no problem with your father, John. But you do know, I'm sure you know, what you're up against. There'll be 100 million people right here in this country who will be shocked and offended and appalled and the two of you will just have to ride that out, maybe every day for the rest of your lives. You could try to ignore those people, or you could feel sorry for them and for their prejudice and their bigotry and their blind hatred and stupid fears, but where necessary you'll just have to cling tight to each other and say "screw all those people"! Anybody could make a case, a hell of a good case, against your getting married. The arguments are so obvious that nobody has to make them. But you're two wonderful people who happened to fall in love and happened to have a pigmentation problem, and I think that now, no matter what kind of a case some bastard could make against your getting married, there would be only one thing worse, and that would be if – knowing what you two are and knowing what you two have and knowing what you two feel- you didn't get married. Well, Tillie, when the hell are we gonna get some dinner?
Discussion Questions:
This movie is about four Chinese women who are dealing with their relationships with their mothers, and these daughters must adapt to their American culture as well, being Chinese-American. This dialogue is the beginning narrative.
Jing-Mei 'June' Woo: [opening naration] The old woman remembered a swan she had bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum. "This bird", boasted the market vendor, "was once a duck that stretched its neck in hopes of becoming a goose. And now look, it is too beautiful to eat!" Then the woman and the swan sailed across an ocean many thousands of lei wide, stretching their necks toward America. On her journey, she cooed to the swan, "In America, I will have a daughter just like me. But over there, nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husbands belch. Over there, nobody will look down on her because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there, she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow. She will know my meaning because I will give her this swan, a creature that became more than what was hoped for." But when she arrived in the new country the immigration officials pulled the swan away from her, leaving the woman fluttering her arms and with only one swan feather for a memory. For a long time now, the women had wanted to give her daughter the single swan feather and tell her; "This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions."
Discussion Questions:
How does this narrative evoke your feelings about stereotypes?
How would you go about trying to change this stereotype?
Better Luck Tomorrow is about a group of over-achieving Asian-American students who decide to change their fate and get involved in extra-curricular activities of crime. This dialogue presented is between two Asian-Americans.
Steve Choe: So this is where the Asians hang out?
Daric Loo: Yeah, the library's closed.
Discussion Questions:
The movie Glory takes place during the US Civil War. The movie highlights the first all black volunteer company and the racial differences within war. The dialogue below is between two black men, one the Corporal. and the other a member of the company. Trip feels that Cpl. Thomas Searles is just working for the “white man” and not being true to himself because of it.
Trip: Hey, yo, nigger, that's my spot, see.
Cpl. Thomas Searles: If you don't mind, there's more sufficient reading light here.
Trip: Oooh, I like it when niggers talk good as white folks!
Cpl. Thomas Searles: I'd be happy to teach you.
Trip: Now, listen here, I ain't got nothin' to learn from no house nigger, you hear?
Cpl. Thomas Searles: I am a free man!
Trip: Oh, really? Then move your free black ass out my spot, see!
Discussion Questions:
Below are two pieces of dialogue from the movie American History X. This movie is about two Neo-Nazi brothers. The older brother goes to jail for a crime against minorities and realizes his beliefs are wrong. When he comes home from jail, he makes it his duty to help his younger brother realize the same thing. The dialogues below are from the older brother before his reform:
Dialogue #1:
Curtis: [offscreen, to another skinhead] Hey, man, want a toke?
Derek Vinyard: Curtis, what are you doing? Weed is for niggers. You put that away right now.
Dialogue #2:
Derek Vinyard: We're so hung up on this notion that we have some obligation to help the struggling black man, you know. Cut him some slack until he can overcome these historical injustices. It's crap. I mean, Christ, Lincoln freed the slaves, like, what? 130 years ago. How long does it take to get your act together?
Discussion Questions:
This dialogue comes from the movie Smoke Signals (1998) which is about two Indians on a journey to collect one’s father’s possessions who has just passed away. In this dialogue, the two Indians are speaking about going outside the reservation and things they will need to do when they are around “White Man.”
Victor Joseph: You gotta look mean or people won't respect you. White people will run all over you if you don't look mean. You gotta look like a warrior! You gotta look like you just came back from killing a buffalo!
Thomas Builds-the-Fire: But our tribe never hunted buffalo – we were fishermen.
Victor Joseph: What! You want to look like you just came back from catching a fish? This ain't "Dances With Salmon" you know!
Discussion Questions:
This is a monologue from Monty Brogan, played by Edward Norton in the movie 25th Hour (2002). This is a movie about a man’s last day before he is sent to prison for drugs. In this monologue, he sits in front of a mirror and decides to take out his aggression. This is what he has to say:
[Monty standing in the men's bathroom talking to himself in the mirror]
Monty Brogan: Fuck me? Fuck you! Fuck you and this whole city and everyone in it. Fuck the panhandlers, grubbing for money, and smiling at me behind my back. Fuck the squeegee men dirtying up the clean windshield of my car. Get a fucking job! Fuck the Sikhs and the Pakistanis bombing down the avenues in decrepit cabs, curry steaming out their pores, stinking up my day. Terrorists in fucking training. SLOW THE FUCK DOWN! Fuck the Chelsea boys with their waxed chests and pumped up biceps. Going down on each other in my parks and on my piers, jingling their dicks on my Channel 35. Fuck the Korean grocers with their pyramids of overpriced fruit and their tulips and roses wrapped in plastic. Ten years in the country, still no speaky English? Fuck the Russians in Brighton Beach. Mobster thugs sitting in cafés, sipping tea in little glasses, sugar cubes between their teeth. Wheelin' and dealin' and schemin'. Go back where you fucking came from! Fuck the black-hatted Hasidim, strolling up and down 47th street in their dirty gabardine with their dandruff. Selling South African apartheid diamonds! Fuck the Wall Street brokers. Self-styled masters of the universe. Michael Douglas, Gordon Gecko wannabe mother fuckers, figuring out new ways to rob hard working people blind. Send those Enron assholes to jail for FUCKING LIFE! You think Bush and Cheney didn't know about that shit? Give me a fucking break! Tyco! Worldcom! Fuck the Puerto Ricans. 20 to a car, swelling up the welfare rolls, worst fuckin' parade in the city. And don't even get me started on the Dom-in-i-cans, 'cause they make the Puerto Ricans look good. Fuck the Bensonhurst Italians with their pomaded hair, their nylon warm-up suits, their St. Anthony medallions, swinging their, Jason Giambi, Louisville slugger, baseball bats, trying to audition for the Sopranos. Fuck the Upper East Side wives with their Hermes scarves and their fifty-dollar Balducci artichokes. Overfed faces getting pulled and lifted and stretched, all taut and shiny. You're not fooling anybody, sweetheart! Fuck the uptown brothers. They never pass the ball, they don't want to play defense, they take fives steps on every lay-up to the hoop. And then they want to turn around and blame everything on the white man. Slavery ended one hundred and thirty seven years ago. Move the fuck on! Fuck the corrupt cops with their anus violating plungers and their 41 shots, standing behind a blue wall of silence. You betray our trust! Fuck the priests who put their hands down some innocent child's pants. Fuck the church that protects them, delivering us into evil. And while you're at it, fuck JC! He got off easy! A day on the cross, a weekend in hell, and all the hallelujahs of the legioned angels for eternity! Try seven years in fuckin' Otisville, J! Fuck Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and backward-ass, cave-dwelling, fundamentalist assholes everywhere. On the names of innocent thousands murdered, I pray you spend the rest of eternity with your seventy-two whores roasting in a jet-fueled fire in hell. You towel headed camel jockeys can kiss my royal Irish ass!
Discussion Questions:
Racial Difference in Movies 