Teaching Anti-Racism

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Film, Television, and Video

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`13th` ⁠
(100 min.)

Description: 2016 | The Netflix documentary by Ava DuVernay begins with former President Barack Obama, speaking of how the US holds five percent of the world’s population, but a staggering 25 percent of its prison inmates. Following this, a series of scholars, intellectuals, political figures and historians speak about the history of slavery, systems of racial control existent in the USA and how these have acted as a precursor to the current prison crisis in the US.

Keywords: Capitalism, Criminal Justice, History, Legacy of Slavery, Privilege/Precarity

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`16 Shots` ⁠
(99 min.)

Description: 2018 | Showtime documentary on the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald by Chicago police and the cover-up that followed. As the film shows, police initially said the shooting was justified, but pressure from activists and journalists forced police to release footage that sent the Chicago Police Department and local Chicago government officials into upheaval as the community demanded justice.

Keywords: Criminal Justice, History, Media, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`American Son`⁠
(90 min.)

Description: 2019 | Based on the play, this Netflix drama chronicles how time passes and tension mounts in a waiting room in a Florida police station as an estranged interracial couple awaits news of their missing teenage son. Throughout, the officer on duty gears his questions toward identifying a perp, not a victim.

Keywords: Criminal Justice, Intersectionality, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`Black 101`⁠
(2 min.)

Description: 2020 | This rendition of the poem ‘Black 101’ memorializes the innocent lives poet Frank X Walker says are terrorized by white rage. *Warning: Shows footage of Ahmaud Arbery murder.

Keywords: Criminal Justice, Education, Intersectionality, Legacy of Slavery, Privilege/Precarity

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`Black Feminism & the Movement for Black Lives: Barbara Smith, Reina Gossett, Charlene Carruthers`⁠
(51 min.)

Description: 2016 | A panel discussion on how “Black Feminism remains a foundational theory and practice guiding social justice movements for Black lives” featuring Charlene Carruthers, Reina Gossett and Barbara Smith.

Keywords: Capitalism, Criminal Justice, Education, Healthcare, History, Intersectionality, Legacy of Slavery, Media, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975`⁠
(92 min.)

Description: 2011 | Documentary directed by

Göran Olsson⁠

that examines the evolution of the

Black Power movement⁠

in American society from 1967 to 1975 as viewed through Swedish journalists and filmmakers. Footage features appearances by

Angela Davis⁠

Bobby Seale⁠

Huey P. Newton⁠

Eldridge Cleaver⁠

, and other activists, artists, and leaders central to the movement.

Keywords: Education, History, Intersectionality, Legacy of Slavery, Privilege/Precarity

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`Clemency`⁠
(112 min.)

Description: Years of carrying out death row executions have taken a toll on prison warden Bernadine Williams. As she prepares to execute another inmate, Bernadine must confront the psychological and emotional demons her job creates, ultimately connecting her to the man she is sanctioned to kill.

Keywords: Criminal Justice, History, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`Dear White People`⁠
(≈ 30 min./episode)

Description: 2017-2020 | An American comedy-drama television series on Netflix that follows several black college students at an Ivy League institution, touching on issues surrounding modern American race relations as the stduents navigate the daily slights and slippery politics of life in a space that's not nearly as "post-racial" as it thinks.

Keywords: Education, History, Intersectionality, Media, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`Fruitvale Station`⁠
(85 min.)

Description: 2013 | The film depicts the story of 22-year old Oscar Grant III and his experiences on the last day of his life before he was fatally shot by BART Police in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009. The movie begins with the actual footage of Oscar Grant and his friends being detained by the BART Police at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland on January 1, 2009, at 2:15 a.m. right before the shooting.

Keywords: Criminal Justice, Intersectionality, Privilege/Precarity

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`How Colorism Shapes Our Standards of Beauty`⁠
(10 min.)

Description: TedX Talk that explores the origins of colorism and the personal experiences of Chika Okoro while also illustrating the very real and material consequences of colorism.

Keywords: History, Intersectionality, Legacy of Slavery, Privilege/Precarity

Teaching Activity: “

Colorism and Skinclusion⁠

”

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`How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion`⁠
(18 min.)

Description: 2012 | This TEDxTimberlaneSchools talk by Peggy McIntosh unpacks the idea of privilege and connects it to the idea of compassion.

Keywords: Capitalism, Criminal Justice, Education, Healthcare, History, Intersectionality, Legacy of Slavery, Media, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`I Am Not Your Negro` ⁠
(93 min.)

Description: 2017 | Raoul Peck’s up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using James Baldwin’s original words (from the book he never finished, Remember This House) and archival material. The film connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter and confronts the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Keywords: Criminal Justice, Education, History, Intersectionality, Legacy of Slavery, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`If Beale Street Could Talk` ⁠
(119 min.)

Description: 2018 | Based on the novel by James Baldwin, If Beale Street Could Talk is the story of Tish, a newly engaged Harlem woman who races against the clock to prove her lover’s innocence while carrying their first-born child to term. It is a celebration of love told through the story of a young couple, their families and their lives.

Keywords: Criminal Justice, Education, History, Intersectionality, Privilege/Precarity

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`Just Mercy`⁠
(136 min.)

Description: 2019 | True story that follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson and his history-making battle for justice. In Alabama, Stevenson defends those wrongly condemned or who were not afforded proper representation. One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian, who, in 1987, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and the fact that the only testimony against him came from a criminal with a motive to lie.

Keywords: Criminal Justice, Education, History, Intersectionality, Legacy of Slavery, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`King In The Wilderness`⁠
(112 min.)

Description: 2018 | Documentary that chronicles the final chapters of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, revealing a conflicted leader who faced an onslaught of criticism from both sides of the political spectrum. While the Black Power movement saw his nonviolence as weakness, and President Lyndon B. Johnson saw his anti-Vietnam War speeches as irresponsible, Dr. King’s unyielding belief in peaceful protest became a testing point for a nation on the brink of chaos.

Keywords: Education, History, Intersectionality, Legacy of Slavery, Media, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`Let it Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992`⁠
(143 min.)

Description: 2017 | Netflix documentary by

John Ridley⁠

that examines the turbulent decade in Los Angeles after four police officers caught on tape beating Rodney King were acquitted. The film takes on the 1992 riots — which left more than 60 people dead and caused a reported billion dollars in damage — that happened immediately after, but puts that devastation into greater context, including the long-standing tensions with police that boiled over after the verdict.

Keywords: Capitalism, Criminal Justice, Education, History, Intersectionality, Legacy of Slavery, Media, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`Race the Floating Signifier`⁠
(63 min.)

Description: 1997 | In this video renowned cultural theorist Stuart Hall explains why race is a cultural, not biological, construct. [

Transcript⁠

]

Keywords: Media, Education, Capitalism

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`Rest In Power: The Trayvon Martin Story`⁠
(≈ 43 min./episode)

Description: 2018 | Paramount six-part documentary recounts the life and 2012 tragic death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black boy who was by killed by George Zimmerman in so-called self-defense...the polarizing trial of George Zimmerman and the rise of Black Lives Matter.

Keywords: Criminal Justice, History, Intersectionality, Legacy of Slavery, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland`⁠
(103 min.)

Description: 2018 | HBO series on Sandra Bland, a young black woman who was pulled over for a simple lane change and died inside a Texas prison,hanging in a cell, supposedly from suicide. But the circumstances and evidence are more than suspicious, and the documentary raises unsettling questions about what we don't know.

Keywords: Criminal Justice, History, Intersectionality, Media, Privilege/Precarity

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`See You Yesterday` ⁠
(87 min.)

Description: 2019 | High school best friends and science prodigies C.J. and Sebastian spend every spare minute working on their latest homemade invention: backpacks that enable time travel. But when C.J.'s older brother Calvin dies in a police shooting, the young duo decide to put their unfinished tech to use in a desperate bid to save Calvin. A sci-fi adventure grounded in familial love, cultural divides, and the universal urge to change the wrongs of the past.

Keywords: Criminal Justice, Education, Intersectionality, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`Selma`⁠
(128 min.)

Description: 2014 | In 1965, an Alabama city became the battleground in the fight for suffrage. Despite violent opposition, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his followers pressed forward on an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, and their efforts culminated in President Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Keywords: Education, History, Intersectionality, Legacy of Slavery, Media, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement`⁠
(41 min.)

Description: 2016 | An original documentary initially released on BET that chronicles the evolution of the Black Lives Matter movement through the first person accounts of local activists, protesters, scholars, journalists and others.

Keywords: Criminal Justice, Education, Healthcare, History, Intersectionality, Legacy of Slavery, Media, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution`⁠
(115 min.)

Description: 2016 | In the turbulent 1960s, disputes raged over equality and civil rights. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense would, for a short time, put itself at the vanguard of that change. This documentary by Stanley Nelson explores the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails using rare archival footage with the diverse group of voices of the people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it.

Keywords: Capitalism, Criminal Justice, Education, History, Intersectionality, Legacy of Slavery, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`The Central Park Five`⁠
(118 min.)

Description: 2012 | PBS documentary from award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns, tells the story of the five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. The film chronicles The Central Park Jogger case, for the first time from the perspective of these five teenagers whose lives were upended by this miscarriage of justice.

Keywords: Criminal Justice, History, Intersectionality, Legacy of Slavery, Media, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`The Hate U Give` ⁠
(132 min.)

Description: 2018 | Based on the best-selling novel, The Hate U Give tells the story of Starr Carter, who lives in two worlds: the poor, black neighborhood where she resides and the mostly white prep school she attends. This uneasy balance is shattered when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood friend by a policeman. Facing pressures from all sides, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what’s right.

Keywords: Criminal Justice, Education, Intersectionality, Media, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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`The Urgency of Intersectionality`⁠
(19 min.)

Description: 2016 | Crenshaw uses the term "intersectionality" to describe the combination of social identities, such as race and gender bias. As she says, if you're standing in the path of multiple forms of exclusion, you're likely to get hit by both. In this moving talk, she calls on us to bear witness to this reality and speak up for victims of prejudice.

Keywords: Criminal Justice, Education, Healthcare, Intersectionality, Privilege/Precarity

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`Time: The Kalief Browder Story`⁠
(≈ 43 min./episode)

Description: 2017 | Netflix six-part series that traces the tragic case of Kalief Browder, a Bronx teen who spent three years in jail for being accused of sterling a backpack, despite never being convicted of a crime. Upon his release at 22, he died by suicide — a death advocates say was due to the abuse he endured in prison. His imprisonment highlighted troubling ways black and Latino people are severely punished in the judicial and correctional systems.

Keywords: Capitalism, Criminal Justice, History, Intersectionality, Privilege/Precarity

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`When They See Us`⁠
(≈ 70 min./episode)
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Description: 2019 | Netflix Miniseries by Ava

DuVernay⁠

dramatizing the case of the Exonerated Five (previously called the "Central Park Five") — a group of black and Latino teens who were wrongfully convicted in 1989 of raping and assaulting a woman in Central Park. That conviction was overturned in 2002 only after the real assailant came forward, but the case became a real-time study in how police, the criminal justice system, and the news media tried and convicted boys of color despite a glaring lack of evidence.

Keywords: Criminal Justice, History, Intersectionality, Legacy of Slavery, Media, Privilege/Precarity, Speaking Up/Allyship

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Film, Television, and Video

⁠⁠⁠

⁠13th ⁠(100 min.)

⁠16 Shots ⁠(99 min.)

⁠American Son⁠ (90 min.)

⁠Black 101⁠ (2 min.)

⁠Black Feminism & the Movement for Black Lives: Barbara Smith, Reina Gossett, Charlene Carruthers⁠(51 min.)

⁠Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975⁠ (92 min.)

⁠Clemency⁠ (112 min.)

⁠Dear White People⁠ (≈ 30 min./episode)

⁠Fruitvale Station⁠ (85 min.)

⁠How Colorism Shapes Our Standards of Beauty⁠ (10 min.)

⁠How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion⁠(18 min.)

⁠I Am Not Your Negro ⁠(93 min.)

⁠If Beale Street Could Talk ⁠(119 min.)

⁠Just Mercy⁠ (136 min.)

⁠King In The Wilderness⁠ (112 min.)

⁠Let it Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992⁠ (143 min.)

⁠Race the Floating Signifier⁠ (63 min.)

⁠Rest In Power: The Trayvon Martin Story⁠ (≈ 43 min./episode)

⁠Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland⁠ (103 min.)

⁠See You Yesterday ⁠(87 min.)

⁠Selma⁠ (128 min.)

⁠Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement⁠ (41 min.)

⁠The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution⁠ (115 min.)

⁠The Central Park Five⁠ (118 min.)

⁠The Hate U Give ⁠(132 min.)

⁠The Urgency of Intersectionality⁠ (19 min.)

⁠Time: The Kalief Browder Story⁠ (≈ 43 min./episode)

⁠When They See Us⁠ (≈ 70 min./episode) ⁠⁠