This Sunday, some Rose Scholars attended a screening of Straight Outta Compton. The movie is acclaimed for raising awareness of police brutality and shedding a light on what it was like as a person of color in the United States in the 80s and 90s. And now.
In my opinion, this documentary, while humorous at times and invigorating at others, was released at the perfect time. It would be great to be able to classify this documentary as a historical one, but the motifs of police brutality and injustice and superficial discrimination still describe the United States today. Tragedies similar to the ones of Trayvon Martin and Freddie Gray still stain our nation everyday. Straight Outta Compton delivered a blatant message of a flawed and unfair system, and I think it is time that Hollywood produced an award-worthy film that wasn’t about black people in chains.
You brought up a very interesting point in regards to how black people have been portrayed in recent films (e.g., slavery in Africa and U.S). It’s refreshing to see a film that doesn’t revolve around this subject.