[ad_1]
Jeffery Robinson chronicles the unpolished history of the United States for over a decade in an ever-evolving conference presentation. His talks, now presented as part of his own organization, The Who We Are Project, explore how racism against Black people since its inception is linked to the country’s legacy. New documentary, “Who We Are: A History of Racism in America” captures Robinson’s eye-opening account (filmed in New York City’s Town Hall) and interspersed with interviews with civil rights figures and others from his travels around the country.
Directed by Emily and Sarah Kunstler, the film joins a series of documentaries that dig into the histories of race and marginalized people in America. “I’m Not Your Negro” by Raoul Peck and Ava DuVernay’s “13.”
“This is not ‘Eyes on the prizeRobinson had this to say about the new movie, which is now available: major digital platforms. “But I think it’s a call for us to be something radically different going forward.”
Ben Kenigsberg, who reviewed “Who We Are” for The Times, made the film a Critics’ Choice and wrote, “This is a conflict movie, but never an alienating one.”
A criminal defense attorney by profession, Robinson was the director of the ACLU’s Trone Center for Justice and Equality in New York and remembers walking past the old Cotton Exchange on his way to work. With him and the Kunstlers (his last feature, “William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe” was about their father, a civil rights lawyer). These are excerpts from our interview.
“Who We Are” aims in part to chart the role of white supremacy in US history. How did you approach this?
JEFFERY ROBINSON I say this as a rhetorical question in the movie: “What if I said America was founded on white supremacy? Someone might say, ‘Jeff, that’s really extreme. But when you read the words of the founders of our country and see what they did, I think it is an inevitable result. Some people said the Constitution was a compromise between those who wanted slavery and those who didn’t. This “compromise” preserved the institution of slavery, voted the South extra congressional representatives and the Electoral College to preserve the institution of slavery, and made Black attempts at freedom unconstitutional. It was unconstitutional for me to try to escape my master!
SARAH KÜNSTLER And they did all of this without using the word slavery. We have a history that hides what we mean as a country. When we pass laws that protect and maintain white supremacy, we’re not actually saying what we’re doing.
ROBINSON There’s no way to associate white supremacy with a law in the state of Alabama that says you can’t rename iconic monuments – until you realize that they’re all essentially monuments to slavery and people who enslaved people.
The film also reveals the details of the Black experience: for example, the fingerprints left behind on the walls by enslaving builders.
EMILY KUNSTLER Facts in the abstract mean nothing if you can’t connect them to real human experience. These fingerprints are an example of a monument to the history of the lived experiences of enslaved Black people in Charleston, SC, and indeed the entire country, who persist despite best efforts to erase them. Likewise with the foundations of houses in Okla, Tulsa. [site of the 1921 massacre]still exist where houses were never rebuilt.
ROBINSON There was a moment when we talked. Anne Randle [a survivor of the Tulsa massacre] and he said, “There was a pile of corpses.” There was a chill running up and down my spine – this woman, over 100 years old, harking back to that memory in her life.
Jeffery, how did it feel to share your and your family’s experiences of racism, like the school basketball game the hosts didn’t want you to play?
ROBINSON Dr. We went to Tiffany Crutcher and asked her to talk about her feelings. his brother is killed on live television, in practice, by Tulsa police [in 2016]. And I felt like, Well, I should share something. Chic [a basketball coach who stuck up for Robinson] She was 21 when this incident occurred in Walls, Miss. This is just a few years after civil rights workers went missing and murdered in Mississippi. I don’t know where he found the courage to deal with it. But it was clear that if I didn’t play, we would all leave. And he wasn’t going to put that on me at 12. I think he basically saw me as his little brother.
Can you talk about including conversation about slavery with a man you meet at a Confederate statue representing the pro-Confederate flag group Flags Across the South?
EMILY KUNSTLER I felt like it covered the thesis of the movie. He asked Jeff, “Do you think this gentleman can be reached?” I asked. And Jeff said, “I don’t know if it can be achieved, but I know that if no one tries, I definitely know it won’t.” There is value in the effort, there is value in setting the facts and continuing to do so. We cannot be intimidated into silence by people who think differently, speak too loudly, and show up and wave Confederate flags.
ROBINSON The conversation didn’t go the way he thought it would, perhaps in terms of my resentment of him or something else. He has a small twitch on his face as he leaves and I think we at least spun some gears in his head.
How does the film relate to the debate around laws prohibiting the teaching of certain American history?
ROBINSON This is the first time we have met face to face to talk about this issue. [movie] It was June 20, 2017. Nobody was even talking about the CRT [Critical Race Theory] back then. “What is this, cereal or something?” it would be like. So this was not done in response to the law. But upcoming laws may tell you how scared people are about the information in this movie.
This goes to the concept of “minds of the rising generation”. In 1837, John C. Calhoun, one of the most violent racists in American history, said that we cannot teach children the abolition of slavery in schools because if we teach it, slavery is over. the previous day [Trump] they pulled out something that says management has left the office “The 1776 Report” it was talking about a return to patriotic education, and they use the same quote John C. Calhoun made: “the minds of the rising generation.”
SARAH KÜNSTLER Before anti-CRT laws were passed, there were textbook wars. So there is a never-ending battle over what and how much our children are taught in school about our nation’s history. One of the most intriguing things about Jeff’s talk is that he goes back to primary sources. You don’t just need to learn at school. You can call yourself.
[ad_2]
Source link