Series and Films To Educate Yourself On Race Relations
We are in the age of information so it is our responsibility to educate ourselves. The following is a list of films, documentaries, and tv series that I have watched that have helped my understanding of race relations. I'll do my best to update this list as I learn more, and please feel free to reach out on any social channels if you have any recommendations for me!
Movies
See you yesterday
"Two teenage science prodigies spend every spare minute working on their latest homemade invention: backpacks that enable time travel. When one of their older brothers is killed, they put their unfinished project to the test to save him."
Topics: Police Brutality, Time Travel
Watch on Netflix
American Son
"An estranged couple reunite in a Florida police station to help find their missing teenage son."
Topics: Police Brutality, White Privilege
Watch on Netflix
The Hate U Give
"Starr Carter, an African-American teenager, faces pressure from various communities and tries to stand up for what is right after she witnesses the shooting of her best friend by the police."
Topics: Police Brutality, White Privilege, Code Switching
Watch on Crave
I Am Not Your Negro
"In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, "Remember This House." The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and assassinations of three of his close friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time of Baldwin's death in 1987, he left behind only 30 completed pages of this manuscript. Filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished."
Topics: Assassinations, Protests, Activists, Police Brutality
Watch on Netflix
Get Out
"Chris, an African-American man, decides to visit his Caucasian girlfriend's parents during a weekend getaway. Although they seem normal at first, he is not prepared to experience the horrors ahead."
Topics: White Privilege, White Supremacy
Watch on Netflix
Miss Virginia
"An impoverished single mother is losing her 15-year-old son to the rough streets of Washington, D.C. Unwilling to see him drop out and deal drugs, she places him in a private school. But when she can't afford the tuition, she soon launches a movement to change the system that is destroying him and thousands of others"
Topics: systemic oppression, the education system, gun violence, politics
Watch on Netflix
Documentary
Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement Documentary
"“Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement” is an original documentary film that chronicles the evolution of the Black Lives Matter movement through the first person accounts of local activists, protesters, scholars, journalists and others."
Topics: Police Brutality, Protests
Watch on Youtube
Charlottesville: Race and Terror
"On Saturday hundreds of white nationalists, alt-righters, and neo-Nazis traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia to participate in the “Unite the Right” rally. By Saturday evening three people were dead – one protester, and two police officers – and many more injured. "
Topics: White Nationalism, White Privilege, Protests, White Supremacy, KKK
Watch on Youtube
13th
"Filmmaker Ava DuVernay explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation's prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans"
Topics: The prison industrial system, slavery, disproportionate presence of black people in prisons
Watch on Netflix or Youtube
Disclosure
"A look at Hollywood's depiction of transgender people and the impact of this on American culture.
Topics: Black trans people, sexuality, sexualization, sexual assault, cultural appropriation, representation in media
Watch on Netflix
LA92
"Now on Netflix, the 2017 documentary LA 92 was released to mark 25 years since the Rodney King trial and subsequent uprising/riots in Los Angeles. "
Topics: police brutality, injustice, systemic oppression, protests, riots
Watch on Netflix
The Rachel Divide
"Rachel Dolezal, the former leader of the NAACP's Spokane branch, becomes a national news story when she is exposed for faking her black ancestry."
Topics: Blackface, blackfishing, cultural appropriation
Watch on Netflix
Murder to Mercy The Cyntonia Brown Story
"After 16-year-old Cyntoia Brown is sentenced to life in prison, questions about her past, physiology and the law itself call her guilt into question."
Topics: The prison system, the justice system, systemic oppression
Watch on Netflix
Alt Right: Age of Rage
"During the first year of Donald Trump's presidency, Antifa activist Daryle Lamont Jenkins combats the rise of the Alt-Right movement, while Alt-Right leader Richard Spencer fights to gain ground, culminating in a showdown in Charlottesville, Va"
Topics: white supremacy, KKK, protests, racism
Watch on Netflix
Series
When They See Us
"In 1989 a jogger was assaulted and raped in New York's Central Park, and five young people were subsequently charged with the crime. The quintet, labeled the Central Park Five, maintained its innocence and spent years fighting the convictions, hoping to be exonerated. This limited series spans a quarter of a century, from when the teens are first questioned about the incident in the spring of 1989, going through their exoneration in 2002 and ultimately the settlement reached with the city of New York in 2014. The cast is full of Emmy nominees and winners, including Michael K. Williams, John Leguizamo, Felicity Huffman, and Blair Underwood. Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Ava DuVernay co-wrote and directed the four episodes."
Topics: wrongful conviction, White Privilege, Corrupt justice system
Watch on Netflix
Dear White People
"This Netflix-original series follows a group of students of color at Winchester University, a predominantly white Ivy League college. The students are faced with a landscape of cultural bias, social injustice, misguided activism, and slippery politics. Through an absurdist lens, the series uses irony, self-deprecation, brutal honesty, and humor to highlight issues that still plague today's"post-racial" society."
Topics: Police Brutality, Blackface, cultural bias, the university system, "woke-ness", secret societies, white guilt
Watch on Netflix
Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap (one episode)
"Cory Booker and others discuss how slavery, housing discrimination and centuries of inequality have compounded to create a racial wealth gap."
Topics: Racial wealth gap
Watch on Netflix or Youtube
Orange is the new black
"For seven seasons, Kohan has been preoccupied with stories about injustice, repression, tragedy, and exploitation. There was humor, of course, and there were moments of joy and freedom, such as the transcendent lake scene at the end of Season 3." Topics: ICE and immigration, racism in the prison system, the prison industrial complex, prison slavery, black trans women's issues, power struggle between correctional officers and inmates (including abuse, sexual assault, and extortion), white supremacy, homosexuality
Watch on Netflix
Little Fires Everywhere
"Following the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and an enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. Set in Shaker Heights, Ohio in the 1990s."
Topics: cultural appropriation, microaggressions, racial power dynamic, surrogacy, adoption, poverty, sexuality
Watch on Prime
Time: The Kalief Browder Story
"The criminal justice system tragically failed 16-year-old Kalief Browder, who spent three years in Rikers Island jail awaiting trial -- two of those years in solitary confinement -- after being arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack. The case was never prosecuted, the charges were ultimately dropped, and Browder committed suicide after his release. His story and the challenges it poses to a basic understanding of American liberties are central to this six-part documentary. It's a comprehensive review of the case, using first-person accounts, archival footage, and cinematic re-creations of key scenes from Browder's life. Exclusive interviews with a wide range of people connected to the story, from politicians to close friends and family members to social reformers, are also featured."
Topics: wrongful conviction, the justice system, the prison system, solitary confinement, mental health, suicide, poor policing
Watch on Netflix
The Innocence Files
"The untold personal stories behind eight cases of wrongful conviction that the Innocence Project and organizations within the Innocence Network have uncovered and worked to overturn."
Topics: wrongful conviction, legal system, justice system, forensic science
Watch on Netflix
Trial by Media
"Trials are examined with a focus on how the media may have impacted the verdicts."
Topics: The media's impact on the justice system, wrongful conviction, gun violence, sexual assault
Watch on Netflix
Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj
"The Daily Show" alumnus Hasan Minhaj gets the spotlight to himself -- and his name in the title -- on this Netflix original series. The Peabody Award-winning comic explores the modern cultural and political landscape with depth and sincerity. In each weekly episode, he uses his unique comedic voice and storytelling skill to investigate the larger trends shaping the fragmented world. According to Netflix, Minhaj -- who also serves as an executive producer -- is the first Indian-American host of a weekly comedy show."
Topics: taxes, elections, college, news industry, George Floyd, coronavirus, rent, drugs, policing, mental health, immigration, protests, the NRA, student loans, politics, hip hop, and more
Watch on Netflix
Alysha Autumn