The Color of Fear

The Color of Fear was a film about race relations in the US. The director had Chinese, Japanese, Latino, Black, and White men sit in a circle and respond to how they felt about the current state of racism in the US. One of the white men, David, claimed he was not racist at all. The debate turned in to all the other men explaining to David how the racism still exists, even if he can’t see it as a white person. One after another, they explain their horrible experiences with racism, and David continues to undermine these experiences by calling their fears “unfounded” and “irrational”. This process continues for most of the film, where the other men are not able to get through to David. His perspective finally changes when he sees inequality in his own life, (his two girls applying to college) and how terrible he’d feel if others called that inequality unfounded.

There were many surprising moments in the film, but one of the ones that I had to think about the most was when Gordon, the other white man in the film, became frustrated with David and wanted to give up on him. Then Hugh, a Latino man, said “Please don’t give up on David, because us colored people can never give up on the David’s of the world”. Hugh said this because while those “David’s” continue to be racist, whites can ignore them. But other groups who are being harassed by those “David’s” have to deal with them all the time and cannot simply turn a blind eye because it constantly affects their lives. This was pretty much a call to action to all white people who do not consider themselves as racist. Not only is directly discriminating against minorities racist, but letting ignorant people continue their persecution of minorities while you sit back is just as racist and unacceptable. I think white people can make such a difference correcting each other of possible misconceptions, because they can be racist without knowing it. David was racist, but did not consider himself one at all. I’m certain people have never called him out on his subtle racist tendencies in a way that made him try to fix his ways. This point made by Hugh is such a great way to address people who don’t think they are contributing to the problem just because they are not directly racist to others.

Some of the CRT terms that applied to this film were whiteness, and passing. Whiteness played a large role throughout, with David’s continual insistence that he was no different from the other men present, and that each could stand on their own ground. The other men became understandably agitated with this, because his ignorance to their problems was so frustrating. David was asking “why can’t we all be alike?” but that, for the other men, meant “why can’t you be more white?” The other men felt that if they complied with David’s request, they would lose their humanity. Passing also was talked about, the men said the lighter they were, the better they were treated. Viktor, who was the lighter of the two African Americans, said that white people were able to accept him far easier than Loren because he was closer to the whites in skin tone. Roberto, a Latino man, seconded this, saying that even in their community the lighter-skinned men had a better chance of being successful.