Hacker Cinema
I Am Not Your Negro
2017 · Film · documentary · 93 min
Directed by Raoul Peck
Working from the text of James Baldwin’s unfinished final novel, director Raoul Peck creates a meditation on what it means to be Black in the United States.
10 positivefrom 10 commenters
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10 comments on Hacker News
Cobain: Montage of Heck https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4229236
I am Not Your Negro https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5804038/
Q: Into the Storm https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14215442/
A quick search of 'Marion Gerald Hood Emory University rejection letter' will show how even in 1959, blacks were treated like scum.
There are ways to get an idea of the reality of black people. For those who are ok with videos, here are some good but enjoyable ones. You may use 'NewPipe' from fdroid or the youtube-dl command line utility to download them:
[1] How to pretend systemic racism does not exist? (with eng subtitles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ciwjHVHYg
[2] Let's talk about what it's like to be a black person in the US. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD8mWq0Hdcw
[3] Let's talk about being armed and black. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL_IX8yX_JU
[4] How cops are trained to shoot you in your home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuzQrbio2Qw
Other resources include James Baldwin's books and documentaries. His 'The Fire Next Time' is just 120 pages [5].
'The Price of the Ticket' and 'I Am Not Your Negro' are good documentaries [6][7].
[5] https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Next-Time-James-Baldwin/dp/067974472X
[6] https://www.amazon.com/James-Baldwin-Price-Ticket/dp/B01M25WCAS
[7] https://www.amazon.com/I-Am-Not-Your-Negro/dp/B01MR52U7T
[8] Also the 1965 Baldwin and Buckley debate on the theme "Has the American dream been achieved at the expense of the American negro?" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxLUbKebYvc
English subtitle download: https://amara.org/en/videos/dGI1henIPVYS/en/1338731/
News related to this is getting buried and flagged on HN yesterday and today.
Flagged thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26383977
Another: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26383160
Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26374822
So many insensitive comments.
Google already had sexual harassment issues stemming from some top leaders in the past. They didn't get punished.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/technology/google-sexual-harassment-andy-rubin.html
https://qz.com/work/1326942/sergey-brin-started-google-with-some-strange-ideas-about-his-female-employees-according-to-a-new-book/
Also, these threads often cause comments that have no clue about the reality of black people. For those who are ok with videos, here are some good but enjoyable ones. You may use 'NewPipe' from fdroid or the youtube-dl command line utility to download them:
[1] How to pretend systemic racism does not exist? (with eng subtitles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ciwjHVHYg
[2] Let's talk about what it's like to be a black person in the US. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD8mWq0Hdcw
[3] Let's talk about being armed and black. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL_IX8yX_JU
[4] How cops are trained to shoot you in your home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuzQrbio2Qw
Other resources include James Baldwin's books and documentaries. His 'The Fire Next Time' is just 120 pages [5].
'The Price of the Ticket' and 'I Am Not Your Negro' are good documentaries [6][7].
[5] https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Next-Time-James-Baldwin/dp/067974472X
[6] https://www.amazon.com/James-Baldwin-Price-Ticket/dp/B01M25WCAS
[7] https://www.amazon.com/I-Am-Not-Your-Negro/dp/B01MR52U7T
[8] Also the 1965 Baldwin and Buckley debate on the theme "Has the American dream been achieved at the expense of the American negro?" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxLUbKebYvc
English subtitle download: https://amara.org/en/videos/dGI1henIPVYS/en/1338731/
These threads often cause comments that have no clue about the reality of black people. For those who are ok with videos, here are some good but enjoyable ones. You may use 'NewPipe' from fdroid or the youtube-dl command line utility to download them:
[1] How to pretend systemic racism does not exist? (with eng subtitles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ciwjHVHYg
[2] Let's talk about what it's like to be a black person in the US. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD8mWq0Hdcw
[3] Let's talk about being armed and black. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL_IX8yX_JU
[4] How cops are trained to shoot you in your home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuzQrbio2Qw
Other resources include James Baldwin's books and documentaries. His 'The Fire Next Time' is just 120 pages [5].
'The Price of the Ticket' and 'I Am Not Your Negro' are good documentaries [6][7].
[5] https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Next-Time-James-Baldwin/dp/067974472X
[6] https://www.amazon.com/James-Baldwin-Price-Ticket/dp/B01M25WCAS
[7] https://www.amazon.com/I-Am-Not-Your-Negro/dp/B01MR52U7T
[8] Also the 1965 Baldwin and Buckley debate on the theme "Has the American dream been achieved at the expense of the American negro?" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxLUbKebYvc
Watch I Am Not Your Negro, a documentary on Baldwin, to understand what a genius he was - innovative, able to think clearly beyond the intense social pressures of his time and around him (something we can better appreciate these days), miles ahead, extraordinarily articulate. He is the best commentator on racial issues in 2020.
And for UK readers who missed it on the BBC last night, it is also available for free on iPlayer for ~month¹. Note that it is under the Arena branding if you're searching for yourself.
[Non-UK: I'm assuming it is geoblocked like a lot of iplayer content, but give it a go with youtube-dl²]
1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000kbk6/arena-i-am-not-your-negro
2. https://rg3.github.com/youtube-dl/
With respect and goodwill (appreciate that you actually seem to be coming to the comments to learn), it's very hard to read your comment in that way when you say things like:
> Society pretending that there is massive racism when there isn't is itself structural racism
I'm not sure where is best to start here because there are so many things that have to go into actually believing that, and so many combinations, but there are tons of resources floating around so I truly do encourage you to seek those out.
A basic starting point list beyond police brutality: public school funding systems, household wealth inequality and lack of reparations + exponential investment growth, medical treatment differences (go look up the guides for black people in the US to get proper medical treatment from a doctor), the prison industrial complex, the criminalization of drugs in the US + its history, crack vs powder cocaine sentencing laws, parole laws
If you prefer movie format: 13th, I Am Not Your Negro, The House I Live In
> I am saying that the level of racism is low
This sums up why your comment go downvoted so far. The social media world is overflowing with resources showing the opposite right now with extensive evidence and research. It has always been there but it has never been more accessible.
For anyone interested in learning more about Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro is a documentary about him that was nominated for an oscar back in 2017.
"I am Not Your Negro" is a fantastic documentary about Baldwin.
In that documentary, filmed in 1960's, the same questions were asked that are often asked today. William Buckley asks Baldwin, "Why are negros so upset ? You are on TV commercials, movie leads, you hold positions in government. Isn't racism in the past."
That was before I was born. But in my lifetime the Tuskegee medical experiments were still being performed on black men. I witnessed a landlord ask my parents to pretend they were taking an apartment so that the blacks in the waiting area could be told it is no longer available. I had a young detective in Chicago privately disclose to me that as a cop he would just followed black people (if there were more than one in the car because the odds one of them might have a warrant would be higher) in his cop car until they committed a traffic violation. He used racial profiling so effectively that he became one of youngest detectives of all time.
In my college years the US government was selling highly addictive and destructive drugs in African American neighborhoods as a covert way to raise funds. But when that story broke it was pushed off the headlines because the Monica Lewinsky scandal was more important. The reporter who broke the story was so disheartened he killed himself.
And in just the past years we have seen too many snuff films and needless deaths.
Yet I still personally encounter people who claim African Americans haven't experienced racism in 100 years. And what are they complaining about, "they seem to be in most commercials these days and hold high positions in government, so racism must be in the past". Because why bother learning what the Black Lives Matter movement stood for when you can just snark "all lives matter". But if you were snark "Pro-life ? You mean you are a vegetarian ?", some of those same people would be so annoyed they would burn down an abortion clinic. But black people burning something, that anger they can't understand.
Will the U.S. ever come to terms with our racist past ? Will our future grandchildren be ruminating on these issues simply because many people keep casually dismissing the suffering of others.
As a side note, I am conflicted if general interest stories like this should be on HN as they are too emotionally charged.
I saw 'I am not your Negro' (which the article is largely about) a couple weeks ago; it's fantastic. It's mainly am unpublished Baldwin piece on the deaths of MLK, Malcolm X and Medgar Evers read by Samuel Jackson.
There's a good deal of media and especially cinema criticism in the piece; looking at American culture through The eyes of it's film. The movie incorporates clips of many of the pieces referenced, ones I'm a generation to young to know, which helps bridge the generational gap. It's an excellent technique.
And the subject matter - extrajudicial killings of black men - is still extremely relevant, of course.