A Very Eye Opening Movie
Click to viewI just got done watching this tv movie and it taught some very good lessons. It was brocasted on BBC a few years ago from what I found out. The main character of the story is Joe, a black IT consultant who takes up a job in teaching to help black students using strict discipline. He seems to be doing fine after a while but after one student creates false accusations on assualt, he loses his job and his reputation is destroyed. The black community turns on him in a vicious ferver and he develops a very negative attitude towards black people in general after the experience.
The film showcases his journey from self hatred, distance, condescension, to finally acceptance of himself and his culture.
From this film I saw many attitudes that were expressed that I could relate to real life; how black people can treat each other. The statment that stuck out to me the most was this quote "We are like crabs in a barrel". We ridicule each other for having kinky hair if it's not straightend, if we talk or act a certain way we're "white", If we find success we're "sell out's". Hell, we even get made fun of for our creative way's to come up with names.
In way or another all of us are a little bit of Joe in some fashion whether we admit it or not. I can admit to being like that a few times and/or having that mindset. But we all can grow out of it if we try.
"Shooting the messenger" is a metaphoric phrase used to describe the act of lashing out at the (blameless) bearer of bad news.