Historical African American Movies

Recently it seems like there are more and more movies being released about the history of African Americans. They have been a hit. But why?

I believe it is due to the fact that America is becoming more and more diverse. We are becoming more accepting of each other and we have started to come to terms with the fact that what we did in our past was not necessarily right. How do we deal with this? Well, we make movies about the events. Now how does this help? When we show the events, we have hope that the viewers will collect the facts and evidence of what happened and come to the conclusion that it really was as bad as the history books make it seem. Those opinions then hopefully make us want to make sure that there are no more incidents or prejudices like that.

Would these opinions be had if we did not make movies like this? Certainly. School still teach about these incidents in history classes and some people may even go further into investigating and study about the events on their own. So what is the upside of making the movies like that then? Well, it is proven that most people take information in better when it is a visual. Sure, words and names out of a textbook are all fine and dandy, but humans have emotion as well . We don't feel the sympathy from reading facts as we do with characters and a back story.

Recently, I have discovered the different types of appeals we use today. It has sparked in my head that we tend to react more to emotional appeal than we do the others. By putting these incidents into a two hour long movie where you learn more about the characters as well as seeing the harsh treatment, your emotional appeal will make you feel sympathetic for them and therefore, leave with a bigger impression, especially if the movie was extremely rough on the senses.

So who do these movies effect? Well, obviously people with racial prejudices as well as people who aren't interested in historical movies won't tend to want to go to these movies. However, people with open minds, African Americans, history teachers as well as fans, and people who just want to know more about their life would be extremely interested in it.

Well they go, but do they leave with anything? Depends on the person. If you are a highly sympathetic person, then you may leave with more than someone else. But they are definitely worth it.

Thinking about the past
~Hangin' from a clothesline