A Day in the Life

There are moments during the film Fruitvale Station in which you just want to sob out loud. The movie brings forth incredibly strong emotions because of how, using the day in the life of a black man, it is able to get to the heart of the inhumanity and infamy that is racism.

We are presented with the last day of the year and the life of Oscar Grant III, the 22 year old black man that was racially profiled and then shot by the police. Oscar the youth, the son, the father, the friend, the boyfriend, died on New Year’s Day 2009 for no other reason than for being black. Director Ryan Coogler, in his first feature film and in a wonderful collaboration with Michael B. Jordan, the star of the film, shows us a totally recognizable reality. The movie shines in its direction and acting, with a cast that, besides the admirable performance by Michael B. Jordan, includes the wonderful Octavia Spencer and amazing young Melonie Diaz.

Michael B. Jordan in Fruitvale Station

We are witness to the everyday relationships of a young man struggling. But director and actors go beyond that and put forth a story that leads us to a greater understanding of the odds faced by black males in the United States today. In the length of a movie and the day it portrays, we can appreciate what a young black man in America faces because of racism.  It’s not news to anyone that cares, but the statistics behind what the Children’s Defense Fund calls “The Cradle to Prison Pipeline” are staggering; they are the story behind many Oscar Grants, young men of color with the odds stacked against them:

·         Black babies are more than twice as likely as white babies to die before their first birthday;

·         Black children are over three times as likely to be poor (38.8 percent) as White children (12.5

 Percent) nationally;

·         Although Black students comprised only 18 percent of students in public schools in 2009,they represented:

o    40 percent of all students who experienced corporal punishment;

o   35 percent of all students who received one out-of-school suspension;

o   46 percent of all students who received multiple out-of-school suspensions;

o   39 percent of all students expelled;

·         As of September 2012 one in four Black young adults ages 16 to 24 was unemployed;

·         1 in 3 black boys are at risk of imprisonment during their lifetime;

·         Black males age 18 and over in 2008 represented only five percent of the total college student population, but 36 percent of the total prison population

·         Forty-three percent of all children and youth killed by firearms in 2009 were Black.

·         Black males ages 15 to 19 were more than eight times as likely as White males

in the same age group to be killed in a firearm homicide in 2009.*

These are the statistics that are hidden in each scene of the film, made so much more poignant because we are seeing and hearing the relationships and the struggles, instead of just reading numbers on a page. That is the wonder of this film. The shooting of Trayvon Martin and the ignominy of his death only three years after the shooting of Oscar Grant only makes this film more important. We all need to sob at the injustice of a life lost to bigotry and racism. We need to cry out, as this film does so noiselessly.

(*These statistics and more can be found in the Children’s Defense Fund Report and campaign homepage: http://www.childrensdefense.org/programs-campaigns/cradle-to-prison-pipeline/#sthash.HKPVMIRx.dpuf)