Looking for a couple examples of prejudice / racism in this film. I know there's the part in the hospital where Steve is trying to get some care for his mother (or was it grandmother?) and the lady there is really not giving him any help at all which may be due to his ethnicity.
Does anybody else recall any scenes similar to this? Thanks.
Many parts but there is a part in which Escalante acted racist when he said that the Andy Garcia character and the other guy(who was AA) were being racist. He said tht with no proof which means that he was being so himself. he also acted like he would be violent because he would not get his way. The AA character said it si racist to pick someoen out of a group due to race but said it is also racist to NOT pick someone out of a group due to race. He was 100 percent correct.
That scene has always disturbed me because it felt like the movie supported Escalante’s view.
It may just be showing that even he is not immune to racist thoughts but I doubt it.
Since director Menendez has never done a commentary track, we’ll likely never know.
How about when the female cop says to Angel, "What's the matter, can't afford a knife?", implying that all people like Angel have knives.
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"steve"? i think you mean "angel". i'm not so sure the scene you mention could be considered racism...but then, basically any minority can play the "race card" at any given time...just like when escalante accuses the 2 guys from the ETS of racism.
"He must've thought it was white boy day. It ain't white boy day, is it?"
Countering some other posters' comments, I would claim that the decisions of the ETS WERE racist. Students here were assumed to have cheated, because they came from where they did, and attended this barrio school. Instead of considering each student as an individual, they were stereotyped as less capable.
This is one reason I use this film when I teach sociology classes about race & inequality.
You don't think the fact that this school, which had never had high AP test scores. all of a sudden gets scores that are off the charts raised a red flag? It had nothing to do with ETS being racist, it had to do with the sudden increase in scores from a score that was about to lose its accredation for academics.
“The identities of the students were revealed only after irregularities were found.”
That would include the school or class attended.
The movie centers on the abject conditions of a low-income Latino community, where the schools are underfunded, the kids are menacing, and the success rates are low. Therefore, the theme of racism is always in the background in this movie.
shareLou Diamond Phillips is Filipino, he might have some Hispanic genealogy, but he's not "Mexican."
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