MovieChat Forums > The Long Walk Home (1991) Discussion > Racism- the most evil of all evils.

Racism- the most evil of all evils.


I changed my original post around completely, because looking back at it, it was a complete eyesore to read. I seriously didn’t like the way I had wrote things, especially all the shouting. As much as I’d like to emphasize words, I’ve got to try to avoid the big caps and not so much bold and commas in between the words. I hope reading this will help you all better understand what I am trying to say.

I absolutely hate racism. Is that too obvious? Racism is a horrible thing. It is disgusting, it is super duper hurtful, and it gets me completely riled up. Being a black person myself, of course it really hurts me and pisses me off very badly!

For several hundred years, before Abraham Lincoln ended slavery and before John F. Kennedy was made president, white people were the ones who had all the privileges and all the respect. Black people were completely disrespected and looked down upon all because of their race and skin color. I can imagine that life as a black person back in those days must have been absolutely terrible! They were never happy. They weren’t allowed to be happy. They weren’t allowed to have a good life they damn well deserved. Black people were denied education and I think most of them lived in filthy, impoverished areas instead of warm, clean homes. Now, I understand that segregation came later. Black people had their own schools and their own neighborhoods, but the schools weren‘t very good. They weren’t up to date with their textbooks, and I don’t think their desks or buildings were that great either. I remember watching that movie Separate, But Equal one time in my English class. I don’t remember his name, but there was a black man who seemed to be some type of lawyer and who tried his damnedest to get segregation illegalized and to integrate schools. It was either him or somebody else, but one of them brought both a black and a white doll to a classroom full of black children. They had each black child determine which doll was the good one or which was the bad and ugly one, and most of those children determined that the black doll was ugly and that the white doll was good. You see, segregation was not a very good idea. I can’t believe it caused those children to have such inferiority complexes about themselves.

The worst part is, none of the blacks did a damn thing to be deserve such cruel discrimination. I wish my vocabulary was a bit better to describe that what those racist people did was beyond cruel. I just have to know where the hell racism originated, who the hell came up with racism in the first place. Throughout all those many years, we had loads of racism, lots of it. Some of it still goes on today, but thank God it’s not as horrible as it was many years back. It’s still just as hurtful.

White supremacist people and the Ku Klux Klan are totally *beep* retarded. They hate blacks, gays, Jews, and pretty much anything that’s different from them, things that aren‘t them, things that aren‘t freaking white. They are completely retarded, because they think white should be the only race in this world, our world, everyone's world. They think the world should be filled with only and purely white. Are they really that stupid to not know that there are going to be other races, hundreds of them? My god! And I’m not even going to call those whites people, because the things they did were totally inhumane. They are not human at all! Just because someone is black, has freaking dark skin or is different from you, it does not mean that they are evil. Those people were treated like they were some kind of disease or plague. And I‘m not just talking about black people, any other race that‘s not white. It doesn’t mean they they’re not human and don’t deserve to be treated as such. They should never be deprived of their rights and safety, and most of all their happiness. Like I said, anyone who was not white back in those days must have lived a very horrible life. How they survived it day by day is something I could never imagine. Those people were just as human are we all are.

And I can NOT freaking believe that racism and discrimination was actually *beep* legal for so many years. And I CANNOT believe that there were laws that required only whites to be given everything. Who the hell told them that this entire world was supposed to be filled with whites only? Why, that is just as stupid as a person believing that the sky is dark purple when it is only blue. Or that 3 + 3 is 259 when it is 6. Those people knew in their goddamn right minds that there were going to be other races besides them. They knew. They knew that were going to be blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Mexicans, Latinos, and so forth. They knew, they knew!

When some of the Jews came to America to escape from Hitler, they were then bashed upon by the Ku Klux Klan who only hated Jews because they were copycatting from Hitler and the Nazis. Those Jews just couldn’t escape from evil, could they? Hitler was trying to dominate and take over the entire world. Hitler is the most evil of the evil, the lowest of the low. The Jews came here for the most three important things, peace, survival and a good life, but no! The Ku Klux Klan had to come and copycat Hitler’s propaganda. It was as if the Jews could never escape out of Hell.

Simply because someone was either black, gay or Jewish they had to be treated so horribly. When I think about people being discriminated against just because of these very things, I think it is so f-ing retarded! They didn’t even do a thing to *beep* hurt anybody yet they’re being treated badly just because. For no reason. We have all this discrimination against gays, calling fags or queers or saying that what they’re doing is a sin and an abomination. We have black people being called that N word. It’s like going up to a random person and slugging them across the face really hard when you don’t even know who they are and they didn’t do a damn thing to you. Do you see what I’m saying here? People are being so incredibly stupid as to start all this hate and drama just because they don’t like someone. We had A LOT of racism for many years and some of it still goes on, just not as badly. The only thing that was wrong with black people to the whites was the simple fact that they were black. Just like being gay is wrong to some people just for the simple fact. All because these people had dark skin, which was the only thing that was wrong with them to the whites, all because they had dark skin.

All that hatred for blacks for such a long ass time and for what?? For what?? I just don’t get it. Why were they making such a HUGE deal over people being black, and gay or Jewish for that matter? They didn’t even do anything wrong! It just didn’t make any sense. These extremely racist people just need to get over themselves already and clear their incredibly stupid minds up of all that racism and ridiculous garbage! It was SO ridiculous! They were doing it all for NO reason!

Race or the color of your skin does NOT effect how beautiful you are, how smart you are, what kind of future you have, what kind of job you‘ll have, what you do when you grow up, how many friends you have, etc (At least not in America. I know it's probably different in some other cultures). It all depends on the individual person and how they choose to live their lives. And it really should not effect how much respect you receive or give to others. We’re ALL equal (Now I know cultural-wise we are not equal, just as humans), therefore ALL of us should be allowed to breathe the same air, be in the same room, live in the same house, share the same thoughts, sit together, work together, hold hands together, live together, be educated together, etc. I think those were all the things that were recited in Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech I Had a Dream...before he was shot down...by the racist James Earl Ray. And both Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were shot...by people who just didn’t respect their truthful and reasonable views that blacks should have been treated with just as much respect as whites. Why won’t our country ever follow those twenty-seven amendments passed down?

Don’t get the wrong idea that I hate white people and hold all of them responsible for the massacres that happened based on some of the people's racism. I know some whites gave a lot of respect to blacks, and some even to their slaves or servants and even might have paid them for some of their hard work. And they even gave the black children the same free life as white children. Please don’t get the idea that I hate white people, because I am friends with many of them. That’s a God’s honest fact. I‘m not a racist. And I know that these things are all past stuff, and that I might be saying it all in present tense, but be aware that it still goes on even in our United States. In fact, I’m sure every place still holds even a little bit of racism.

Every single day in my mind, I sometimes envision a racial rainbow in which every single race, color, origin in the world be together and combine to make more and more beautiful people. Those things are exactly what makes our world so beautiful! That’s the true statement of the life and the world that we all live in. That’s the way everything should be.

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I agree with you, DaisyPeach. My rant.

Today, there are still racism in America, it's not that bad like it was fifty years ago. Racism is still alive in America, I'm not going to deny that. When it comes to neighborhoods that want white homeowners only, grocery stores, restuarants, and bank loans to buy a house or start a business. How the heck can someone live the American dream and move forward when they can't even get bank loans to start their own business, or buy a house? There's this bank in my town that is racist to black and hispanic people, thinking hard working, law abiding black and hispanic American people had counterfeit their own paychecks. LOL. Also, when it comes to getting any kind of loans to buy a home, or start a business, the banks sure isn't going to help you out there when you are black or hispanic since you might not have the money to put in the account, credit problems, or won't pay the loans off. There are certain neighborhoods in my town that won't allow a black or hispanic American person to OWN a home there, e.g. not far from the zoo. That's sad. Thought that racism was buried, but I guess it's still alive and well. I'm not going to lie, there are still friendly white people left in my town, because I had met them at my college personally over the last five months, but the town is still kind of racist like it was in the 50s. This is the midwest, not the south.

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[deleted]

Blacks didn't ask to be kidnapped from their homes in Africa. They didn't ask to be slaves; to be treated like lesser class citizens. They didn't ask to be bought and sold like cattle or horses, treated like they had no feelings and didn't care when their sons or mothers were sold away to other slaveowners.

I'm glad my ancestors weren't a part of slavery, at the time slavery was going on here in this land where all men are created equal --- HA! My ancestors were still in Europe. I found the way Odessa was talked to very demeaning and the only part of this film I didn't like. The way all blacks were generalized into not willing to work and "Get out of my way Pal" when he was the one in the way pushing the black guy around. The black guy didn't invite that white guy into the parking lot. oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I HATE Bullies (regardless of their color) who think they have a right to push people around. I wanted to jump through the TV set and strangle him.
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Rosa Parks is my hero.

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Yes, a lot of what happens in the movie is really chilling and nauseating. So hard to believe it was only a matter of years ago!!!!!!!

It's also kind of a sad reminder of where we still stand, in that whitey Sissy Spacek gets top billing, when she doesn't even do THAT MUCH in the movie.

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Sissy Spacek is probably first billed because the film is more about her character's journey than Whoopi Goldberg's. Spacek's character changes the most during the film while Goldberg's character barely changes at all. The movie is about Spacek's character learning to stand up for what is right and have her own opinions separate from her husband.

Also, at the time, Sissy Spacek had been nominated for 5 Oscars in the Leading Actress category. Whoopi had only been nominated once for Supporting Actress and was already more of a comedic actress at that point. This may have factored into into the decision to bill Spacek first (which, again, made sense because Spacek's character is the lead!).

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I didn't like the film because it didn't explain what happened to the characters at the end--when the boycott was successful.

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It's also kind of a sad reminder of where we still stand, in that whitey Sissy Spacek gets top billing, when she doesn't even do THAT MUCH in the movie.

How funny it is that you would use a term like "whitey" in a thread devoted to discussing the evils of racism. Look in the mirror, physician, and heal thyself. You could learn quite a bit by reading again the OP.

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We can rant and rave about racism all we want but it won't change anything. You can't fix stupid. And there will always, always be stupid people out there. All you can do is make is give everyone, everyone equal rights. No matter their race, religion or sexual preference (so marriage equality). We need to try to live together in peace. But that will never happen. And, god what a great movie. I'm a huge fan of Sissy but it's so wonderful to see Whoopi in a dramatic role.

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