American By The Number: The New Dividers Movie Review

Reflection Paper about the Documentary “Who is Black in America?”
Your Name
November 5, 2016
Your Institution of Affiliation
The issue of racism has been one of the oldest problems in the history of the United States. Different people being divided by the way they look and the color of their skin, while having different and unequal number of opportunities based on that categorization that they created. However, upon watching the video and having some further reflections about it, I believe that “racism” – in the “black vs. white” sense – is just one of the major issues that needs to be dealt with. I also believe that the issue of “colorism” – light skinned black vs. dark skinned black – should also be tackled more deeply. As stated in the video, this issue is not as apparent as compared to black vs. white racism because the black people “do not want this to add further fuel to the flame”. As said, the definition of ‘blackness’ was not created by those who are being oppressed but by those who uses that system of oppression for their own good. Based on historical accounts, this method of colorism was once a strategy used by the plantation owners to create factions within the slave community, thus preventing any rebellious attempt. Because of this fact from history, the modern day Blacks (as defined by the one drop rule), are not openly d...