A critic of Kenny Leon's film, American Son.Literature Essay

A Critic of Kenny Leon's Film, American Son
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Racism has been one of the most talked-about topics in today's American society. Among the most affected communities by racism are African Americans. One could assume that racial discrimination used to exists in the colonial era. Still, the sad news is that a substantial number of American citizens are being discriminated against daily as a result of their color or ethnic origins. Various films have been created to bring the issue to the attention of the world. Among them is the American Son, directed by Kenny Leon. The film is a perfect example of pop culture. Therefore, the paper will focus on how Leon represents the issue of racism in the current American world in his 2019 film, American Son.
The plot of the play is a representation of the unfair judgment that the American justice system has on African Americans. The film focuses on an interracial couple who reunite in a police station to report about their missing teenage son. The fact that their son is half African puts him in the spotlight of being a suspect in criminal activity. The nature of questions that the police ask the Kendra suggests racial profiling. Such kind of profiling has been happening in modern American society. The number of African-American citizens who end up in police custody tends to be higher than that of the whites. The inappropriate use of force by police and racial profiling has become a common topic of political concerns. The author points out that most of the police stops are based on the ethnical origin of the vehicle occupants. African American male teens stand a high chance of being stopped forcefully by the police. The use of force on this group has resulted in the death of innocent kids. In addition, local events are a triggering factor to the increased discrimination since African Americans are viewed as suspects regardless of the lack of evidence. On the other hand, the white rarely faces forced stops or any force when being arrested. Teenage African American boys have been victims of forced stops, even when they did not express any resistance (Legewie, 2016). In Leon's film, Kendra's husband asks her whether his son might have been in the company of African American friends. This is an indication that Kendra's husband, being white, is aware of how unfair the justice system is. Therefore, if their son was in the company of other black kids, then the chances are high that he might have landed in the arms of the police. Besides, the worry in his face makes the viewer sense that something would turn out wrong if his son had African American friends.
The film brings an insight into how the judicial injustice can affect African Americans. There are various impacts of the extrajudicial police killings on the social and mental health of African American children. Staggers-Hakim. (2016) The future explains the psychological well-being of young black men as a result of racial discrimination when it comes to the judicial system. Recommendations have been made on the development of policies that would eradicate such killings. Therefore, given the turn of events in Leon's film, he attempted to create awareness of the state that the young African American men ...