This is a film purely about racism, a story of communication!
Compared with other films related to "racial discrimination" that I have seen before, such as "Green Book", it focuses more on the friendship between white people and blacks, and this film is purely from the perspective of black people who encounter unequal treatment of human rights, telling the story of black defenders and white Ku Klux Klan members through communication, turning enemies into friends.
The film script comes from real people and real events, and the events that have indeed happened are more realistic.
01
Regarding racial discrimination, as a yellow race, we live in a country where basically the whole nation is the same kind of person, and this feeling is not profound.
Most people, from the bottom of their hearts, will have some strangeness and sense of distance for people who are obviously different camps, and this feeling is declared and secret. For Chinese, after all, there are yellow people with the same skin color around them, and without prior explanation, many people do not know the difference between each other and themselves.
But for whites and blacks in the United States, the differences are clear at a glance.
From an objective standpoint to talk about the psychological process of this difference, we cannot completely deny the exclusion of white people, as long as they do not transcend human rights, they have the right to choose who to make friends with, but we must deeply understand that the root cause of this kind of exclusion is very deep. From the difference in skin color seen by the naked eye, to the difference in lifestyle and psychology, to the inner diaphragm, these are not so easy to cross.
Everyone can't choose their own origin, but once the external things such as birth and skin color are formed, they will imprison a person's way of thinking, just like Nezha, the natural magic pill, everyone only thinks that he is a scourge; Shen Gongbao firmly believes that his beast identity hinders the development of his career; the problem between black and white people is the same, this innate difference, coupled with the resistance of the day after tomorrow, makes the distance between them grow larger and larger.
02
The contradiction between people, in addition to competing for limited resources, is more often that everyone is unwilling to stand in the other's position to understand each other, so it is difficult to find a compromise solution to the problem.
A monologue by C.P. in the final stages of the voting in the film is very meaningful.
He said that at one point he thought he was lonely, although he became a family, had a wife and children, and had the responsibility on his shoulders as a man, but he still felt lonely, until he joined the Ku Klux Klan and became a party member, he felt that he had found an organization, and everyone trusted and encouraged each other.
Yes, many times people need to integrate into a collective, and then have a sense of identity in this collective, as if they have found a home.
But joining the collective means having the values of the collective, what the collective advocates, and what you have to practice to become one of the best members.
And when C.P. realizes that the judgment of the values given by the collective is distorted, wrong, and anti-human, he has gone through more than 10 years of party experience, and the repentance at this time is a betrayal of the collective, and it is also a great negation of the time he has traveled, but he knows what is right and what is wrong, and he can only choose betrayal.
03
What special functions does Evot, the black aunt, use to turn enemies into friends? Genuine help.
In the beginning, when black people were expounding their miserable situation, someone once suggested that as white people you have not suffered the unequal treatment we suffer, so you have no idea what suffering is.
But Eivoort knows that white people are also ordinary people, and they also have their own unsatisfactory and pain points in their lives.
She keenly sensed C.P.'s predicament and seized the opportunity to step forward. And what is even more valuable is that she does not know whether there is any point in helping C.P., but she does not consider the opposing positions and identities, simply from the perspective of one parent to one parent, she applied for a change of ward for C.P.'s son with congenital dementia, so that he does not have to live with strangers, and has daily mood swings, hysteria, this move has helped C.P. a lot.
This move has also become the key to the overall reversal, and it is this kind of human brilliance that embodies equality and fraternity, so that black people can get the understanding and support of a white man, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, when fighting for their own interests.
Ultimately, on the question of whether black children and white children could share the same school, because of C.P.'s "defection," 8 votes to 4, blacks won.
The truth here seems very simple, as long as you lend a helping hand when others need help, then when you need help, others will give you the same support. But the more simple the truth and simple things, the more difficult it is for many people to do it.
Without a natural zealous like Edwater, without an objective position like hers on right and wrong, right and wrong, and not right for people, I am afraid it is difficult to abandon prejudice and take this step.
04
Many times, each of us is born in this world, not only with our own class, the same starting line, the same knowledge background of people, we also have to deal with a lot of people with their different personalities, different backgrounds, different identities and statuses, how to deal with such people, there are many things worth summarizing and summarizing.
Once a friend worked in a large manufacturing plant, on the one hand, she had to face the senior management of the management department in the factory, and even foreign investors, communicate with them about the implementation of the company's system and the development of activities, on the other hand, she also had to communicate with the workers on the front line of the factory, face their demands, formulate corresponding company strategies and programs, and discuss the feasibility of plan implementation with them.
Obviously, as a manager, she communicates with senior management and even foreign headquarters, to come up with her own good education and quality, as well as professional cognition of management, to write emails, to do forms, to do documents, to summarize and summarize, to report. But on the other hand, in the face of the workers on the front line of the factory, what she has to learn is not to modify and package too much, to convey the company's decisions concisely and clearly, to communicate in a language they can understand, to use their communication methods, such as problems that cannot be solved during working hours, to have a drink after work, and to alleviate conflict and anxiety.
The reason why there are two opposing groups of blacks and whites in this film, sitting down to discuss problems together, is achieved by the existence and efforts of a person who is good at holding bilateral meetings. Faced with the strong demands of blacks and the strong rejection of whites, the government was almost helpless, and the government officials in desperation invited the masters of civil organizations to contact the two sides and resolve conflicts and contradictions one by one by electing representatives, negotiating with each other, and voting.
So when we are in this world, it is not enough to want to promote the development of some things and only think about what we want to express. We need to pay attention to what kind of people we are communicating with, and we must use the language that the other party is accustomed to.
You think that you have explained the things, if the other party does not understand, then in fact, your purpose has not been achieved, you are just covering your ears and ringing the bell in self-satisfaction.
You think of yourself as a Sven, to be tactful, to give leeway to others, so you always talk in a roundabout way, not straight to the point, you think this is an act that fits your identity, but what about the listener? If the other party is just a big boss, or a simple-minded person, or a person who is accustomed to accepting orders directly, then it is difficult for you to use your set of euphemisms to make the other party understand what you want to express, the other party does not listen, does not understand, and your communication is invalid.
Therefore, when we communicate with people, we should not stick to our own identity and positioning, see people talk about people, see ghosts talk about ghosts, and talk about this truth.
05
In the end, C.P. was angrily spurned by his white compatriots, who unplugged the valves of the gasoline station in his house, causing him a heavy loss, but the blacks, in gratitude for his righteous deeds, lined up to his gas station to refuel.
This kind of thing happens often, gaining something also means losing something, there is no choice between the two, this is the real life. But we do what we think is right and we don't regret it.
The problem between people and people, in fact, is the same as the two sides between blacks and whites, is a problem of communication and cognition, first of all, we must think of breaking the barrier, breaking the exclusion, to establish a common cognition.
As Evot, the black aunt, said: God created you and you created me. By implication, you and I are equal.
When letting go of stereotypes and communicating from an equal standpoint, people can let down their guard, let go of hysteria, and be calm, just like the gossip between Eivoort and C.P.'s wife, there is no white-black separation, that is, two women are chatting about their families, children and husbands, and the atmosphere is harmonious.
Communication is not limited to identity, position, as long as it is sincerely for the sake of the other party, it can always be seen.
Smart communication is to stand in the other person's position and express their own views and opinions in a language that the other party can understand. The purpose of communication is never to express, but to make it clear to the listener.
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