In Frances Reid’s film Skin Deep: Building Diverse Campus Communities, the filmmaker observes students from four different campuses as they undergo a challenging racial awareness retreat. In an effort to understand their views and feelings on race, the filmmaker also follows them on campus and to their homes. In order to promote challenging dialogue and interaction, these particularly students were chosen because of their ability to be frank about their feelings on race and diversity. As one girl named Judith states “I will not be less angry…I’m not here to tell you pretty things, that it will be alright”.
The students in the film often awkwardly confront one another on race and racism. In these confrontations we see how deeply ingrained are the roots of prejudice and hatred. More importantly we see how prejudice and racism have an impact on not only the oppressed but also the oppressors. For example, as one black student named Gordon expresses about growing up black “You are brought up and shaped into a non-thinking, violent, unintellectual being…then they put you into a university…they know you’re going to fail”. Another student, Brian, talks about how his friend’s animosity toward all whites has resulted in him losing a piece of himself. Yet, we see Dane discuss the challenges and obstacles that stand in the way of promoting inclusion, diversity, and acceptance when one is raised with prejudice and bigotry “I don’t know if you know what it’s like having a strong bigot in your family, and it’s tough choosing what’s right and choosing your family”.
In my own life I have often dealt with the hatred, prejudice, and exclusion that come from being different than the dominant class of people in society, i.e., whites. On the one hand, this enables me to view the world from different sets of cultural lenses. I can teach my daughter Spanish and English while she grows
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