BlindSpotting
Last Sunday, I went to see this movie with a few friends. It was a quick decision under some sort of social/peer pressure. But I’m glad I did. Otherwise, I would have not at all heard about this movie.
One of the themes surrounding this film is pretty obvious, the racial problems in America, police brutality and violence towards people of color, more so on black people specifically. Another theme the film tries hard to reveal is to show the struggles that both white and black races when it comes to racial problems. I have to admit that I may have a slight bias towards the black race due to complex reasoning and under many cultural influences, but I would always try my best to maintain the objectivity of my opinions.
Witnessing a police shooting scene to a 26-year-old black father with a 3-year-old daughter has been haunting Collin, our main character, who is on probation struggles to maintain his friendship with his best childhood friend Miles after the event. The realization of the differences forced him to re-evaluate things between him and his white friend Miles. There’re so many details in this film that are representing different ideas and opinions and facts; it’s hard to put them all in a cohesive paragraph. I’ll bullet point them.
Police brutality. This is basically one side of this movie. More that are being shown are the biases and stereotypes of white people or people held towards black people. When Collin pointed a gun on the officer who killed the man, after a deep, angry, black culture featured (rap) pouring out from Collin, he said to Miles, “I didn’t mean to.”. Think about it. What does that mean? Does it mean that he deserves forgiveness? Or maybe no? Or maybe it’s a subconscious or even unconscious response. If so, should the forgiveness be given? It’s interesting because there’s no real tracing back of how he subconsciously just decided to kill him if there is even a deciding phase. Is it rooted deep inside his head by his education, by his profiling, so that he just presumed the potential criminality and all of that is just emergency response? Maybe. When Miles asked back “You sure?”, Well, yes, of course, he is sure, but what if it was beyond his control, is he still sure about that? Whose fault is that? Should criminals with severe mental illness be forgiven, well, their cases are almost certainly ruled to actions beyond conscious control. Do we blame him for not being aware enough of letting stereotypes erode his views? Maybe. Do we blame that he’s not logical enough to handle such emergencies? Do we blame human instincts because real danger would hardly be anticipated until it appears? If not, do we condemn generations of black people might indeed have left such stereotypical impressions that are hard to be ignored by others? Well, they didn’t leave all those stereotypes for no reason, they were almost forced to leave such stereotypical impressions, out of poverty, out of desperation, out of injustice, out of discrimination, out of double even multiple standards, out of lack of education, out of 3 strikes, out of segregation, out of human survival instinct, yea they have instincts TOO, etc, etc, etc. Where do all those come from? Almost all trace back to one, slavery. Who do we blame now? It’s a complicated relationship. Grouping among humanity creates gap and division, undoubtedly indicating differences that are compared and seen by each group, any bit of self-superiority leads to the belief of the inferiority of others. It’s worse when the grouping is across time and generations, individual differences are diminished and ignored, even developmental changes are almost refused to be seen by other groups. And confusion results here, whether the changes in a conscious mind that any individual made is strong enough to defeat the stereotype formed throughout one’s lifetime by being immersed in discriminative environment towards other groups, it’s not possible to know for sure. In fact, a person can still be primarily affected by any new inputs or push from the outside world, it’s not fixed and fluctuating. Choices are not precisely choices anymore, they’re heavily subjected to your past and present, as in what is happening right now, at the moment. It is his fault, and it is also not.
Whites’ struggles. When individuals in different groups intersect, this is where struggle happens. Miles is very troublemaking and is depicted in a stereotypical hood/ghetto way, clothing style, talking, behaviors. Except, he chooses not to say the word “nigga” with the awareness that he is white and he also identifies himself as white. No matter how hard he tried to be, or he was raised/influenced this way in the neighborhood, he can’t ignore the fact that the grouping still exists, and also the fact that he bought a gun. Collin, at first, with his best friend Miles, did not consciously have the idea or did not get a clear awakening reminder until the occurrence of the life-altering event. He and Miles were almost at a stalemate, just for the sake of the unspeakable word, and a lot of inner screaming from Collin begging Miles to grow up and know what consequences his actions would bring to Collin if he got involved. That night, Miles went back, asking his wife not to call him that, which might indicate an acknowledgment he had for himself and a certain responsibility for his friend Collin. Like the responsibility that you would feel you hold when you can receive a prize because your last name is Richard and your friend’s last name is Rick but he has to pay for the prize, and you want no prize and certainly do not want him to pay. Another pretty obvious cue indicating this topic is when Miles and Collin reached the police officer’s house, the officer’s wife and kid were leaving with something said by the wife: “my husband is in there somewhere.” The hint of complaint, anger, and helplessness towards the husband suggested in a way her sides and opinions. She doesn’t like what he’s done, maybe out of all the media attention the event has brought, maybe out of how he defended himself no matter if he’s the one to blame, maybe out of marriage pressure, I can’t know for sure. But one thing I know for sure is that the arguments they had behind the scene was not trivial, and was race related. Like any white people who had arguments about this issue. Maybe her self-control and self-awareness are strong enough to fight the instinct or at least to not guide the instinct. But she was an outsider. She has no right even to say that she would’ve done better. I understand, as an individual, trying as hard as we can to differentiate us from any labeling or stereotypes, has the least effort-taking hope that others could see us individually, without any group characterizing. In the meantime, as hard as people try, it’s harder for them to do the same for others. Stereotyping is not a one-way street, it’s bidirectional, unfortunately. How ironic, we’re so bound by the rules, hidden or not, of this society, of our history and differences, to hope that one day, the dream would come true. But it will.
Gun violence. As a powerful tool that could take or save a life, the gun is liberty, it is one of the physical forms of regulators humanity invented for its own sins towards each individual. The most intense moment the movie had for most audiences was when little Sean held his daddy’s gun in his hands, toying it as he doesn’t know what it is, what it could do, out of pure curiosity. 3 adults in the room froze. Ask yourself a question, what would you do under such circumstances. Sean was so focused that he didn’t even hear his dad’s words, and trust me, kids really do that, there’re times that they’re too focused to listen to you. When the focus is on a gun in their hands, what would you do? Well, the worst scenario is obvious, but how would you be able to stay calm? You can’t scream out or rush to him, that could scare him and lead to accidental firing. The only thing you can do is hope, hope by the time you approached the kid to take the gun it hadn’t gotten fired. Regret as much as you can, because you should. Gun has always been a problem, in any country, at any time since it’s born. When power got into the hands that have the unlawful purposes for any party, or the hands that do not understand the power itself, disasters would be made. Not particularly details in this movie, but just have a brief recall on news that you have heard about the mass shootings. The solution would sound as natural as handing the power to the right holder and ensure it but not by equalizing everyone’s power. Well, why do we need that? The answer is easy too, the human mind is not a hive mind, the human brain is not transparent, the human mind is individualized. “If we could only understand it all, would we feel no pain?” The most beautiful and powerful thing yet becomes the source of our sufferings until god knows when, when each of us knows ourselves as part of humanity.
Blind spotting. Rubin vase has been used as a reference to this famous effect known particularly existing in any attention system. Biologically, at any moment the brain can only maintain one of the two shape interpretations. The particular use case in this movie is not perfect but did emphasize attention rather than a general, a whole perception. When Collin asked Val when she sees him, if she only saw the fighting, she hesitated. It is essential to know that Collin is so much more than that, everyone is so much more than what their appearance or one of their stories can tell. Which sides and what you choose to focus on and believe in are what really mattered. Maybe this is more a redemption attempt for many convicts, innocent or not, that got conveyed through this concept. Especially when the innocent level is very high, but the society is blind spotting them. Besides this, the whole movie is about blind spotting, I have to give the creator or whoever named it that the credit. Collin, Miles, the police officer, the wife, Mile’s wife, some parts of their lives are always given more attention and was rarely or never getting re-evaluated. We sometimes call that habits, or comfort zone, with the familiar benefits we always get when we tell ourselves to keep it the same way unless being provoked. It takes not only the willingness, but also the courage, to step out, or step back, to see what we’ve been blind spotting.
Wrote in the end, by the way, the movie was filmed in Oakland, CA, “a trendy spot in the rapidly gentrifying Bay Area.”
Some quotes I remembered from the movie:
Collin: Stop!
Sean: Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!
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Collin: Every time you come around here, Miles, you got me feeling like a monster in my own town! I ain’t no killer.
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Terry: [to Miles] You know, you don’t have to act ghetto to hang out here.
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Possibly To Be Continued.