“That Chechen monster killed his father”What an open display of racism!
“You and your Jewish Mind tricks”
Why isn't that guy offended at that man’s comments?
“That Chechen boy can’t even speak Russian; of course he’s guilty”
If that happened here, the offender would be sued.
During the movie, 12, I sat there -stunned, shocked, amazed- as the open racism revealed itself. Twelve men had gathered to decide a Chechen boy's fate. The evidence against the boy was provided by witnesses the men had no reason to doubt. The boy had nothing to prove his innocence besides his word; besides, he was a Chechen savage. One by one, the men managed to see through their prejudices and vote “Not Guilty” The journey was particularly hard for one man. His racism was so ingrained, he felt disdain for anyone who wasn’t the same race as him. Once he found out that one of his fellow jurors was Jewish, he constantly made rude comments to the man. It was only when the other men were able to relate the Chechen boy’s story to the life of the man’s son, that the man was able to overcome his racism. Now, what surprised me was not so much the open racism, as the reaction to it. In America, I believe people would be greatly offended by such comments. The offender would likely be warned or shunned in this society. In Russia, it seems to be a completely different story. The Jewish man, for the most part, was calm and not offended at all by the man’s comments. To me, this suggests open racism is common in the area.
This is clearly a problem that still needs to be resolved today. Because of racism, an innocent person was almost sent to jail for the rest of his life. I admire the director's desire to bring the issue of racism up and make it a key point of his film. After watching 12, I've gained a new respect for racism and the problems it still presents today.
*Please note that the quotes are roughly what were said in the movie. I can’t remember them exactly word for word. :)
I enjoyed the introduction with quotes from the movie. I agreed with what you've said about the contrast between cultures; however, I am slightly confused by one of your statements. How and why have you gained a respect for racism?
ReplyDeleteI like how you mentioned that in America we would be offended by such open racism, because it's so true. However, there is still racism here, it's just not so straight forward so we tend to except it more.
ReplyDeleteI was going to contrast the open racism of Russia to the more subtle racism here, but I decided I was going too off-topic with it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the people who voted him guilty at first were racist. They might have just been voting by what evidences they received and then acted on that.
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