The Birth Of A Nation Essay

Racism has always been an issue in the south, especially with the miserable and shameful defeat of the civil war. The south could not accept defeat right along with the freedom of blacks. I believe that in this film, “The Birth of a Nation”, especially during this time, eyes were opened, mouths were silent, and thoughts about racism that people knew about but were blinded to, were stunned. The video was as if it was a dream for blacks. Although some of them did participate in office, I saw a few of black men in the ku klux klan and it was as if they were the ones terrorizing the whites. The whites, this time, were the ones afraid for their lives and hiding out. Protecting their valuable possessions, such as their homes and even their children,

This group of people made whites feel more comfortable with being racist towards others. In the movie, I think another point that was meant to be seen across the board was the famous flip of racism. What if we did this to you? What if we made you feel this way? I watched the entire movie and overall the message was quite clear to me. You do not need the words to be screamed at you to know that if you were in the south but not a white civilian during this time, then what were you? What did you stand for if your skin was not as fair as others? The Birth of a Nation symbolizes the apparent struggles that blacks in the south went through, but without having to spell it out. Having blacks in office during reconstruction probably could have been one of the biggest things that made whites upset, besides their freedom. The video shows the white men and women watching as blacks were in the office with an uncomfortable posture. In conclusion, I believe the movie shined the light directly on the problems that the south faced. This movie wanted to show others, “Ok, blacks have freedom, but now what?”. Although it was people in the north who felt like the freedom of blacks have been granted so that’s it, let them deal with their own problems, it just still was not enough to the blacks who dealt with this oppression for years and years to come and years to follow