I Took Screenshots of All The Black People In Forrest Gump Because I Don’t Understand How To Be An Ally

I, like you, am constantly looking for ways to end racism in our great country. This is why I spent an entire viewing of Forrest Gump taking screenshots of all of the black people.

This film is problematic AF

I began to notice a trend….

For a film about the celebrated “Civil Rights Era,” black people sure seem to be either a ridiculous caricature ….

…or a ridiculous caricature….

…or a ridiculous caricature….

…or an outright punchline…

….or they were simply off on the edges of the frame.

Yet, despite these fringe, caricatured African-American characters, when the film eventually moves to New York City in the 1970s, there’s not a single black actor to be seen. Not as a cop, gang member, store owner, bar patron or even on the street. It is quite possibly the whitest portrayal of New York City in film history. In fact the film seems to get whiter as it goes on…

They wanted to be WAY too clear that there was a black guy in that crowd.

By the end of the film, the only character of color is Forrest’s maid, and it’s still pretty uncomfortable when you remember that…

How has no one explained that he shouldn’t bring that up?

Long story short, the viewing did not paint this “dream of reconciliation for our society” in a good light. This is a film that was shown to me in Middle School AND High School, as equal parts reward and teaching tool during lessons about the Civil Rights Era/Baby Boom. It IS educational, but not necessarily for the reasons my teachers intended…

Did I mention how woke I am?

Most importantly, no one seems to want to educate Forrest on the problematic way he floats through life like a thoughtless white feather, without a care in the world.

There’s a reason the person that listens to Forrest’s story the longest is THIS guy…

The face of America

Forrest Gump is a classic example of the white liberal’s need for self-congratulation. The film is quite accurate in its inequity of screen time, as whites often cast themselves as the heroic survivors of the Civil Rights struggle. This is a way to cope with the fact that things aren’t much different now, as they were then. This is reflected in the film’s ending, where Forrest Gump decides to raise Forrest Gump Jr. in the same confederate flag waving town from which he literally ran away, seemingly dooming his son to the same cacophony of white privilege, white ignorance & white nonsense.

What are we, as a nation supposed to do about this? I literally have no idea. Doing all this writing and screencapping was a lot of work. I was kind of hoping you’d know.

I won’t even get into the fact that he whitewashes the origin of Elvis Presley’s dancing…..

Ross W Berman IV has music available at rossberman.bandcamp.com. He can be heard every Monday on the RAW Rebellion on WrestleZone Radio.