Getting Started for White Folks II: Video Edition (Movies, Documentaries and Talks)

Building on A Getting Started Guide For White Folks, this is the first of what will be a series diving deeper into recommendations for white folks seeking a place to start, to listen, and most importantly, to act. Everyone has their preferred medium, so I’m going to try to cover all of them, starting with visual formats.

If video is your medium, below are talks from leading anti-racist voices as well as documentaries, docuseries and movies chronicling the history of racism, police brutality and the prison industrial complex in the United States.

Also, if you’re just getting started on this journey, take a quick look at Part I: The Basics.

Check out other posts in the series: A Getting Started Guide For White Folks Overview , Podcasts, Voices and Organizations, and Workshops and Classes and Books and Articles.

Video Talks

• How to be an Antiracist — Ibram X Kendi
• Deconstructing White Privilege — Robin DiAngelo
• From Slacktivism to Activism! How Allies Can Step Up to the Moment — Dr. David Campt
• Race Matters: 25th Anniversary — Cornel West
• Why “I’m not racist” is only half the story — Robin DiAngelo
• So You Want to Talk About Race — Ijeoma Oluo
• Finding Myself in the Story of Race — Debby Irving
• 400 Years Head Start And How White Wealth Was Created — Tim Wise
• How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time — Baratunde Thurston
• How Can We Win — Kimberly Jones
• The urgency of intersectionality — Kimberlé Crenshaw
• The future of race in America — Michelle Alexander

Documentaries

• 13th (Netflix) A documentary on the history of mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex in the United States from Ava DuVernay.
• Notes from the Field (HBO) — Anna Deavere Smith’s one-woman show chronicling the stories of the school-to-prison pipeline and police brutality in the United States.
• 3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets (HBO) — The story of Jordan Davis, a 17 yr old who was in his car with three friends playing his music too loud for 45 yr old Michael Dunn, who shot and killed him after a verbal altercation. His mother, Lucy McBath, is now a Congresswoman in Georgia.
• Say Her Name: The Life and Death Of Sandra Bland (HBO)— The story of Sandra Bland, a 28 yr old activist whose violent arrested for a minor traffic violation was captured by dashcam video that went viral. She was found dead in police custody three days later in what the coroner ruled a suicide.
• Baltimore Rising (HBO) — The story of Freddie Gray, a 25 yr old taken for a “rough ride” by Baltimore police following arrest for possession of a switchblade. He died a week later from spinal cord injuries sustained while in police custody.
• 16 Shots (Showtime) — Chronicling when Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke shot Laquan McDonald 16 times — 15 of them after the teenager was already on the ground — and the coverup that ensued.
• Whose Streets? (Hulu) — When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point. An unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice.
• LA 92 (Netflix) — Previously unseen and rare footage twenty-five years after the verdict in the Rodney King trial sparked several days of protests, violence and looting in Los Angeles.
• I Am Not Your Negro (Prime) — Based on James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript Remember This House, this documentary is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter.
• The Force (Netflix) — The 2017 documentary chronicling the Oakland police department’s struggle to overcome scandal and corruption.
• Frontline: Policing the Police (PBS/YouTube) — With the continuously rising deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police officers, Department of Justice (DOJ) stepped in to mandate reform at several troubled forces. This is a rare, up-close journey inside one police department that’s been ordered to change its ways: the force in Newark, New Jersey.
• Crime + Punishment (Hulu) — This film chronicles the real struggles of a group of whistleblower cops in NYC as they fight back against the illegal arrest quotas they’re pressured to abide by.

Docuseries

• Time: The Kalief Browder Story (Netflix) — Kalief Browder was held at Rikers Island for three years for allegedly stealing a backpack. Because he was unable to make bail and refused to plead to a crime he didn’t commit, he spent two of his three years in solitary confinement, a trauma which led to his eventual suicide after finally being released.
• Truth and Power: “Prisoners for Sale” (ep 4) — Two former prisoners turned journalists explore the multi-billion dollar business of mass incarceration. Their story illuminates the messy entanglement of lucrative contracts, extravagant lobbying, fierce secrecy, and deplorable conditions that distinguishes the United States’ prison industrial complex.
• United Shades of America (CNN) — W. Kamau Bell
• Trigger Warning with Killer Mike — (Netflix)

Movies

• When They See Us, the story of the vilification and eventual exoneration of the Central Park Five, also from Ava DuVernay and available on Netflix
• Fruitvale Station — The story of Oscar Grant, a 22 yr old man shot in the back by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle while he was face down on the ground.

I’m trying to get these out quickly while folks are paying attention and looking for resources, so I’m sure there are many things I’ve missed. Please share thoughts, feedback and suggestions!