Culture, Race, Religion, and Politics

When it comes to Fires in the Mirror, I am not sure what to think. The movie was strange I am not sure what it was supposed to be—a real movie, a documentary, or what? There were very few things that I was sure of about that ‘movie’ after I watched it. I know that it was all about the Jews and the blacks in Crown Heights during the early nineteen eighties. I know that there was a Jewish man who ran over a black boy and the blacks rioted in protest because, “Jews always get away with everything!” Then, in protest, there was a group of blacks who stabbed a Jewish student to death. There were many people who the author of the movie impersonated. Only one of the people did I know from today’s era. This was the Reverend Al Sharpton.

Out of the entire movie I was most surprised with the way that he was portrayed. I see him now as a political activist but I saw him then as someone who was just trying to stir stuff up. This movie brought him to me in a whole new light. One of the women that lived in Crown Heights told the author that she was afraid because the blacks that rioted were not from Crown Heights, they were brought in by Sharpton for a publicity stunt. I have been told a few times during my lifetime to not trust Sharpton at all and now I have reason to do this. I now see how he acts when it comes to right and wrong. I am not a racist by any means and I am a liberal who rests on the side of the blacks most of the time, but this time however, I have to rest with the Jews. I feel that Sharpton overstepped his bounds. I also lost almost all respect that I ever had for the Reverend.

This movie was politically charged and had a lot of deeper meanings to it. Though I am not sure what all of them were, I feel that if I were older at the time of the riots things would make more since to me. I was three years old in 1991 when the riots occurred. Many of the other students in the class might remember the riots being on the news but there is no way for me to do this. However, I can say that I was surprised by the movie and I was enlightened. It has changed my opinion of some of the political leaders of our time and it has opened my mind to the fact that sometimes some ethnic groups take advantage of the things that we, the whites, favor them for. I actually am making a reference to affirmative action. The actions of the blacks on this movie have made me really stop and reexamine my thoughts on our treatment of the African Americans in our society, as compared to the other racial and ethnic groups.

--Michael