1) It’s historically accurate
The events in the film actually happened. Martin Luther King Jr. did go to Selma and he did lead a march there. History is important, but it is often ignored. This film does a great job of showing history in an accurate yet entertaining light. It is a film that people of all ages can learn from.
2) It teaches about racism and social justice
The Selma march was caused by people being denied their rights. Both African Americans and women had had the right to vote for over 40 years. African American men had actually had the right to vote for nearly a hundred years by the time the Selma march happened. But they were denied that right as a result of continuing racism. Selma teaches about the affects racism can have on people and it shows the importance of standing up for what is right. Martin Luther King Jr. was a powerful and effective protester, and his methods can be applied to issues that exist today. Everybody even moderately interested in social justice can learn from this film.
3) It is inspirational
Martin Luther King Jr. is a powerful figure. His name is known around the world. Even if you can’t remember exactly what was in his “I have a dream” speech, chances are you have heard about it. Ad people love the idea of overcoming adversity. Selma features a prominent figure and it has a powerful message. Even if you don’t come out of the theatre ready to take to the streets in protest, you will come out of the theatre inspired.
4) It is hopeful
Martin Luther King Jr. was able to lead the people of Selma to victory. Selma is one of the protests that was an obvious victory. The adversity was over come. It is difficult to walk out of the theatre without thinking that all protests can be one, and all adversity can be over come. It makes the future look that much brighter.
5) It is relevant
It is impossible to watch Selma without thinking about how it relates to current events. There are obvious similarities between the police brutality directed at the Selma protesters and the police brutality aimed at the protesters in Ferguson. Selma was released at the perfect time. I can only hope that people look at the similarities and learn from the events of the past so that the future can be brighter than it looks right now.
hessianwithteeth 
January 12th, 2015 at 8:38 pm
Reblogged this on derpsopsrambles and commented:
I love getting good information out there. As Lou Reed would say to Laurie A….. “I’ll be your mirror” wooooo! Sometimes being a cut and paste parrot is the best thing for minds that long to be occupied with heart-caring pursuits ❤
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January 11th, 2015 at 8:40 pm
I will go an see Selma….thank you for posting this….
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January 11th, 2015 at 10:59 am
Reblogged this on Walter's Rants and commented:
Should be a gooooood movie!
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January 10th, 2015 at 10:06 pm
Factually accurate is rare in movies. I’ll watch out for Selma
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January 10th, 2015 at 8:46 pm
Thank you so much for this post…good to see that there actually is some intelligent life down here…
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January 10th, 2015 at 8:44 pm
Reblogged this on Employment Complaints Are Us.
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January 10th, 2015 at 7:11 pm
Those are all Great reasons http://www.dakhmaofangramainyuu.wordpress.com
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January 10th, 2015 at 11:22 am
Um, I was not aware of any relationship between Selma and Fergusson.
In one case, a people were denied reasonable and legally mandated rights because of their race. Racism personified. The people protested in a reasonable and informative manner. Truly a significant advancement in society.
In the other case, a hardened criminal, who had just committed a violent crime, attempted to take the gun from a smaller police officer, and likely would have killed the officer and who knows who else, but fortunately was prevented from doing so, resulting in his death. This had nothing to do with racism at all. And a significant portion of the protest was violent rioting, causing death, looting and destruction (mostly to businesses of the very minority protesting), fueled by those who make their very lavish living off of encouraging division between the races, and a news media eager to “cause” news they could then “report”. No positive impact on society in general, or race relations in particular.
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January 10th, 2015 at 4:15 pm
Are you talking about Micheal Brown? The kid oh it turned out may have committed petty theft (a fact unknown to the office who would later shoot him) Who may have wrestled with a cop when said cop stopped him for jay walking. Before shooting him when he was over 35 feet away in the back.
You seem to be getting all your news from the Television because these “violent riots” where a tiny minority to the massive peaceful protests, and the fact the the days following the riots had many hundreds of the protesters came out and help clean up businesses affect by the riots.
You sound like a white person who’s been listening to too much fox news.
Cops have dangerous job, but it is there job to protect citizens, not shoot them in case they might hurt the cops. Here a couple case from just last year of cops shooting black children with toys guys. First with video of the boy kid being shot down toy gun, with practically no warning, no time, even through he put down the gun. He was shot and killed, the Cops found guiltless.
While these are not the same thing as Micheal Brown’s case it should be easy to see why Americans are angry at police all around the nation. With this shoot first as questions later mentality which over overwhelmingly affects black Americans being shot by white cops.
Before you keep saying the mantra that is justified, look deep into the Ferguson case, look at the statistics, look at the history. Racism isn’t dead, it never was.
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January 10th, 2015 at 6:42 pm
No, racism is not dead, and probably never will be. In part, because there are a number of people fighting to keep it alive. Some because they are stupid enough to believe a person is inferior based solely on race, and some because it is profitable to foment discord between the races. The good news is that many people don’t think in racial terms any more, and many more work hard to suppress those thoughts.
Thus, TRUE racism is seriously ill, thanks to Martin Luther King and other true champions of equality. Black people are no longer SYSTEMATICALLY being discriminated against. Sure, it happens, but on a case by case basis, and usually “stealthily”, Obvious cases usually backfire on the perpetrator due to a general disgust with racism, and if that doesn’t dissuade them, current laws can bring them to task.
Note that there is a “pseudo racism” which is flourishing. I think Barack Obama is doing a lousy job as president, so I must be a racist, right? No, I’m not. I don’t look down on Mr. Obama because he is black; I look down on him because he is doing damage to my country. George Bush did us a fair amount of harm too, but no non-white who criticizes HIM is called a racist. A white person inflicting violence on a black person is always called racist. A black person inflicting violence on a white person never is. Either case CAN be based in racism, but if it is considered an always/never situation, tension between the races is increased, not decreased.
I suspect that in 9 times out of 10 when one “person/group” calls another “racist”, the person/group using the term are more racist than those they are labeling.
FYI, I don’t regularly watch FOX news, or any news on television.
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January 10th, 2015 at 7:15 pm
Calling Obama a bad president because he’s had a lack luster two terms, for there fair an not racist. What is racist is the racial profiling done by law enforcement through the states. When done legally or not, and all it’s been good for is inconveniencing people who happen to have more melanin in there skin then your average white person.
What you call “TRUE racism” I call institutionalized racism amongst the worst of its kind. But distiquising this kind of racism from racism in general competely devalues the thousands of little attacks that people of colour face. Just being black make you less likely to get a job, people are more likely to be afraid of you, to not trust you, to think your less intelligent. There are also benevolent forms of racism which insists all black people are good a sports which can be just as harmful.
So when you say that black people are not systematically oppressed then I know your out of touch. They are not *as systematically* oppressed, but the fight that Dr. King pick up and took a long away is not over, but like the fight for women is not over.
When Black people, and other people of colour have the same access to opportunity, get arrested in a manner that reflects actual crime, can get jobs in equal rates, when children of black heritage can be treat equally in school and terrorist attack like the resent attack on the NAACP in Colorodo get some new coverage.
Now to be fair there is just a plain problem with the police in the US using excessive force, and having terrible training. I live in Canada, and out police are better, but even here you’d best best advised not to trust the cops (this is coming from the grandson of a detective, who gave that advice himself)
Systemic oppression for many groups still exists and there are resurgent of popularity of racist groups all the time. Yes it’s better, but there is still an large underbelly of hate and ignorance that needs to be cleaned up, and it’s not going to happen with out help.
Although you can’t be racist to white people in North America. That’s a group (I belong to) with no significant systematic oppression what so ever (you can be biased against white people, but there is not systematic oppression of us white folks). You can see this in many little effects like the fact we still specifically black men in reports as black, but white men are more often reported as just men.
People who say there is not oppression of people of colour anymore, are people who do not look closely at the issues, or at their own biases around race. I suggest this video.
Feel free to try to prove me wrong on the systematic oppression of black people, but there is some mighty strong reasons I hold the opinions I do.
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January 11th, 2015 at 10:47 am
“Systematically” does not mean “happens” or even “happens a lot”. It means it is done consistently and in an organized fashion, or even that the “system” has it intrinsically entwined. I don’t know about Canada, but that is not the case in the U.S. There are no laws which encourage it or even allow it; quite the contrary. If you are caught discriminating, it is rather unpleasant.
Now do people encounter unorganized, “hidden” discrimination? Of course; the basis for it (identification of self and group versus “others”) is throughout society. “My dad can beat up your dad, My school is better than your school, “My city’s football team is better than your city’s football team”. Encouragement of “us” versus “them” from early years on.
“You can’t can’t be racist to white people in the U.S.” Really? Of course you can. Some guy came to my door selling some stuff. I refused to buy, as I ALWAYS do to ANYONE who comes to my door uninvited. “So, you hate black guys, eh?” was his reply… A black person making an unwarranted assumption about a white person based on incomplete information? Sounds like being racist to a white person to me.
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January 11th, 2015 at 1:39 pm
I’m not going to keep fighting with you about the civil right issues in your own country any more. You don’t see or experience systematic discrimination PoC, so you don’t think it exists. It’s not an unusual state of affairs for the privledged. It doesn’t take the government to make things systematized, if it’s embedded in culture that functionally the same, though the government (republicans in particular) actually is suppressing voter rights through out your country, so Selma is actually pretty pertinent.
This isn’t even including racism to wards the native Americans in both our our countries (I really don’t know which is worse really). But I’ll let you figure it out, I just hope you don’t cling to your assumption on this one and is you don’t already go talk to some people of colour.
Also watch that TED talk if you haven’t already, I’m debating turning into a post.
https://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/affirmative-action
https://www.aclu.org/fighting-voter-suppression
https://www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights
https://www.aclu.org/school-prison-pipeline
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January 11th, 2015 at 10:12 am
“Are you talking about Micheal Brown? The kid oh it turned out may have committed petty theft (a fact unknown to the office who would later shoot him) Who may have wrestled with a cop when said cop stopped him for jay walking. Before shooting him when he was over 35 feet away in the back.”
Yes, and you might want to do a little research as well. Mr Brown was not a “kid”. He was 18, 6′ 4″, 292 pounds. There was little doubt that he had committed theft with violence, and the officer in question was aware of the crime and description of the perpetrators (he had heard the call and was involved in searching for the perps when spotting the jaywalkers. He first suggested/ordered the pair to get out of the street, then realized they appeared to be the suspects. Mr. Brown then assaulted the officer (who was in the car, while Mr Brown was outside), and eventually tried to escape. The officer then chased him to arrest him for the likely crime (theft) and undeniable crime (assault), and Mr. Brown turned and rushed at the officer and this is when the fatal shooting occurred.
Threes separate autopsies were unable to find any indication that any shot, including the fatal one, were “in the back”. He turned out to be unarmed (there are some unsubstantiated claims that he made a motion which implied he was going for a weapon), but he was by no means “harmless”. By his actions, he made himself a danger to the cop..
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January 11th, 2015 at 2:02 pm
lol 18 year olds are kids. Even if they are big and black, and he still shoot him while he was running away, he fact the cop wasn’t indited has led to the prosecutor in question to be sued, for defending the cop. I’d be willing to give you a couple, but the whole situation screams injustice, and you can’t even give that. Just a big black “man” shot by a cop happens every day they must deserve it.
And yes your repeating the police report, I’ve head it before, and no it is not the clear cut that’s just one side, but it’ll never actually go to court now, so we’ll never get a proper answer. That’s what I call injustice. Besides have you listened to Darren Wilson’s testimony? That man should not for a moment be a cop, the dehumanizing comments he made, the huge fear he admits to. Like you can be afraid, but being a police officer is a dangerous job if you can’t get your cool with an unarmed man then you shouldn’t be doing that job. Like why did he even let thing escalate like that, was he even properly trained? And why did they leave Micheal Browns body in the street for 4 hours uncovered?
All answer we won’t get adjudicated answers to because a obviously corrupt prosecute threw his case. Even bring on a known lair (lied in other major case in the past) to testify for Darren Wilson. The prosecutor defended the man he was suppose to indite. That’s either colossal incompetence, or corruption, and give the man is experience and this isn’t the first time he has do that well I think we can rule out incompetence.
If you can’t see a problem then your part of it. Even if Wilson turn out to be justified well never know.
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January 11th, 2015 at 6:20 pm
Legally an 18 year old is considered adult, but never mind, it really is just semantics.
Where do you get the info that he was shot running away? If that was the case, then there would be bullet entry wound(s) in the back, wouldn’t there? None were found. Yes, there was a witness who claimed that, but other witnesses and all the other evidence, including forensic, contradicted that account.
If him being shot running away could be shown, that would be a whole other story. One supposes that if that could have been shown, it would have been forced to have been shown. It was not, as far as I can tell.
If you can’t see a problem, then indeed you could be part of it. If you see a problem when the problem does not exist, might not you also be part of it?
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January 11th, 2015 at 6:24 pm
Well I don’t feel that was my strongest criticism, so I’ll wait for you to comment on those.
Though certainty I could be part of the problem, but I’m also not the one saying that systemic racism towards black people doesn’t exist anymore.
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January 11th, 2015 at 6:49 pm
Being shot in the back is not the strongest criticism? It is a key point. It is the difference between possible mistakes and a probable crime.
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January 11th, 2015 at 7:18 pm
Well if you think this is all about Micheal Brown then you’d be right, Micheal Brown, and all he problems surrounding the investigation (and I hope you don’t think the cops are entirely faultless in how they handled the case), but people aren’t just angry about Micheal brown they are angry at the systemic problems in law enforcement and how black people, as well as other people of colour are racially profiled and executed rather then being brought into trial.
Like even if Micheal Brown turned around and Charged Darren Wilson, and the truth of that remains unclear, Wilson had other options and he still shot an unarmed 18 year old, and this happens all the time, not quite every day, but at few times every week. And some of those people are actually legal children, most I’ve head being 12 year old’s killed of severely injured by cops, and infants being harmed in police raids (often on the wrong houses).
There is two problem, one being civil rights, and systemic racism, and the other being militarized police, but they go hand in hand. Though you reject that there is systemic racism, and seem to be refusing to see the wider problem for what it is. Police disproportionately arresting, pulling over, stopping, and executing people of colour, when white people are more likely to be breaking the law.
Also racial profiling is legal in some states and districts, and is attempting to be made legal in certain states. If that doesn’t fit the definition of institutionalized racism then really I don’t know what does.
These issue are much bigger then Micheal Brown and Darren Wilson, but they have become emblematic of those bigger issues.
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January 10th, 2015 at 6:46 am
A lot of the newer generation want to say that this is all in the past now, that there is not discrimination anymore. It’s foolish to be submissive in this way. Plus it is important to recognize the significance of what our recent past was like, and how to improve on it like you have written.
Great post, I strongly agree.
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January 9th, 2015 at 11:58 pm
I wanted to see, but then thought, no, I don’t want to cry. But if it is inspiring, then I will.
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January 10th, 2015 at 4:18 pm
It might make you cry, but it’s powerful to watch, for me It made me want to lash out if anything, but also help me appreciate the power of peaceful demonstrations.
Withteeth
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January 10th, 2015 at 4:40 pm
I will have to approach it with the right frame of mind. Thanks for the (sort of) review.
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January 9th, 2015 at 11:48 pm
Just saw it advesetised at the Movie theatre here in Australia. Looking forward to seeing it, not so much to be entertained, but to gain an understanding.
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