The Unlearning of US:

The Blue-gieman and US

Are there just bad apples, or is the entire law enforcement system in America corrupt? Or are black people just too aggressive and combative? We seek to understand if these perceptions create the fears that result in the seemingly unavoidable calamities called police brutality in America.

The history of Racism in America rings so loudly these days, and we can hardly breathe from the weight of it. The Unlearning of US opens with sirens as a police officer delivers a baby girl. Statistics tell us that this precious little girl has a 7 out of 10 chance of having a bad experience with a police officer just because she was born black in America. Newsflashes and gunfire end with a knee on the neck of George Floyd. I can’t breathe. Just like the weight of the water makes crevasses miles deep into the earth, “we feel the weight of it {racial injustices} every single- day,” recites a protester yelling into a megaphone into the faces of unsuspecting white bystanders. The rage is undeniable. But so is the soleness as we spout feelings of shame, confusion, and despair about the George Floyd video. A panel of 7 regular, everyday folks is posed with the question, “how the hell did we get here?” A retired nurse assures us that the threat is real and has the scars to prove it. There’s no convincing the scrappy baby-boomer, Kalvin, that we shouldn’t burn the country down and start over. A cocky but jovial Atlanta Police Officer, Investigator Dennis expresses that he is sure of one thing, that “Officer Knee on the Neck” does not represent him and the Blue he stands for. But there’s nothing they can say to convince the techy Republican, Toby, that this whole incident was one man committing one crime. He’s adamant that these police officers were doing the best they could and that the Blue-gieman ideology is false. This film takes an honest look into the historical perception of black people in America and how it impacts the perception of the police by the same black communities.

RENT EPISODE 1- “THE BLUE-GIEMAN and US”


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