Freedom Writers

      I found Freedom Writers to be a very entertaining movie as well as a very informative one. I found it interesting to see the interactions of kids from different ethnic backgrounds when they were placed in the same setting, in this case, a classroom. At first, the kids seemed to partition themselves off into walled communities based on their cultural heritage. They rarely interacted with people of other groups and some disputes even broke about between the different groups based on racism. This really emphasizes the CRT tenet that some groups have no desire to eradicate racism. Instead of trying to overcome their cultural differences, they clung to those who shared their background and shunned everyone else. However, as the class progressed, the kids began to realize that they weren't actually all that different from one another. I think one of the most significant scenes when it comes to this conclusion is when Mrs. Gruwell has them play a sort of game where they stand on a line in the middle of the room if the statement she makes is true for them as an individual. For me, the most meaningful statement was when she asked them to stand on the line if they had lost a friend to gang violence. Almost every student in the room stood on the line at first and some even stayed there when she asked if they had lost four or more friends to gang violence. The students really seemed to recognize at that point that they were all victims of hate and violence, despite their different backgrounds. They all began to come to the same conclusion as Mrs. Gruwell; they all had compound and complex identities as well as a unique story that would contribute to American history. They all came from different walks of life and they all had different experiences. However, despite their differences, they were all targets of the same discrimination and violence. They had the opportunity to learn from not only their own experiences but also those of their classmates.
         Overall, I really liked this movie and I feel as though it put the information that we are learning in class into a different light. It really enabled me to get a better grasp on the material since it was presented in a way that resembled real life; it wasn't just words on a page anymore. I had never heard of this movie before this class and feel that it should be stressed more because society in general could definitely benefit from seeing this movie. They could see that people do have the ability to work past their differences and to accept one another based on character instead of appearance.