Black Boys (2020) Movie Drinking Game
Do a Shot: every time you cry.
Do a Shot: every time a black child says they’ve seen fear in a white person’s eyes for no reason.
Take a Drink: every time they mention the only way out or they feel like they can find worth is through sports.
Do a Shot: if you have an eye-opening moment.
By: Movie Snurb (A Toast) –
Black Boys is a documentary premiering at ABFF about the black male experience in America, specifically in modern times. It Illuminates the wide range of black humanity in the country today. It looks to educate everyone on the black experience and how black males are viewed in America and how they find their worth. It’s an eye-opening doc that everyone should watch.
A Toast
This doc focuses on three aspects, three aspects that any human needs to be healthy. Then it looks at how black boys’ experiences in America shape those three aspects; Body, Mind, Heart. The body focuses on how for most black boys the only way out of their situation as a child is through sports. Not only their only way out, but the only way they can be valued in society is by being a professional athlete or entertainer. It shows the similarities between the slave trade and things like the combine, with athletes putting their body on the line for our entertainment, and how once they’re done playing their value in society is gone.
In the Mind and Heart section, the mind section being the largest part of the doc, they talk about the perception of black people in America and the toll it takes on our black youth. It touches on how black men are 3 times more likely to be killed by police than white men. And 1 in 3 black men will go though the prison system. It’s a horrifying reality that we must face, but no one is willing to talk about it. They great thing about this doc is it asks you to listen but never comes off as preachy or pious. It presents the facts and has black people explain their experience to the camera. Malcolm Jenkins puts it best in the doc: “You’re Not Listening”. When players kneel for the anthem no one asks why. Instead it’s, “Well, how do you feel about the troops? How do you feel about Trump?” That’s the major issue; no one wants to talk about the real issue at hand so they deflect. Once we can talk about black people being murdered by police and how to change that, change can come.
With it’s frank and earnestness this doc will become essential viewing. I would put this film with I am Not Your Negro and The 13th. Watching this film, I’m reminded of David Foster Wallace’s Commencement speech he gave at Kenyon College on May 21, 2005 called This Is Water. It’s about how we can live a more compassionate life. A fish must keep moving forward, much like us; we must keep thinking and not generalizing. It is easier to generalize and stereotype and racially profile. It’s harder to keep in your mind that everyone is a person and the experience you had with one person does not mean you will have that same experience with all like people. Once we can begin to see everyone as an equal person and begin to act with compassion and love instead of anger and fear, maybe black people will stop being murdered by police.
Verdict
Maybe I’m not the best authority on the subject, but what I can say is please sit down and watch this doc. Please sit and listen, it only asks for 90 minutes of your time and hopefully it’ll start to open your eyes and we can all have more compassion after watching this film.
