42

Earlier in the cultural diversity class, my lecturer showed us a movie which revolves around America's cultural diversity in the past. The movie title is "42". I have not watched this movie before and I think it is interesting.

(image via thrilermag)

Here is an excerpt of what I wrote on my review about the movie.

‘42’ is an American movie which is based on true story. The movie talks about an African-American baseball player, Jackie Robinson who becomes the first black member to play on the American Baseball Major League which is played with white players. The movie took place back in 1945 when the racial issue in America is still a huge thing.

Baseball, just like any kind of sport is supposed to be something democratic, and not in any way racial. But in the past, racial issue seems to be very essential. The black and white people were treated extremely different. The example is shown in the movie like how Jackie Robinson is not allowed to use the restroom in the gas station, also when Robinson and his wife could not board on the airplane and their seats were given to white people instead.

Moving on to the discussion, earlier this week, some students have shared their perspectives about the cultural diversity in America. One of them talked about how America is a big nation. Americans come from different races and it is multicultural. Another student said that Americans seem to be superior towards other countries and therefore they become arrogant. Later on, students were given this movie in order to compare their point of view and the “reality” in the past (author has to quote the word reality because even though this is based on true story, there are some historical inaccuracies).

(image via warner bros)
 

Based on E. B. Tylor, there are some aspects of culture, such as knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law and custom. There are three aspects that are directly related to this movie which are belief, law and custom. Belief can be defined as the world view of the unseen which is different from one person to the other. On 1940s, the white people in America have a belief that the black people are not a part of America. The belief has been planted on Americans even before 1940s, which then becomes a law –meaning social culture. The belief has become the part of the culture, where the black must be treated differently and poorly by the white.

Culture is also something derived from what people do. What the white people did back then during 1940s were the part of their culture. They have not realized the cultural diversity yet, therefore the racism could happen. But, since culture is an ongoing process, it could change. Robinson took his part in changing the culture by changing people’s belief and what people did. He showed his art through his baseball skills and his moral through his good moral. 

Nowadays, the diversity between the cultures in America has been much more tolerated. But then it doesn’t mean that there are no racial issues at all. Often times races become the subject of bullying or out casting. It doesn’t happen only to African-American but to other races as well. Culture after all is the pattern of interaction between people, the rules of behavior in social group. It is safe to say that the pattern of interaction might evolve from time to time, or the behavior might change in the future. That’s why, culture is something dynamic. It has been proven that what happened in the past has now changed in the present. The cultural diversity has now become much more appreciated and tolerated.

  

Sorry, if they are quite jumbled and incoherent. If I put down the whole review and opinions here, it will be too long and you will be bored haha. But at least you guys got the main point right ^^ If you are interested in culture than this movie is recommended for you.

Reference

Cheers,

filicia

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