Racial Profiling in Movie “Fruitvale Station”

Too often, young black men are seen to be dangerous in American society. The lives of too many young African-American males are cut short through violent means due to this perception of them. This is the message delivered in the controversial movie, “Fruitvale Station.”

“Fruitvale Station” is first-time director Ryan Coogler’s film about the real event of the killing of 22 yzear old Oscar Grant by transit police on the Fruitvale BART platform in Oakland in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2009.

Officer Johannes Mehserle, who claims he mistook his gun for his Taser, fired a shot into Grant’s back which eventually led to his death. The film focuses on the final day of Grant’s life. The power of the movie is in its ordinariness as it demolishes stereotypes and gives the viewers, a realistic look into the life of a young African-American man struggling to get his life on track.

A national reviewer claimed the movie sanitises Grant.

Get quality help now

RhizMan

Verified writer

Proficient in: Race

4.9 (247)

“ Rhizman is absolutely amazing at what he does . I highly recommend him if you need an assignment done ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

However, Grant is depicted as an ex-con, drug dealing young man who has cheated on his girlfriend and is lying about his job he’s not exactly a saint. To show the humanity of Oscar Grant is the point of the film. It’s easy to depict young black men as thugs. However, the film shows a complex three-dimensional person with relationship troubles, job and financial problems. The film shows a man trying to make up for being an absentee father by doting on his daughter.

During the pivotal scene on the BART platform, Coogler shows us a widely chaotic setting of suspects who don’t feel they’ve done anything wrong and can’t understand why they’re being detained, police who make things worse with their heavy-handed tactics some claim cross the line into brutality, and onlookers who are filming, shouting and chastising transit police.

It would’ve been easy to make the police one-dimensional, but the film shows us their distress after the shooting.

Michael B. Jordan turns a two-dimensional lionised victim into a flawed, struggling flesh-and-blood person. Octavia Spencer is pitch-perfect as Grant’s supportive yet exhausted mother. “Fruitvale Station” raises questions not only about racial profiling in law enforcement, but how society perceives young black men.