Film Analysis: Skin Deep

One of the most important dialogues that can take place today is an honest exchange about race and ethnicity. A growing wave of racial hatred and violence in this country has made this discussion all the more necessary. The documentary "Skin Deep" has about 23 college students from different universities around the country who talk about their deeply held attitudes and feelings about race, interviews, documentary segments and participation in a three-day weekend retreat. In candid interviews, the students reveal the challenges that remain in creating a racially tolerant society and their willingness to examine their own attitudes. Films like "Skin Deep" are powerful because they hit the issue head-on. It helps identify the behaviors that make
Not only were those students who participated forever changed but the thousands of people who view the documentary. This was my second time seeing this film, and each time I took something different from it. There were moments where I felt somewhat upset that our society even today can be so closed minded about the difference between each race, and that someone can still use the 'N' word and not even flinch. When the same woman said, "there is something wrong when you can't have the same things as someone standing right next to you." It is amazing to me, that as a white woman I still am in the dark on how racism effects our country, our world. Sometimes I think I pull the wool over my eyes and want to pretend that there is not racism any more.

The three days these group of students just wanted to be seen as an individual. As each group of ethnicity stood up they spoke of their nationality, their need and want to be seen as an individual not as a product of race and color. "We are all products of our history and our environment", one student said, "but we still want to be seen as and individual." I was moved when each group stood up. How important it is to let go of anger and racial lines and to be so