Abhishek Mandaviya

20162073 IBM 16

Racism in current time vs 1900’s – in context with the movie: the great
debaters.
"The Great Debaters" is based on the genuine story of the Wiley College debating team, and the
circumstances in the film occur in 1935 at a Black school in Marshall, Texas. At the point when the
fundamental character in the film, Melvin B. Tolson, played by Washington, first shows up on screen he
is dressed as a tenant farmer going through what resembles a bog, with a light blues song out of sight to
the words "Soul is a witness." One can without much of a stretch of the mental faculties, infer by the
music and the dress of the time, what a Black man could be running from, however that inquiry is never
investigated in the film as a whole. Mere aspects of it are shown and in certain scenes, its shown
(lynching and barn scene) but it’s never explored as a whole. Tolson is next observed blasting into a
classroom, remaining on a seat—where he recounts the Langston Hughes sonnet which starts with: "I
too sing America. I am the darker sibling."

Subsequent to the clamor for Obama’s resignation in the later years of his tenure, we see in America an
increase in the overall increase in clashes in society. While it is debatable what the effects of his
presidency were, it is an established fact that the extremist white supremacist groups became more
vocal in their views. And its soon after that we see a large number of instances of Blacks being killed by
the deliberate actions or abstention from white police officers. It’s` important to trace this in the larger
scheme of and identify from examples such as Great debaters, how to combat such a situation without
taking up arms. However, like everything else, it must be taken as a pinch of salt in that, as a part of the
over dramatization of what is prevalent in movies, they often tend to hype up things in movies. The
climax for example, the Harvard debate that forms the crux of the movie in that junior Farmer gets to
debate finally, actually never happened!

Tolson, a self-depicted communist, was an artist and additionally educator and extremist, and popular
for the epic sonnet, "The Libretto for the Republic of Liberia" and for "Harlem Gallery." His ballad "Dim
Symphony" starts with: "The hundreds of years old poignancy in our voices/Saddens the colossal white
world/And the wizardry of our dim rhythms/Conjures up shadow-states of prior to the war years." The
lines are like W.E.B DuBois' portrayal of the tunes of slaves as "Distress Songs," excellent expressions
emerging from the conditions forced through the uncouth beginnings of private enterprise in North
America and the suppression and mistreatment following the annihilation of asset subjection. Tolson
would manage these sorts of logical inconsistencies in his works and through his teaching, instilling in
Miss Booke and Mr. Lowe in particular, a love for passionate debate which is supported by reason,
instead of mindless debate or violence. The film communicates the battle of wills in debates through
talk, and only the spoken word. In their first debate against white students, Samantha Booke disproves a
white male student, who typifies radicalism and uncovered the insufficient contrast amongst it and
through and through prejudice when he says the time is wrong for school reconciliation, paving the way
for one of the most emphatic set of words. Booke states insistently, "No, the ideal opportunity for
equity, the ideal opportunity for flexibility and the ideal opportunity for uniformity is dependably, is
constantly at the present time."

Tolson is indicated arranging tenant farmers. In spite of the fact that he was a dissident, it is hard to
discover particular data identifying with whether he was or was not a real union coordinator. Whenever
challenged, Tolson declines to answer yes or no in the motion picture however expresses that it is his
Abhishek Mandaviya
20162073 IBM 16

business. His works, in actuality, be that as it may, demonstrate a man definitely mindful of the
indecencies of free enterprise, the inconsistencies it produces and the significance of battling inside and
apparently against it. In today’s world when anyone with the power of social media can highlight an
occurrence when they feel their rights have been challenged, it has introduced a certain degree of
inactivity and has made people lackadaisical. It may seem funny, but the premise of the movie that
impassioned debate is how problems are resolved, only seeks to spark off more problems as social
media… an ideal platform for debate is often misused and reduced to mere platforms for individuals to
post their personal views and ignore or belittle the constructive criticisms that people may offer. In
extreme circumstances this may transform into cyber bullying and other real life consequences.

A vital scene where he and others are attempting to compose tenant farmers uncovers one of the white
tenant farmers to be the supremacist who offended the father of James Farmer Jr.— the organizer of
the Congress of Racial Equality. The impact of this scene is that it shows at that point and now the
backwardness of some white laborers and how in light of the natural bigotry in free enterprise, they are
an advantaged layer of specialists that must conquer their prejudice to be in solidarity with the most
mistreated against a typical oppressor, the land proprietors for this situation. The most impactful scene,
one that has or will resound with the abused from South Central to Pine Ridge to Iraq, is one where
James Farmer Jr., while debating the legitimacy of common insubordination with white Harvard
understudies, discusses the privilege of the persecuted to oppose by whatever methods important. He
says, "I have a privilege, an obligation to oppose, with savagery or with common defiance. You ought to
supplicate I pick the last mentioned."

"The Great Debaters" is a glorious motion picture. It places everything in setting and works to a
crescendo. The whole town has turned out to be so enlivened by the improvement of the youthful
debaters, to the point of revolting when Tolson is detained, and winning his opportunity from imprison.
There are the individuals who might utilize the motion picture as an indication of how far Black
individuals have come, however in the event that anything, it is an indication of how far things have
relapsed and how far Black individuals need to go. At that point and now, freedom is not to be won
through discretionary common legislative issues, but rather is to be pursued and won through open
class battle, not on the streets but in principled debates, that seek to find a resolution to the problems
that plague society.