I wanted to post a brief reply to the film we watched the on Tuesday titled "Speakers for the Dead." (It will be brief, as we discussed a lot of themes about the movie in class)
One thing I wondered about the movie, and maybe I'm misunderstanding this because of the way the movie was structured, but why it did not occur to the committee in charge of commemorating the African-Canadian cemetery to first ask the former owners of the land where the stones were before excavation... it seems like a logical thing to do. I also found it interesting that in the debate as to whether excavation should take place or not, it was predominately the voices of white individuals who were the loudest. Those who did not have any claims of ancestry to the buried individuals in the cemetery were making judgements and decisions about what was "proper" treatment of the ground and what was not. For a while residents of the town allowed their neighbor to dig up the ground to plant potatoes and to allow their animals to wander over the patch. But when digging was in search for tombstones, there seemed to be more of an appreciation for the "sacred" nature of the spot. I do think that it was because of racial tensions within the community, and that those who claim a privilege over others based on their race were frightened that somehow a part of their identity would be tarnished. I especially found that statement from the one elderly woman about how "it was not a racial issue because she was participating in the committee" (not a direct quote) and so on to have a weird, "I'm not racist because some of my closest friends are black" kind of undertone to it...weird.
Anyway, those were some of my thoughts. I groaned when the video was put in and was ready to leave at any moment, but ended up staying the entire class because it was actually and interesting and education video, go figure!
Have a great weekend everyone!
One thing I wondered about the movie, and maybe I'm misunderstanding this because of the way the movie was structured, but why it did not occur to the committee in charge of commemorating the African-Canadian cemetery to first ask the former owners of the land where the stones were before excavation... it seems like a logical thing to do. I also found it interesting that in the debate as to whether excavation should take place or not, it was predominately the voices of white individuals who were the loudest. Those who did not have any claims of ancestry to the buried individuals in the cemetery were making judgements and decisions about what was "proper" treatment of the ground and what was not. For a while residents of the town allowed their neighbor to dig up the ground to plant potatoes and to allow their animals to wander over the patch. But when digging was in search for tombstones, there seemed to be more of an appreciation for the "sacred" nature of the spot. I do think that it was because of racial tensions within the community, and that those who claim a privilege over others based on their race were frightened that somehow a part of their identity would be tarnished. I especially found that statement from the one elderly woman about how "it was not a racial issue because she was participating in the committee" (not a direct quote) and so on to have a weird, "I'm not racist because some of my closest friends are black" kind of undertone to it...weird.
Anyway, those were some of my thoughts. I groaned when the video was put in and was ready to leave at any moment, but ended up staying the entire class because it was actually and interesting and education video, go figure!
Have a great weekend everyone!
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