Fruitvale Station Reflection

Watching the film Fruitvale Station was honestly an eye opening experience for me. Never have I seen such a movie that has allowed me to really understand the concept of privilege as much as this movie was able to.

I thought that there were two very interesting scenes in the movie that exposed privilege people of color do not have. The first was at the train station when the police officer singles out Oscar to come off the train, and not the white male that actually instigated the fight. This is blatant racism, and the way in which Oscar is singled out is humiliating. My heart dropped when the police officer pointed at him and signaled for him to come off the train, just because he was black. Clearly, the white person here has the privilege of blending in, of not being singled out. The other scene is the end, when it cuts when Tatiana asks where her father is. I thought this ending was incredibly powerful, because I was puzzled myself as to what the appropriate reaction would be for the mom to say to her daughter, after her father was killed on New Years Day. In short answer, there is no way to appropriately handle this. A child should not have to deal with this traumatic situation, and it will forever scar Tatiana as she continues to go through life. The officer shooting Oscar impacted so many lives, destroyed a family, all because he was careless and did not think his actions through. He felt he had the privilege to go about treating these men as inferiors and failed to recognize the impact of his actions. The fact that he was only in prison for 11 months is astonishing, meanwhile Oscar lost his life for fighting someone on a train, not shooting anyone.

When the officers were arresting the men, there was a long shot that showed Oscars face being pressed against the ground by one of the officers, with him barely able to breathe. This shot really hit home for me the oppression that these men face and the humiliating endured by the fear of this kind of treatment. It is hard for me to fathom the anger and rage that such treatment would have led me to have, and I can completely understand why Oscar was enraged and uncooperative in the situation.

Overall Fruitvale Station is a movie I believe everyone should see. It is truly eye opening and a great film being able the communicate the reality of the racism, privilege and corruption of the world we live in today.