TILL - Highly Recommended!

 

Yesterday morning I watched a silly raunchy, but good movie on our tv that had a “romantic ending”.   I cried briefly.

Yesterday evening I cried a lot watching Till – an amazing movie!

Till is likely to affect white people in three distinct ways, depending upon where they are coming from.   For the white person who is in total denial about racism, it will be a silly story, that they needlessly were put in front of; a clear mistake of choosing the wrong movie.  

For others, it will be a “horrible incident”, an unjustifiable murder, similar to how they may have viewed the murder of George Floyd in 2020.  These people may believe that Mississippi was horrible in the 1950’s and 1960’s, but that Civil Rights laws and change from them have ended racism in the United States.  After all, can’t Black People eat in restaurants and stay in hotels nationwide well over 99% of the time.

For those of us in the third group, we need to seriously work with the people in the second group.  Systemic racism is alive and well today!

The movie awakened a lot of feelings within me!  The movie combined some romantic visions of Hollywood, with brutal realities that occurred then, and continue to occur today, sometimes in more nuanced fashion.   Many poor Black women disappear every year in Chicago, my recent home, while most white people are totally unaware of it and seemingly don’t care.   While I’ve known about the Till case for decades, the movie really brought me into its realities in extremely emotional ways.

It is impossible to convey in words the image of Mamie Till Mobley (Emmett Till’s mother) walking into the courtroom, and being introduced to the prosecuting attorney, who was allegedly trying to convict the murderers.  She reached her hand out to shake the prosecuting attorney’s hand.  He ignored her then, moving his head and body, walking away from her.  She, understandably, looked shocked!

It is impossible to convey the fear that the Black People of Mississippi faced, if they were to speak the truth to the authorities or the media after the murder of Emmett Till.

The music and visual images of both Mississippi and Chicago were amazing!   The movie pulled me into a world, when I was four years old, helping me feel a part of history that I never experienced, adding greatly to my vision.   While it may have had minimal script that varied a little from the realities of what happened, it really conveyed a deeper truth about both our horrible, racist history, as well as lessons for today, when we have a resurgence of vivid, directly visible racism so frequently.

I highly recommend this movie, especially for white people who care!