If I had the opportunity to speak with the director of the movie Rosalie, I would speak to him about the issue of education. While I was watching the film it seemed to me that the director spent more time degrading Black people rather lifting them up. The film reminds me of a lot of people just like Rosalie with the only difference being that Rosalie knew exactly what she was doing and the people that I know who reminds me of Rosalie are the victims of their own ignorance. In my neighborhood I have noticed people are always complaining about things amongst each other but when they are given the opportunity to speak up and actually do something to get results and make progress they do not speak up at all, then they turn around and wonder why they find themselves stuck and being victimized by a cycle that keeps repeating itself. Sometimes I ask myself “When are these people going to wake up and see what has been going on?” And the other half of that problem is when you try to bring the problem to their attention (the people in the community) they do not even want to acknowledge the fact that there is a problem and when you try to present a solution to them you are usually meet with the “I do not want to hear it, I like the way it is” type of attitude. They do not realize that not hearing it and liking it the way it is only makes the problem worse.
The piece of the film that made me angry was when Rosalie tried to say that she is a good mother. Rosalie did not regret anything that she did to her family. A good mother would not do drugs and puts her kids in harm’s way. Rosalie did the exact opposite. A good mother would intervene when her daughter is being sexually assaulted not pressure her daughter to engage in sexual activity so that she could make some money and make a quick escape. A good mother would not chastise her child and blame him for something that she introduced him to. Rosalie did just the opposite when she judged her son for being addicted to drugs when it was her who brought drugs into his life. How can Rosalie call herself a mother when the children’s grandmother has to bring her seven kids to come and see her while she is locked up in jail? There were so many things that Rosalie claimed which made me mad but I am going to leave it at that.
To me the goal of the movie was to both get people’s attention, to make them mad. Almost like the saying “To wake up a sleeping giant”. The reason why I used that saying is because in my mind there are not enough black people who are awake and aware of what is really going on in society. Unless we as a whole wake up, unless the sleeping giant wakes up our lives are going to be plagued with problems like racism.
