For whom? - Rachel Ochako

On the first Friday of the semester, I watched the Free Friday film, For Colored Girls produced by Tyler Perry. I was expecting a movie that gives lessons on life flavored with some humor, unfortunately with some ignorance of Ntozake Shange’s play, from which the movie is based. My assumptions were obviously flawed. The film depicts a continuously disturbing struggle of women. It was impossible to watch the movie and not feel uncomfortable because I was incessantly presented with nerve-clinching stories and scenes.

At the end of the movie, as I tossed away my “no classes tomorrow” mood (aka Friday night mood), I could not stop wondering at the noticeably low attendance in Dana. Did the campus majority feel sidelined by the title For Colored Girls? Maybe the majority of the people on the campus have already watched the movie, except the few, approximately 20, people in Dana that night. Was it ‘too heavy’ for a Friday evening?

This was one incident that highlighted the fact that we, as Midd Kids, could easily restrict our education within the walls of our classroom which is basically limiting it to a paper/an assignment/a grade. That week, I got my education in Chellis House where Women of Color (WOC) organized a follow up discussion on the movie. Someone brought to our awareness the question of whether MCAB’s choosing this film for the Free Friday Film was because of Black History Month and if so, questioned the appropriateness of the selection. They also made a point to mention MCAB’s selection of Cool Runnings last year, which sent laughter across the room. Perry’s choice of movie title was also a topic that aroused debate of whether a change in the title would have encouraged the interest of a wider audience or whether maintaining such a title was essential to create familiarity.

The key question: FOR WHOM? Was this movie for a specific race? For girls/women only? In my opinion, this movie was FOR YOU and me! Come on, Midd Kids, let us take our education out of the confines of the walls of our classroom. If anything, the fact that YOU once wrote that paper for an African American History class or the fact that YOU have taken one or two classes in the Women and Gender Studies department should have drawn your interest to this movie just by the title, even if it is not a required screening by a professor. Just by the fact that you are a woman of whichever race/class/tribe makes this movie for YOU as they are universal social issues. It is unfortunate that someone once inquired, “but wasn’t it a movie for black people?” The title White Chicks was not made for white chicken, (Quack! Quack! Haha!) or white girls, nor was the screening Tibet In Song made for the Tibetans on campus. If you have not yet watched the movie or read the book, I encourage you to do either. Maybe you could even follow in the footsteps of a friend of mine who watched the movie with her boyfriend. More than anything I hope it will have the same impact on you as it had on me: I was emotionally shaken yet so grateful for the amazing qualities of the many men that have surrounded my life.

We could be engaged academically, yet separated in reality. If you have ever taken a class on social justice at Middlebury, educate yourself even further by going to at least one of the events of this week’s symposium on social justice. If you are taking a class in politics, as you eat in Ross, take time to discuss some political idea with someone from that region because it is true that you might have more academic knowledge, yet that person could share a perspective that you will not find in your books or lectures. If you took a class on environmental sustainability, take time to read that article in The Campus talking about a student’s environmental project. The list is endless.