Black filmmakers have used their works to show that the state鈥檚 inhumane treatment of black people, not the uprisings that result, is the real chaos, writes , the Mary Armstrong Meduski '80 Assistant Professor of Cinema and Media Studies in the Department of Performing and Media Arts, in .
鈥淲丑别苍 Do the Right Thing was released, many white critics were more concerned with the depiction of property damage than the state-sanctioned racist killing they saw portrayed on-screen just moments before,鈥 . 鈥淭hey ignored the real-life victims whose names the black and brown Bed-Stuy residents call out before the riot begins: 'It鈥檚 murder. They did it again. Just like Michael Stewart. Murder. Eleanor Bumpurs. Murder!' While those critics saw wanton violence and unwarranted destruction, black film critics, scholars, and audiences saw a scene that represented the fury and sorrow that was part of their everyday life."
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