Powerful statement
I am writing this review because nobody else has, this is a short but powerful drama about the power of ignorance combined with miss representation in media for fueling prejudice among children as well as how easy it is to plant negative ideas and fear in a child about himself.The movie has one child that stands ous as the voice of reason and education without being to obvious about it, acting as the small shred of hope in an otherwise pretty awful environment.
The movie it self is actually nothing new, maybe not talked or shown enough, but colored children in a white environment are subjected to a whole lot of obstacles. It reminded me of the time I worked with kids in the country side when I got the question when the child was adopted when we got a child from an ethnic minority as well as well as the three year old child I worked with who once counted the white people on the tram and then said she wished she was white. So the way this child thought about himself as well as related to his surroundings was no surprise to me.
The way it is filmed is pretty powerful and it does make a strong statement, without sugarcoating the least bit this kid is thrown out in to the world to fight his own battle. I wish he would not have to fight his own battle, seeing it is a battle the grown ups and our society should be in charge of but I guess knowing how the world works the kid will be forced to do this and it should infuriate us all.
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I have been you, I have learned and I have grown
This short film tells a story that many bi-racial children have experienced in a world where difference is often not tolerated and accepted.This film teaches us that we should not wait for others to accept us for who we are before we accept ourselves.
Learning self-esteem starts at home from a young age, because we know that everyone's experiences are different depending on where they come from, what they have experienced and how much access they have to information. This film also teaches us that in a pool of people whose ignorance makes them fearful and mean, there is always a glimmer of hope, a human who simply sees us as another human being.
Nelson Mandela once said:
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
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"It's not up to others to decide what kind of human being you are"
Born with It was a short eye-opening film for people who live comfortably in the majority and confirmation of what people who are declared “different” already know. This film didn’t pull any punches and stripped away all the sugary, feel-good moments another film might have doled out to make people feel better and less uncomfortable with reality.Keisuke begins school late in the year in a rural area after moving from Tokyo with his mom. Born to a Japanese mother and black father, he is in the only child of color in his class. Fellow student, Kento, can’t believe he can speak Japanese. “I am Japanese,” Keisuke tells him. In a thoroughly homogenous society Keisuke is viewed suspiciously. Kento declares that he must have AIDS for his skin to be that color and tells everyone to not associate with him.
I live in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious society. Bi-racial children of all sorts are nothing unusual. That doesn’t mean that they don’t face prejudice. But the level of ignorance and otherism of these children was off the charts. Unfortunately, it’s not only these Japanese students who are cruel. I watched a drama not long ago that had a Japanese actor of color named Anthony in it. I saw numerous derogatory comments about him from people not from Japan. He too, was born of a Japanese mother and African American father. His father died when he was a toddler. His mother married a Japanese man when he was five. As he said of growing up, “There were girls and boys and then there was me, this mysterious black being.” Much like this child, he was thoroughly Japanese except for his looks, and in a monoethnic society it was hard to fit in.
Keisuke’s mom did not coddle him or tell him everything was going to be okay. She told him he could not let others decide who he was, he would have to figure that out for himself and fight his own battles. A heartbreaking reality for such a beautiful, kind child. While this short film showed the ignorance some people of color face in Japan, it’s also a reminder for the rest of us to open our hearts and minds to the “others” in our own communities. Regardless of race or sex we are all humans and want to be treated with respect and to be accepted. Born with It showed how much more some people have to fight daily to achieve that baseline of humane treatment.
24 December 2024
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