What I learned from Red Tails: It's not what you think

Red Tails is the latest film adaptation of the true events about the Tuskegee Airmen: the first group of all black fighter pilots in the US armed forces. The movie opens with a quote from the 1925 military study.

"Blacks are mentally inferior and by nature subservient, and thus are unfit for combat".



I'll be the first to admit that when I read that on the screen I had two reactions. First, I was angry. Second, I was concerned.

It is pretty obvious why I was angry so I won't go into that. But my concern was over how the black struggle for equality was going to be portrayed in this movie.

Would it be portrayed in a way that oversimplified the struggled in an attempt to make white audiences feel less uncomfortable? Or would it over emphasize the struggle by harping on the harshest and most extreme cases of prejudice, bigotry, and violence leaving all audiences emotionally battered?

I think it accomplished a nice balance so go see it! There! I didn't spoil anything for you.

I walked out of the theater feeling strangely patriotic and proud to be America...not African American so much but just American. Of course I am proud to be Black. In the words of Jerry Maguire "I love Black people." Usually these types of movie stirs up the inner Black Power in anyone, but that wasn't the case for me. I was struck by hugely American this film was and how proud I am to be an American not despite our flaws....but because of them!

Let me explain. Let's just be real. We all know the history of racial prejudice in this country. We have either experienced it first hand or we have heard or read about it. It is something we aren't proud of so we try to minimize it. 

Well how can we ever change and grow if we don't talk openly? Not with attitude, but with understanding.

The BRAVE lesson I discovered was there is power in helping people who you don't like and who don't like you.

The truth is we barely know the people we don't like. We know just enough about them to say we don't like them and then the learning stops there.

The Bible even says there is nothing special about loving people who love you. Anybody can do that. That takes no real challenge.

It takes humility, selflessness, (two words we don't like) and courage to act in a way that benefits a foe or enemy. But doing so produces a greatness that is indescribable. It deepens our ability to be compassionate. It broadens our perspective. It magnifies our ability to love others. Basically, it expands our ability to change.

I guess that is why I felt so proud to be Americans after the movie. Though we dislike a lot of people; though we get a lot wrong; every now and then Americans take a moment to do something that benefits people we don't like. And when we do that positive change follows. It might not be quick and it will be met with resistance. But it wouldn't be the American way if it didn't.

Wholeheartedly me,

Julia