Module 12: Race in American Society and Culture:
Discussion of "Skin Deep"

Class Discussion: I have the class sit in a circle, and we discuss what we found most striking or most surprising about "Skin Deep.” Did others react in the same way? Do they agree or disagree with what was said or done in different sequences in the film? For example, the scene of the white film instructor approached by the black student who feels that some comment should be made about the "black” minstrel character played by Al Jolson in the first talkie, "The Jazz Singer.”

Affirmative action always comes up—as an example of how whites are discriminated against in this society. I reply with examples of how whites, as a group, are advantaged over blacks, as a group. I ask them who they think is smarter, a white student who has gone to prep school and had an SAT preparation class, or the Chicana student who had to do her homework after she had finished helping her parents work in the fields, even if the white student scores 15 points higher on the SAT? Maybe SAT scores should not be the only factor in deciding who gets into school or who gets the scholarship money. I point out that because the system is unfair, doing nothing to change the system is not just a neutral act, it is supporting and perpetuating inequality. As H. Rap Brown said, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.” I challenge them, if they don't like affirmative action, to suggest other solutions to the problem of inequality in the United States.