The Two Towns of Jasper – Review
The Two Towns of Jasper a documentary movie directed by Marco Williams, a director from black community and Whitney Dow a director from white community is a combined incredible effort that portrays the causes and effects of racism, its repercussion and the mannerism in which the diverse biological groups share definite features that make a particular group more or less desirable or superior over each other. The two different directors of the documentary movie “The Two Towns of Jasper” have been successful in making me feel the need for a racial free community. Remembering June 7, 1998 frustrates me because of the brutal racial murder of James Byrd Jr, an African-American resident in the town of Jasper, who died a gruesome death by three white people. It sends a chill in my spine to know that James Byrd Jr, was tied to a truck and hauled for miles till his body was torn apart. The movie depicts the state of racism and the terrible effects it can have on the different communities.
The directors have shot in the locations that were racially segregated, like the beauty salon, and the Bell-Jim church and I can understand from these locations that people in Jasper actually gave more prominence to racism. I have always believed and treated every human as equal irrespective of their caste, creed and ethnicity; however after watching The Two Towns of Jasper, listening to the views of the blacks and the whites in the Jasper County, Texas, I understand that there are numerous people who have been a victim of this discrimination on an ethnic and cultural basis. The movie shows a unique move by the directors where they record the real life experiences of the white community and the black community separately by the different shooting crews in Jasper and the statements by these people on their experiences made me believe the regretful state of the people and the apathy of the government in trying to reform the lives of these people.
The best scenes I liked in the documentary were the ones in which the blacks are made to sit along with the whites and the same holds true for white people. This attempt by the director to get the people of two different races is to be truly appreciated. It is very obvious from the scenes that both the whites and the blacks live in a totally different world in some situations. One black woman in the movie reports that there are many skeletons in Jasper. I can connect this reference and imagine if there were many more people like James Byrd Jr or Russell Brewer who could have been a victim of this dreadful custom called Racism.
It did not surprise me to see the town cemetery divided into sections, one for white and the other for black. This division notified me about the modes by which these two communities were symbolized. There cannot be no second thought that the movie documents the town of jasper during the verdict time of those three men who killed James Byrd Jr, I strongly feel that the movie makes a honest effort in recording the lives of the Jasper county’s blacks and whites. The movie shows that when a particular situation is given to a black or a white person, their perception and the thinking ability for that situation is totally different as they relate to their real life experiences. The various scenes gave the impression about the actions of the individuals that was driven by their race, the impact of their anger and pain, and the ways the pressure is dealt when faced with other factors like the gender, behavioral threats, and family relationships.
Overall the movie has created an impression in me that crime never pays and there is lot of effort needed by the government and support of people to eradicate racism that is keeping people apart, and I am glad that the murderers were sentenced to death, but at the cost of an individual’s death just because of the color difference. I strongly support the theme of the movie “Coming together, that’s what we need” and now is the time to create strict policies and follow them religiously to eliminate racism and spread the awareness about humanity.
