Raising Bertie: Movie Analysis Essay

The movie set in the County of Bertie which is a rural African American community in the Eastern of Carolina, the movie gives its viewers a tender and authentic picture of how three young boys that are Reginald, David and Davonte lived as their daily lives were faced with the coming of age. The youth in such rural areas like Bertie takes the shape of the number of the nation's vulnerable and those least visible. Like in other rural areas, the county of Bertie also struggles with the issue of failing a bad economy, the issue of declining population, and graduation rates in high school being below the average rate of the state. The movie presents a Perdue processing plant for chicken, which is Bertie's biggest employer and the prisons that are a hundred miles, which cast a long shadow of Bertie. The county predominantly is African American, and the challenges within it are surrounded by various generations of educational and economic discrimination and also exclusion.

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The county is home of Bud, junior and also Dada, and these are three promising young individuals who have a difficult past in the attending of school at The Hive high school, the school was an alternative for at-risk young men like them. At the school, there is Vivian Saunders, who is a passionate activist from the county of Bertie (Pini and Keys, 2018). At the school, a mixture of social-emotional education, respect, and mentorships greatly assists the young men in keeping their lives on track. The school represents a beautiful model of effective, innovative, and supportive interventions that assist in the improvement of opportunities and quality of life for young men and boys in the county of Bertie.

A time comes when school budget falls and leads to the board of the school closing the school, Bud, Junior and Dada then are forced to go back to Bertie High School a system that had already failed them. The heartfelt movie navigates the stories of these young men as they go about school, violence, unemployment, fatherhood, estrangement from their family members as they begin to tell their stories. The movie is all about the reality of the minorities in America and how education and unemployment for African American is a struggle in the country in real life.

Intimate access presents a genuine picture of the boy's perceptions and caring of the adults in the African American communities and what it is understood by taking care and protecting your own. It is an in-depth depiction of the issues that face many rural Americans youth who are black and what really happens in their everyday lives as young men caught right in the middle of poverty, isolation economic wise, and inequality in education. The movie is an epic experience that allows its viewers to view the actual life of black Americans in the minority communities and have an understanding of them and the communities that are often ignored by the larger society at all times in the history of America.

Bud, in the movie, is presented as a farmer who someday hopes to take his father's business and be his boss. Bud is growing up in "the hood" as they call it grows a tough exterior that leads to him being suspended for altercations with the authorities, which to some extent, threatens to kill his dreams of success and stability as an adult. The movie curiously takes a look at how life is for the young black men in their impoverished communities, a place where there are scarce opportunities and pitfalls for the possible downfall. The film fully resonates with the aspect of inequality, opportunities education wise and the movements of black lives matter.

Looking at the theme of education in the movie, we are painfully introduced to a system of education that does not address or understand a student's needs. When funds eventually come short in the school, the system is closed and thus shuts down the opportunity of the young men to graduate lead a successful life, and so they are forced to go back to the local system that had failed them and could not meet their supposed needs. Bad enough, the district schools in the country face a number of challenges that stretch beyond lack of funds, attracting and retaining effective educators, which is a model that is hard to replicate in the rural communities and the transportation of kids who live miles from the school. The challenges are further complicated by the lack of job training chances that include work-based learning chances like mentorships, entrepreneurship, and also apprenticeships. Young men in these minority communities do not lack talents or have or work ethic; what they really miss is the lack of opportunity that can propel them to greater heights and enable them to live their dreams.

Bertie, a rural opportunity, plays an essential role in the nation's economy, which includes providing the country with water and food. However, many of the Americans are not a part of the nation's general growth of the economy (Knauss, 2018). Poverty in rural areas has tremendously increased from the '90s. One in four students take their education in rural communities, and two in every five are in poverty. It is a representation of how poverty takes shape in America and how these factors are contributing to not supporting the dreams of young men in such communities, especially of African Americans.

For the minorities, these issues and crisis are majorly caused by racial injustices and disenfranchisement. When rural communities are mentioned, less of the whites are involved because, most of the time, these rural communities are involved with the blacks. It is the duty of the policymaker and every stakeholder to try and ensure that equal chances and opportunities are given to these minor communities who also are a representation of the economy. Just like President Obama advocated for the need to alleviate the opportunities and the livelihoods of the young black men in these communities, this movie also takes the same challenge as it presents the common challenges that face such communities and all that needs to be done to have equality at all levels.

The movie depicts that for equality to suffice and the economy to improve in all parts of the country, it is important that every sector of the community be given a chance and the opportunities that they require to grow. The three young men in the movie desire to be independent and be their own bosses by realizing their dreams and potentials, but it is a lack of the required opportunities like equality in I education system that limits their growth and development in such societies. Raising Berties is a movie that paints the picture of how life in America is for African Americans. The movie shows how they have to go through hardships in their journey to realizing their dreams. The essential elements that are supposed to alleviate them to such ends such quality education is a challenge, and this marks a major setback in their quest for a better life and success in the future. The minorities in America have limited opportunities for achieving their desired goals and set life targets largely because of inequality. Inequality has been a major concern.

The young men in the movie lack the opportunities that the majority in American enjoys, and this sets them back to have a better quality life. The young men in the movie are tragically placed against a number of roadblocks, including systematic failures, damaged and split families. Other factors include a deficit of quality jobs, which thus leaves them with no opportunity to make good of their lives. The young men are continuously facing a number of challenges that made it hard for them to achieve their goals in their respective lives (Korte, Wendt, and Falkenhayner, 2019). Raising Bertie is a contemporary movie that highlights in the best way how the minorities in America continuously have it the hard way in their journey to making their dreams come true and having a better quality life like a majority of Americans do.

Racial equality and opportunities stem up from the main factors that shape the kind of life that most minorities in America live; they are the defining factors that shape the kind of education system and the economy a given society survives on, and so does the general economic disparity in the country. Raising Bertie fully addresses the issues of opportunity for the minority in society, especially America and the case of racial discrimination, which stems up as the main issue of social and racial equality in America.

References

Knauss, S. (2018). Book Review: Wendy I. Zierler, Movies, and Midrash. Journal for Religion, Film, and Media (JRFM), 4(1), 107-109.

Korte, B., Wendt, S., & Falkenhayner, N. (Eds.). (2019). Heroism as a Global Phenomenon in Contemporary Culture (Vol. 71). Routledge.

Pini, B., & Keys, W. (2018). Troubling representations of black masculinity in the documentary film'raising Bertie.' Cultural Studies Review, 24(2), 97.