Viewing Guide/Seminar Prep (during film or after): Your ticket to seminar tomorrow.
BIG QUESTIONS:
1. What is racism and how does it play out in today’s
society?
2. How might it end?
Question Bank
·
What are some of the racial stereotypes that you
see highlighted in this movie? How do these stereotypes affect people’s
behavior toward each other?
·
Racist
and un-racist are not absolute
binaries. Where does this binary get
complicated in this movie?
·
Choose a character and discuss what he or she
learns.
·
How did viewing this film change, expand, or
support your perceptions of race relations in modern-day society? Select and describe one scene from the film
that supports your claim.
·
What is the role of the individual in breaking
or perpetuating the cycle of oppression?
·
What does this film say about human beings and
the nature of racism? Is racism natural?
Is it learned?
·
How do the characters in this film fit the
stereotypes that others hold of them?
How do they prove them different?
·
What is the relationship between racism and
ignorance?
·
Why is Matt Dillon’s character a racist? Is there ever just cause to be racist?
·
Why does Ryan Phillipe’s character shoot
Graham’s brother? What does he learn
about himself?
·
What is the meaning of the title? What is the significance of what Graham says
in the beginning about us living behind metal and glass?
·
What is the relationship between race and social
class?
·
What was a question that YOU thought of during
the film or our course of study this week?