#FRUITVALE STATION DVD MOVIE#
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According to the author, “This term has become the platform to dismiss Black life as less valuable and perpetuates a negative and criminal connotation in forms of micro-insults and micro-invalidations. Among the negative vocabulary used to describe black males is the word “thug,” in an article titled “The demonization and criminalization of unarmed Black male victims in America” by Calvin John Smiley and David Fakunle, this word is well-defined. These are qualities that go against the stereotyped, vilified notion of the black male.

#FRUITVALE STATION DVD MOVIE#

The audience of the movie falls in love with Oscar and his whole family for their close-knit and unconditionally loving connection. These scenes are integral to the main message of the movie because they show Oscar’s humanity. All of these scenes convey his goodhearted and nonviolent nature. At one point in the film, he is brought to tears when he discovers on the side of the road a wounded dog that was hit by a car. He is a devoted and loving father to his young daughter Tatiana as well as a caring son to his mother and the rest of his relatives.

Oscar also displays his caring and empathetic nature throughout the film. Oscar comes to a turning point in which he throws away his stash of drugs which symbolizes him letting go of a lifestyle that imprisoned him for many years.

In the text “Freedom on My Mind” racial profiling is defined as “Using race, rather than specific evidence, to determine how a person should be treated.”(Martin, Bay, and White) It is also noted in the text that “An inordinate number of African Americans are imprisoned for minor offenses because they are more likely than whites to be arrested.” “In the United States, Black men are six times as likely to go to jail or prison as white men.” (Smiley and Fakunle 6) This is largely due to the tendency for law enforcement to racially profile black individuals. While dealing drugs comes with high risk to all that choose to participate and black people do not participate in this at a higher rate than their counterparts, there is an alarmingly disproportionate amount of black males incarcerated for dealing substances such as marijuana than there are white males. Oftentimes, finding jobs with a stable income and employment benefits can be difficult and many turn to illegal activity due to its highly lucrative and fast-paced nature. This situation is very common among many low-income communities. Although Oscar acknowledges the fact that dealing illegal drugs is undoubtedly a risky form of income, he feels as though his hand is forced due to his recent termination from his job at a grocery store. At the beginning of the film, Sophina pleads Oscar to stop dealing marijuana. Oscar Grant is portrayed as a family man living in a low-income neighborhood and displays his daily efforts to remove his family from poverty. This theme is demonstrated in a beautifully complex manner throughout the entirety of this film. One being the criminalization and vilification of black men. This film highlights many injustices that black communities face in the modern era. The officer who killed Grant was charged with involuntary manslaughter and served a mere 11 months in jail, claiming he mistook his gun for his taser.

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The significance of this true story lies in the aftermath of his death which sparked a series of protests and riots against the injustice of police brutality. “Fruitvale Station” describes Grant’s life and the events leading up to his death. He left behind his girlfriend Sophina and four-year-old daughter Tatiana. Grant was a young man from Hayward, California who was fatally shot on New Year’s Eve after an altercation with a BART transit police officer in 2009. The film “Fruitvale Station,” directed and written by Ryan Coogler is a story based on the death of Oscar Grant.

Fruitvale Station: A Story of Police Brutality and Institutionalized Racism

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