American Skin
Rhetorical analysis of Spike Lee’s recent movie
AMERICAN SKIN, a powerful movie, must I say. I typically don’t write about critically acclaimed movies or ongoing systemic issues imposed upon melaninated people. Not writing about it does not mean that I am neither oblivious to the issues at hand nor do not experience them myself.
That responsibility is solely up to me regarding how I choose to react to such predicaments. One thing I have had to come to terms with, if I may elaborate, is that despite how hard I tried to distance myself from such discussions: whether in the workplace or other areas of people activity, it seemed to always end up on me to appease the festering tension in the air by uttering a clever joke. I often wondered if the other person had contemplated on what was said.
In retrospect, I am grateful now that I digressed from such a mindset because internalizing those emotions was not benefiting my sanity either. I eventually stopped making efforts to appease the tension whenever those situations resurfaced because I wanted the other person who made such comments to think about what was said.
