Crown Heights After-thoughts

Upon closure of the movie I realized just how controversial a race riot can be, and surprised that such a small event escalated into a riot. It started with one black boy getting hit by a car driven by a jewish man, and instead of a normal reaction to a car accident this incited violence. This violence was because of years of racial tension between the African American community and the Jewish community. I still feel confused because nobody seemed to know exactly what happened. They only knew what they perceived, but what they perceived was skewed one way or another. If you were black you saw the situation one way, and if you were jewish you saw it another. I think this is because neither side understood the other. They never got along so they never really wanted to see things through the other’s eyes. I felt like this whole thing began with something small and snowballed until it exploded into a riot and many years of hate. I think that Anna Deavere Smith was trying to show everyone’s viewpoint on what occurred to get a sense of what actually happened. These different viewpoints showed a lot of confusion on the matter and that the blacks and the jews just didn’t understand each other. Her goal was also to show that racial tension like what happened in Crown Heights has happened and will continue to happen. There will always be racism.