Traffic stop death triggers revolt in Black Lives Matter
For your Spe cial Occasion & Banquet Aff air
Caribbean Life, F BQ eb. 15–21, 2019 51
By Kam Williams
Joseph Grant (Toussaint
Morrison) was riding in a car
with his brother Cole (Malick
Ceesay) and BFF Derek (Geoff
Briley) one afternoon when
they suddenly found themselves
being tailed by a police
cruiser. Although they hadn’t
violated any rules of the road,
they were inexplicably pulled
over by a couple of overly zealous
cops (Addison Pennington
and Matt Cedarberg), ostensibly
for merely “driving while
black.”
Sitting in the back seat,
Cole asked the officers for an
explanation for the stop, if
they weren’t being profiled.
Their response was that he
matched the description of a
suspect they were looking for.
After being asked for his
ID and ordered him out of
the car, Cole lost his temper.
The next thing you know, he
wound up on the ground with
a pistol to his head. And the
bigot with a badge in control
of whether he lived or died
yelled, “What you looking at
boy?” before callously pulling
the trigger.
Witnessing the senseless
shooting of his only brother
leaves Joe traumatized and
Derek is understandably shaken,
too. But the two have distinctly
different feelings about
what to do next.
The former has no faith in
the criminal justice system,
given the long history of police
being found not guilty for the
deaths of unarmed African-
Americans. So, he would just
like to get some guns, recruit
an army, and lead a violent
revolution against the U.S.
By contrast, Derek is interested
in mounting a traditional
protest, like a Black
Lives Matter march. After all,
he has no confidence Joe will
be able to find any followers,
especially since blacks are so
brainwashed they mostly kill
only other blacks, not whites.
The ensuing debate of how
to respond to Cole’s untimely
demise sits at the center of
“Black,” a thought-provoking
morality play written and
directed by David J. Buchanan.
Besides the badinage
between the buddies, the film
intermittently takes a break
from the drama for brief,
revealing tete-a-tetes with
real-life black folks about
their first encounters in life
with the cops. The heartfelt
recollections shared in these
mini-documentaries combine
to paint a widespread pattern
of discrimination and abuse
on the part of the police.
A compelling polemic
revolving around a griefstricken
sibling’s relentlessly
making his case, like a latter
day Nat Turner, for armed
insurrection!
“Black”
Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 80 minutes
Production Studio:
BLACK Productions
Studio: We-Co Films
A scene from “BlacK” written and directed by David J. Buchanan.
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