THE UNAMERICAN STRUGGLE: BIGOTRY ON THE RISE

THE UNAMERICAN STRUGGLE: BIGOTRY ON THE RISE

Donald Trump has been in office for less than a year and already has two completed films discussing how the personality of the nation has changed because of his controversial personality. Thomas Huchon got his little seen documentary "Trumping Democracy" onto DVD a week agi and now Ric Osuna discusses the rise in hate since Trump.

The film is sectioned by each targeted group including Muslims, women, African Americans, Mexicans and transgender people. He features several scenes with Trump cheering on the negative remarks about the various groups - especially muslims and Mexicans.

The film offers brief histories of intolerance, racism, and sexism that mostly describe the current events rehashing old concepts. Indeed, the film cites slavery, women's suffrage, Japanese and German internment in concentration camps during the world wars and the overall intolerance of homosexual behavior. Indeed, everything old is new again but on a wider scale.

Featured are contributions by several representatives of various activist groups like the National Diversity Council, Black Lives Matter and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Interestingly, there is no discussion of the anguish Native Americans are facing with Trumps ongoing ceding of traditional native lands to oil companies.

The film cites all the various protests against Trump and how hate incidents are on a steep increase. However, most of those scenes are basic news clips with editorial by the group representative.

The well edited film does not, however, offer anything new nor any solutions; basically rehashing what we already knew.

"The Unamerican Struggle" is a decent enough film for a high school or undergrad sociology class but lacks the in-depth detail that would make the film more compelling. Still, it does open the door form more anti-Trump films. -- GEOFF BURTON

GEOFF BURTON

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