Produced by Oprah Winfrey and starring a two-time Academy Award winner, Denzel Washington, The Great Debaters is a 2007 American biopic period film chronicling the success of the 1935 Wiley College Debate Team.
Located in Marshal, Texas, Wiley is a historically black, private liberal arts college and was founded by Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop, Isaac Wiley in 1873. An ensemble cast which includes Forest Whitaker, Kimberly Elise, Nate Parker, Denzel Whitaker, Jurnee Smollet and Gina Ravera, the film marks Washington’s second directorial debut. Washington plays the lead role of professor/debate coach Melvin B. Toulson whose monumental efforts catapult the debate team in equal competitive realms with white debate teams in the South and throughout the country.
They triumph over the reigning debate champions, the University of Southern California which is fictitiously represented by Harvard University in the film. The Great Debaters represents/embodies African American film genre and skill at its best. The film is meaningful, however, more for what it doesn’t say than for what it does say.
Race/racism, a paramount issue glaringly indicative of the African American experience in the U.S, appears to be the main theme/point around which The Great Debaters revolves. Motifs such as perseverance, belief in self and ability, as well teamwork – the corresponding counterbalance to racist circumstances – permeates the moral core of the film as well. The above mentioned observations are indicative of the surface message of the film.
Its biopic and historical context is an important part of African American academia/history that must be known and not forgotten. For me such elements make The Great Debaters worthwhile and memorable.
Despite its best efforts however, I feel the film echoes a disturbing undercurrent and paradox in the African American experience which remains even to this day – assimilation and its tendency to encourage low self image/esteem by legitimizing the standards of the status quo, even if it is rooted in racism. Like racism, assimilation and integration have become the ideals set for the African American experience, but on the terms of the status quo. Assimilation is “a process whereby a minority group gradually adopts the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture (thefreedictoinary.com).”
Along a similar vein, integration involves “bringing of people of different racial or ethnic groups into unrestricted and equal association, as in society or an organization (thefreedictionary.com).”
Within the context of these definitions, the validation of African American existence clearly involves the appearance of being equal to and thus seeking approval from white culture. Pursuit of approval from a dominating culture may often feel some degree of racist backlash.
It also tends to give the dominant culture a false sense of superiority. Race is defined as the categorization of humans into groups/ populations based on visible physical characteristic traits – skin color, facial features, hair texture, etc. – and self identification. Racism purports that race is the primary determining factor of human capacities and traits and such racial difference have make a particular race more superior than another (Smedley, 2005). Low self image/esteem is enhanced because you are constantly validating your existence and seeing yourself through the eyes of others.
As previously mentioned, the real reigning debate champions, The University of Southern California, was replaced by Harvard University. Robert Eisele, the screenwriter, states “in that era, there was much at stake when a black college debated any white school, particularly one with the stature of Harvard. We used Harvard to demonstrate the heights they achieved (Ebert, 2007).” Why could their success and validity not be founded upon debating another top black college such as Howard University? African Americans were not admitted to the debate society until after World War II (The New York Times, 2007). For this reason the debate team could not really claim their victory because they were not accredited members of the debate society – a fact the film omits. At best their win was symbolic but not official –in effect a pyrrhic victory. More importantly, it is indicative of the two faces of racism in the US– blatantly overt and intellectually covert.
In one scene the character, James Farmer, Jr. (Denzel Whitaker) makes the profound statement, “We do what we have to do in order to do what we want to do (The Great Debaters).” If such is the case, then the questions that come to mind are is it really worth it and at cost? Acquiescence and compromise are the end results/answers to such questions, which is another component of the African American experience. The pivotal scene to support this premise is when James Farmer, Sr. (Forest Whitaker) is accosted and humiliated by two White farmers in front of his family while returning from a family outing. A proud family man, prominent minister, and academic he is rendered helpless and relegated to the stature of a scared child.
In order to protect his family he must succumb. Such an incident is a glaring, obvious example of overt racism that African Americans faced daily in, not just the South, but in all of the US. In paraphrasing Malcolm X – if you’re not in Canada, then you’re in the South. This form of racism has not been entirely subdued, despite the election of President Obama for just think of Rodney King, Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, etc. As previously stated, the movie is reflective of intellectually covert [or sometimes not] institutionalized racism, epitomized by the fact that the debate team was systematically lockout of the process.
It is through this lens that I interpret/ascertain what The Great Debaters is really about – its point of view and moral meaning. I applaud The Great Debaters and similar films that tackle the issue of race. At the same time, however, its true meaning must be seen from the perspective that racism has many shades and devalue of self in pursuit of equality does not truly guarantee freedom, real equality and thus real progress.
Bibliography
“Assimilation”: Web.
Ebert, Roger. “The Great Debaters”. Roger Ebert. 2007. Web.
“For Struggling Black College, Hopes of a Revival.” New York Times, 2007.
“Integration”: Web.
Smedley, Audrey and Brian D. Smedley. (2005) “Race as Biology if Fiction, Racism as a Social Problem is Real.” American Psychologist 60: 16-26.
The Great Debaters Memorable Quotes: Web.