On Jan. 26, 2021, President Joe Biden signed four executive orders designed to address racial equity in the United States. Per a White House statement, “He will direct the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to take steps necessary to redress racially discriminatory federal housing policies that have contributed to wealth inequality for generations.” And that’s why the story of what housing and other living conditions look like for many Black Americans is pretty bleak. It’s by design.
Revolution 67 Documentary Film Looks at Past and Current Issues of Race, and Poverty. In 1967, a black taxi driver was arrested and beaten by Newark police, sparking one of the deadliest racial disturbances in America’s history. Were these terrible events a reaction to what the police had done, or were they an uprising against years of economic and social injustice faced by the black citizens of Newark? Or were they both? Revolution ’67, a documentary film by the Newark-based filmmaking team of Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno and Jerome Bongiorno, recalls how the days of the Newark rebellion formed a fateful milestone in America’s continuing struggles over race, economic justice, and corruption.
If race doesn't exist biologically, what is it? And why should it matter? "The House We Live In," is the first film about race to focus not on individual attitudes and behavior but on the ways our institutions and policies advantage some groups at the expense of others. Its subject is the "unmarked" race: white people. We see how benefits quietly and often invisibly accrue to white people, not necessarily because of merit or hard work, but because of the racialized nature of our laws, courts, customs, and perhaps most pertinently, housing.
Filmmakers Marylou & Jerome Bongiorno’s idea to revitalize inner cities like Newark is to reduce poverty. One way to do so is urban school reform as seen in their documentary film The Rule, which presents the successful model of St. Benedict’s Prep - nearly 100% college acceptance for inner city young men.
In February 1939, more than 20,000 Americans filled Madison Square Garden for an event billed as a “Pro-American Rally.” Images of George Washington hung alongside swastikas, underlining the organizers' belief that Nazism was entirely consistent with American ideals. NAZI TOWN, USA tells the largely unknown story of the German American Bund, an organization of Nazi sympathizers on American soil.
In 1968, Congress passed the Fair Housing Act that made it illegal to discriminate in housing. Gene Demby of NPR’s Code Switch explains why neighborhoods are still so segregated today.
Redlining and racial covenants were government approved racism. "Racial covenants aren't just about discriminating against people of color. It's about enriching white people."