Comment

Comment by richard ferriss on September 29, 2008 at 9:50pm

Today I substitute taught at an inner-city high school here in Tampa. There weren't any instructions and only 2 dvds available for showing. A couple of the kids lobbied for Redemption, the 2004 JT Allen / Jamie Foxx bio of Tookie Williams, so that's what we watched (I had not seen the movie but had heard of Williams). It was a good choice: many of the students got quite engrossed, and I think that the point about negative stereotypes conditioning self-hatred and violence resonated with a number of them. The movie should be acceptable for many classrooms: I remember only one 'bullshit' and an 'ass' in the 1st 50 minutes; low level violence; only very vague sexual references. Williams' story can continue to be an inspiration.