Movies and the Complexity of U.S. Racial Inequity

Three movies from more than half a century ago continue to offer valuable insights into the problem of white supremacy in the United States. Pinky (1949) tells the story of a light‐skinned Black woman who has a chance to escape the torments of racism by “passing,” but she chooses instead to build a more just system one day at a time. Since whites also have the option of “passing” by taking white privilege as a right, this story still has the capacity to sting the conscience. Intruder in the Dust (1949) reminds us of the importance of economic equality as the foundation of a just society. Until all are granted equal shares of the “common wealth,” social and political equality will remain a mirage. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1969) conveyed the terrible message at the end of the Civil Rights Movement that integration was a scheme that allowed only a few token Blacks to achieve the desired level of wealth necessary to socialize with whites. Whereas Martin Luther King, Jr. shifted his emphasis to economic equity in his final years, white Americans never fully grasped that civil rights depend on a distribution of wealth that would compensate for an unpaid debt to those who worked for centuries without reward. Instead, white America is still preparing a “dinner” that serves little more than symbols of equality.