Decades After D. W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" Sparked Controversy, Racism Still Occurs in America

Racism is still alive and well in the U.S.A. even after D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" that portrayed blacks as a threat to social order, among other things.

I recently blogged about the Capitol Theatre in Rome, NY, showing of D. W. Griffith's racist film, "Birth of a Nation," on Saturday as a way of bridging the racial divide in this country and with the hopes that it will spur debate. The film portrayed Southern blacks as vicious rapists, inferior and a threat to social order, while it glorified the Ku Klux Klan. I watched the movie in college in the late 1980s and I was enraged then and I am still enraged now, especially at the fact that the movie is considered one of the "Top 100 American Films by the American Film Institute in 1998. This film is a stark reminder of the racial divide that exists in this country.

I use this film as a backdrop to talk about the fact that discrimination is still alive in the United States of America and though it isn't to the extreme of the early years, it still rears its ugly head when you least expect it. One would think, especially since we have elected our first black president, Barack Obama, that racism would be a dying issue, but that is furthest from the truth. My friend, Chéri Pearson and her companion, experienced discrimination while passing through Oklahoma on their way to Mexico. They were denied lodging at two Super 8 Motels, one in Miami and the other in Tulsa. Here is her account of the incidents:

1. Racism is alive and well in the United States and at some point, we have all come in contact with such despicable acts. Tell me about your experience in Oklahoma?

We were on our way to Laredo, and it was after midnight. We'd been driving since the afternoon, and decided to look for hotels that were near the toll road in Oklahoma. First, we stopped in Miami, OK. My significant other went into the establishment to get a room, and was told that there were no rooms available. I found this really hard to believe, because the parking lot was virtually empty. When he got back into the car and told me what happened, I knew that just didn't sound right. Ironically, the clerk was Indian (not Native American).

We shrugged it off and made it to Tulsa. This time I went in to rent the room. Again, the parking lot was pretty empty, so I knew they must have some free rooms. I couldn't believe it when the woman gave me this evil smirk and told me there were no rooms. She was a Caucasian woman. Befuddled by the recent events, we didn't stop at any more hotels. We took turns driving all the way to Laredo.

2. You said you and your companion were denied lodging, do you mind sharing with us the names of the lodging establishments?

Both of them were Super 8 Motels

3. Did you confront them when you were denied lodging?

Neither of us confronted them directly about the issue. I can't speak for why he didn't, but I was so caught off guard that I just smiled back and told the woman, "Thanks." It wasn't until we got back on the road that it really sunk in and pissed me off.

It's probably better that we didn't say anything at the time. I'm sure they would have called the police, and something tells me that two black folks wearing dreads, trying to rent a motel in the middle of the night WOULD NOT have been given the benefit of the doubt.

4. Many on the right make the argument that we are in a post-racial America, as evidenced from President Obama's historic win in the general elections. What are your thoughts on that sentiment? What have you learned from this incident?

I learned that racism is still alive and well in this country. The bottom line is that having a black President doesn't resolve the racial tensions in the USA. It's all about ignorance and pre-judging a person on the basis of some superficial attribute that they have no control over. It's sad...

6. If you had to do it all over again, how would you have handled this terrible experience of being denied a room?

If I had it to do over, not knowing that I would be denied, I would do the same thing with one exception. I would have taken a photo of each of the clerks and their establishments, then put them on blast on every social network and blog that I have access to. Being so fatigued from the drive, I wasn't thinking clearly enough to do this.

So you see, no matter how much we say America is moving into a post-racial era, there are tangible examples of discrimination that can be cited on a daily basis. While the America D. W. Griffith tried to portray in his film, "Birth of a Nation" and the outrage that it sparked in many cities across the country enraged many that led to the film being re-edited to delete references to the KKK, we are still confounded by acts of discrimination. That is a real shame.