While classes are already underway for some folks, like Bridget, classes start again for me on Monday. So, I wanted to briefly note that I’ve updated our “videos” page and added some new documentaries to the list.
The list includes documentaries that are useful for teaching and learning about race and racism. Looking over the list, it seems heavily skewed toward a black-white dichotomy. I’d love to include more films about race and racism beyond this false dichotomy. I’m particularly interested in documentaries about Asians and Asian Americans, Latinos, and the experiences of biracial and multi-racial folks that explicitly deal with issues of race and racism. If you’ve created such a film, or just know of one, you’d like to suggest, please drop me a note. Also, if you’ve bookmarked this page someplace, please update it as I’ve changed the URL.
A great documentary on the history of Chinese American stereotypes in American movies is Arthur Dong’s Hollywood Chinese. Hollywood’s fictional depictions of Chinese Americans start as early as 1938, and later films seem to base their stereotypes on previous Hollywood depictions of Chinese.