Racial Discrimination In The Movie, Harriet (2019)

 Harriet (2019)

    The first film that I want to give information about is Harriet. This film takes place in a slave camp.It is about a couple who live there. Their names are Jhon and Minty. They want to marry and leave this camp to raise their children in freedom and peace. In the early stages, we see that Jhon brings a letter from his lawyer to Minty. It is the key to finding their freedom. After they and their society sing gospel on Sunday, Jhon and Minty go to talk about that letter with their master, Edward Brodess. The letter is about the last wishes of Edward’s great grandfather, Atthow Pattison. The letter says that they are all going to be free when they are 45 years old. But Edward Brodess aggressively tears the letter and calls him a niggar. Mindy defended themselves by saying that it was illegal. I think we can trust lawyers. With the help of this trust, I can say that the government doesn’t do its job properly. Or maybe they don’t care about black people. At this scene, when Mindy’s mom screams, she is stone-cold and not moving. These black people acknowledge this situation so deeply that they pray to their god and tell them about how their master is cruel and bad.

    Lacking money, after Edward Brodess's death, his son Gideon Brodess decides to sell some of his slaves. One of them is Mindy. When she is working, she feels something, and it is like a dream. She sees one of the assistants looking for her, then it becomes true. We are going to hear this situation from her voice in Pennsylvania, where all black people live normally. And she tells it like it is a miracle or God’s will. After some chasing moments and some help from a priest and her father, she arrives in Pennsylvania. There, she starts to live with people like her in a house. The guy that works for black people’s freedom does his job secretly because the police and government are very uncomfortable with black people’s freedom. I noticed that they talked to each other in an insulting way among themselves. The house holder finds a job for him. She, on the other hand, is unable to adapt to it.She works fast, but it is not necessary. Minty also changed her name to Harriet. She again has a vision or a feeling that her family and her husband are in danger. She decides to go back to her husband and family to take them to Pennsylvania.

    After she arrives at her old farm, she hears that Jhon is married to another woman. Her family and Jhon think that she is dead. They knew her like that. And they were very surprised to see her. So they think that she is a miracle for him to get away from there. Racism branches off into black people also because of white people’s oppression. Branches are born free or not born free. Because of this situation, they are unable to marry themselves. One of the reasons Jhon’s choosing another wife is this situation. When Gideon hears those rumors, he calls them "niggar tales." While the scout boy is looking for them in the woods, he sees Harriet, and at that time, she is having a seizure of a miracle. The Scout boy is affected by that and decides not to tell their master their location. At that time, traveling and crossing borders for black people were so hard that when she returned to Pennsylvania, people could not believe what happened.

    Now she is described as a savior. Then she brings more black people to Pennsylvania. Farmer-owners call her Musa because she rescues black people from their farm perfectly. Because of her brave moves, she becomes a member of a secret committee that defends black people. She decides to rescue her sister, Rachel. She goes to her old farm to meet with her sister, but she cannot convince her sister. Rachel symbolizes the harshness of life because her children are taken away from her. She cannot run.

    Farm owners can’t believe Musa is a black person because they can’t see him as intelligent and talented as white people are. They humiliate and they are actually very wrong for looking down on black people. In the film, black people have to prove that they are free human beings by showing papers. The government's new law is against black people, so they start to hide suddenly. They run away from Pennsylvania and live secretly. In spite of going through a lot of bad and scary experiences, Mindy and Harriet are against starting a civil war. When it is asked to scout the bot, who is he, he replies, "Call me whatever you want; that’s what you white folks do." At the end, we see her as a true hero. Christian allegories are used so much in the movie.