South to Black Power

This documentary really makes you think about your own family's journey. Many of our families moved to northern cities for better opportunities and eventually moved back down south. I love the passion Charles Blow shows on this subject and how he goes to different cities to get different perspectives on each person's journey. He is a brilliant story teller and writer and delightful to watch. I have shared this documentary with my family, friends and strangers as a must see film to watch. Each person he interviewed shared great information about their journey, which was interesting to hear. This needs to be picked up for some awards this.up coming year.

There are no easy soo to the political divide in the United States of America, but this documentary focuses on points of positivity. For some they may realize possibilities they haven't considered or dismissed. It is a thought provokingly honest display of current grounded political engagement activities.

Elections at every level of government are critical and many take these positions for granted. This documentary shows real examples of how to push against redlining that further divides the United States of America. It's a display of humans trying to do good for the greater good of all rights.

These words stood out powerfully to me: "what if we skip over all of the begging, the pleading, the marching and the shouting". Juxtaposed to this documentary, I watched a documentary on HBO about Dr. Martin Luther King entitled King in the Wilderness. Both documentaries demonstrated how long we have been in battle for justice and freedom. How long we been reliant upon white people in positions of power to change their values, to release some of their own power, to give something up and allow black people a piece of the pie. This documentary suggests that we can liberate ourselves from that ideology and actually grab our own piece of the pie without waiting for white america to dole pieces of power out at their comfort and discretion. It offers us a tool to think and act upon what we need. Yes, the politics in this country are rooted in white supremacy. However, we need to start using the apparatus within our political institution to gain our freedom and liberate ourselves from white supremacy that exists in our healthcare systems, our education, our justice system, and our political system. An earlier review indicated that it isn't possible with the numbers. I counter that the entire premise of the documentary is to change the numbers game where we already have some advantage to improve our political power position while not aligning specifically with a party but with black power. It's chess not checkers and Charles blow conveys that powerfully in this documentary.

This documentary is a stirring and persuasive film encouraging Black Americans to move to southern states where they can accrue political power. It offers grounded rebuttals to the central thesis (i.e. A Black woman activist staying in Chicago and rebuilding her community there) without discounting their opposing viewpoints and still asserting the need to migrate for power at the state level. (Note that I'm white so this movement doesn't relate to me, but the film presents a wide variety of viewpoints from Black people on both sides of the argument). My favorite part was when Charles Blow shared his decision to attend his HBCU as being based on an admissions officer telling him that the school needs him there. It was so emotional to hear him use this example to draw the broader point about how sometimes making life choices are about ideals bigger than yourself. Migration is hard, as he mentions, but these are central questions about anybody's life: safety, dignity, and prosperity. It's beautiful to see proponents of this movement championing a new kind of self-determination.

The purpose of this pseudo-documentary is to increase the political power of the Democrat party, it makes that clear many times, but it does it under the guise of "helping Black people reclaim their ancestral homes and power".

Couple problems with this thinking... One, you're suggesting mass segregation for easy political gain rather than fixing problems inherent in the system.

And two, the South is ALREADY heavily Black with even the Reddest states voting Blue in their biggest cities.

I've studied American politics my entire life, it's just not possible to flip these states with so few people, and the filmmaker must know this already.

I don't get easily offended, but this is a VERY controversial suggestion the filmmaker is putting forward.

It's a fairly well made film, but the premise is so flawed it's more fantasy than fact so I can't rate it higher than a 3.