Ask Lemmy

The Perfect Neighbor on Netflix had me in tears. About a black mother who was killed in Florida by someone trying to claim Stand Your Ground laws

Peter Watkins

The War Game, Punishment Park, (the longuets) La commune (Paris, 1871)

They are each a documentary with a but.

The War Game talk about atomic bomb and use real citations but nothing in the movie is real. Punishment Parc take a hypothetical ~~facist~~ situation where the US government build a open prison into the Mojave desert and let loose convict in a kind of capture the flag run against police trainees, the fun part is that he take left leaning actor to play right wing voice and vice versa. In La Commune he take a theatre troupe and made them play the event of the Commune de Paris but there’s a « TV Crew » that are citing journal headline of the time.

"Jesus Camp" is just a dive into evangelical child indoctrination camps, in the George W Bush era. One scene has this prayer circle of children praying to a cardboard cutout of W.

It's arguably not constructive, but I'd say it's more a mirror to reflect towards a MAGA viewer "Look - this is you now."

I cannot imagine having a maga friend at this point. I could not look at them without thinking how insane they are.

Green Book maybe? It's not really about modern-day racism as much as recent-history racism, but perhaps it helps to show what people had to deal with (and still do in many cases).

I am not your negro is incredible. Not a film, but Ta-Nehesi Coates Between the world and me carries on James Baldwin's legacy.

Don't have any particular titles (mostly due to not living in the US), but I've noticed black people call the genre ‘civil rights movies’: e.g. Roy Wood Jr. here and in other clips. So perhaps googling that would yield some recommendations.

Before you try to educate someone else, I suggest you educate yourself first (because this is a really hairy terrain to navigate).

https://youarenotsosmart.com/2022/06/27/yanss-236-how-minds-change/

https://www.streetepistemology.com/

https://www.cnvc.org/

Not a movie but a youtube playlist: The Alt-Right Playbook

I feel like this is the perfect video for this as the guy himself used to be alt right : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OygHnodf0XM&t=1

That one on Youtube about the dad. I can't think of the name. Racism will only if they have a personal connection with a minority (intimacy, blood relations, friends, community, etc.).

American History X might be a good movie.

Not trying to dissuade you, but have you considered talking to her about class politics and the economy?

Slavery by Another Name

I think you should start with Nixon. Start with the war on the drugs. Some people like to believe that racism "stopped" after the civil rights movement, but we just changed the way we described the targeting.

This is not the answer you're looking for, but I remember watching Green Mile as a child and that movie struck with me for life, and likely attributed early on to me being one of the few non-racist folks around here somewhere in East Europe

The first thing that comes to mind is that documentary that I think was on Netflix about the 13th amendment. It's just called "13th".

Honestly, I don't have such a movie to suggest, I don't think such a movie can exist, due to the Backfire Effect. Changing people's minds takes time, and the impetus to change has to come from within. The handful of times that I've managed to do it involved sharing an idea or observation that doesn't immediately trigger their defenses, but metaphorically is like dropping a grain of sand in the gears of their mind, and then letting it do the work of grinding away at the teeth, until one day their old thought process breaks down. It can take months.

Selma?

I'll ask my wife, because she's been consuming a lot of racism lately. (Lots of civil war era books, with a strong focus on the injustices against black people.)

Off the top of my head there's of course, Roots.

We also watched the Free State of Jones. It's based on a true story that puts you in the shoes of a Rebel soldier who goes AWOL, and befriends a group of runaway slaves.

Since you know your friend better than any of us, you might want to watch any suggestions alone, and possibly even search online for an in depth analysis of it before presenting it to your friend. That way you can be prepared to intelligently discuss any topics that might come up.

EDIT: My wife reminded me of American History X, which is more anti KKK than pro-black, but it's also much more modern and VERY graphic.

Good luck!