I recently watched the Movie Freedom Writers, I highly recommend it, it is based on a true story featuring Hilary Swank who seems to just be made for these type of movie plots.
Taken from Wikipedia the plot summary is as follows:
Freedom Writers is inspired by a true story and the diaries of real Long Beach, California teenagers after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, during the worst outbreak of interracial gang warfare. Set in and around Wilson Classical High School in Long Beach, California during the mid 90’s, two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank stars as Erin Gruwell, whose passion to become a teacher is soon challenged by a group of Black, Latino, and Asian street gangsters who hate her even more than each other, mainly due to her being White
The Movie is really interesting, the “asian” gangs were Vietnamese, there were no Chinese, Japanese or Korean gangs and I find that interesting that on average, despite the Triad and Yakuza history that somehow it appeared not to have been a major contributor to american youth crime. The Movie is touching, it highlights the racial tension, the desolation and the loss of hope for these young people who grow up in a warzone inside a country supposedly in peace and something you don’t think of when you are not american, since most of american TV centers around Beverly Hills, Hollywood, friends and other drama’s with only happy endings. They describe themselves in a kind of prison with borders around race and region.
Given the incredible gun problem that exists in America, with the recent Virginia Tech shootings just one recent example this is a particularly relevant movie as to a possible source of the violence, outside of the really easy access to Guns. The racial tension and hatred starts right from the beginning as you grow up, but even in school the shooter was:
Cho was almost a textbook case of a school shooter: a painfully awkward, picked-on young man who lashed out with methodical fury at a world he believed was out to get him.
They told him to go back to China, even though he is Korean, in any event this is disturbing. While shooting is unforgiveable the source begins through the first stab with hate, and eventually everyone hits their breaking point.
How free is America really if you cannot even walk outside your house for fear of being hurt or shot?
