A block – MLK room: “Mixing it up”, a short film about racial identity

The A-block Race Reels presentation started off with a brief introduction from social studies teacher Malcolm Cawthorne. He explained that Race Reels are documentary viewing events with subsequent conversation with the audience on the topic of race, and have been taking place at the high school for five years.

The short film shown consisted of a series of black and white headshot videos of biracial and multiracial women sharing their experiences in the acting industry.

Many of the women said that their physical appearance makes it hard to get cast into certain types of roles.

A few women said that they are frequently asked a multitude of questions at auditions because they cannot be pinpointed as one race or another.

“Being asked all these questions about my background is a very uncomfortable situation,” one woman said. “They have nothing to do with the work.”

Nearing the end of the film, the actresses spoke about the successes of other multiracial actors and actors of color. They beamed with enthusiasm and hope.

One of the women said that it is a process to have biracial and colored actors succeed and gain equity in the acting business.

“You have to plant it and let it grow,” she said.

After the short film came to an end, Cawthorne began the group discussion with a prompt, “How many of you know or have heard about biracial or multiracial actors?”

A sprinkling of names were thrown out by faculty and students, but after a few, the room was silent. Cawthorne said, “We can only readily name two or three multiracial actors. Now think about that.”

Students responded with the idea that they may know of multiracial actors, but subconsciously associate them with one race or another.

Later in the conversation, Hawthorne pointed out that the acting business is one of the only industries in which it is legal to openly and easily discriminate based on looks.

This sparked a conversation about beauty standards in society and how they play into casting roles for movies.

Cawthorne closed out the presentation with a final question: “How does something like this play out at Brookline High School?”

Many students responded to this question, commenting about their relationships between their peers, their parents and how they perceive themselves.

Two biracial people in the room shared their experiences and urged the community to progress in terms of racial profiling.

One student responded, “There’s hesitance to change.”