“What you say is offensive,” says Nik Walker to his girlfriend in the movie Hoodwinked. “You do not know what it’s like to be black.”

In 2006, seniors Walker and Dylan Lazerow created Hoodwinked for their senior project in the African-American studies class.

Six years later, on Sept. 27 in the Martin Luther King Room, Walker joined Lazerow, students and faculty to watch the documentary as part of Race Reels, a new in-school film series.

Race Reels, an initiative started by School Within a School English teacher Abby Erdmann — with the help of BATV education coordinator Krissie Jankowski, African-American Scholars Program Cooridnator Chris Vick and librarian Lynne Cohen — aims to raise awareness and generate discussion about race among members of the community by developing a collection of race-related films to show at group gatherings.

“We can’t work against racism and dismantle it if we are not aware of it,” Erdmann said.

Last spring, Erdmann was awarded the George Olmstead Jr. Prize for Excellence in Secondary School Teaching from Williams College. Each year, Williams College seniors nominate high school teachers who have played influential roles in their lives and learning.

She dedicated much of her $5,500 in prize money towards resources that can be used for Race Reels.

Erdmann, being a white woman, had initial hesitations about involving herself with race-related themes as a teacher. After taking a class called Empowering Multicultural Intitiatives through the Education Collaborative for Greater Boston, however, her views changed.

“I see it as in my interest as a white person to do what I can, which isn’t to speak for black people,” Erdmann said. “I don’t see that as my job. I think my job is to be there for my students of color.”

In addition to raising awareness, Erdmann believes it is crucial to seek changes in the school’s academic organization. An example of this is to advocate for eliminating the leveling system in English classes.

“If this school was willing to take it on, and if we are serious about the achievement gap,” Erdmann said of removing leveled classes, “then let’s talk about what we are going to do about it.”

Lazerow, a graduate from the University of Michigan who now works as a community organizer, said he used the documentary to explore the meaning of the N-word and other terms with that have a racial context.

He explained how white people are also affected by issues of race.

“All these things we do as ways of being politically correct,” Lazerow said. “Why are we afraid to even use the word ‘black’ in a restaurant?”

In the film, Lazerow tried to answer this question by exploring the idea of “white guilt,” which affects students who are not of color.

According to Lazerow, he has always been sensitive to the use of derogatory remarks aimed at others as well. For example, when friends casually used terms such as “retarded” in school, Lazerow often felt uncomfortable. For this reason, he had tried to make Hoowinked a forum in which to explore the usage of slurs with racial connotations.

To alleviate “white guilt” and the unconscious segregation and misunderstandings between students of different backgrounds, Lazerow agrees with Erdmann that there is more to the strategy than simply raising awareness.

“Whether that means getting together a team of ten of the kids who sit on the right side of the cafeteria and ten of the kids who sit on the left side and convening them to say, ‘Hey, we’re all going to switch sides’ – I don’t know,” said Lazerow. “But this is what I would see as making changes.”

Walker, who was very involved in drama during high school and is now a working actor after graduating from New York University, reflected on his senior project that he had no idea it would stand the test of time.

“The stuff that was said might have pushed some boundaries, but everything was very honest,” Walker said. “I would hope that it now serves as a lead-in to discussion.”

In a conversation with students, parents and faculty after the viewing of Hoodwinked, Walker and Lazerow asked whether or not the school is the same as they remembered it to be, with a segregated cafeteria divided into many pockets of friend groups. Several students confirmed that they believe this still to be the case.

Walker and Lazerow were happy to see Race Reels, which plans to meet again on Oct. 20, exemplify the Brookline community’s attempts to achieve a better understanding of the separations between different groups of students.

“The lucky ones get to figure out what its like on both sides of the spectrum,” Lazerow said.

Rohan Lewis can be contacted at [email protected]