The Great Debaters

is worth watching.



This movie was directed by Denzel Washington and produced by Oprah Winfrey. It is based on a true story. It was during a time when blacks and whites don't go to the same school. A black college, Wiley College set up a debate team. They trained and won many debates, and eventually debated against Harvard. (In the true story, it's not Harvard, but University of Southern California, who were the then reigning debate champions. )

I liked this movie's many memorable quotes.

"We do what we have to do in order to do what we want to do. "

"I am here to help you to find, take back, and keep your righteous mind. "

"Who is the judge?

The judge is God.

Why is he God?

Because he decides who wins or loses. Not my opponent.

Who is your opponent?

He does not exist.

Why does he not exist?

Because he is a mere dissenting voice to the truth I speak!"

"In Texas they lynch Negroes. My teammates and I saw a man strung up by his neck and set on fire. We drove through a lynch mob, pressed our faces against the floorboard. I looked at my teammates. I saw the fear in their eyes and, worse, the shame. What was this Negro's crime that he should be hung without trial in a dark forest filled with fog. Was he a thief? Was he a killer? Or just a Negro? Was he a sharecropper? A preacher? Were his children waiting up for him? And who are we to just lie there and do nothing. No matter what he did, the mob was the criminal. But the law did nothing. Just left us wondering, "Why?" My opponent says nothing that erodes the rule of law can be moral. But there is no rule of law in the Jim Crow south. Not when Negroes are denied housing. Turned away from schools, hospitals. And not when we are lynched. St Augustine said, "An unjust law in no law at all.' Which means I have a right, even a duty to resist. With violence or civil disobedience. You should pray I choose the latter."

Yup. What's nice about the story is that it is based on a true story, and it makes history more believable and feel-able. Besides the scenes of the quotes above, the lynching scene is nice too.

Now, America's colleges admit both black and white. Now, Africa doesn't have its Aparthied. Malaysia finally removes the 30% requirement of bumiputera ownership for public listing. (If I'm not wrong, there's another new requirement such that the bumiputera ownership requirement is indirectly still 10-20% like that but heck it's still lower la.)

Although the world is less racist today, it still is.

Perhaps one day, it won't be at all.

Perhaps one day, there might be another movie, that shows how Malaysia changed into a place where all races are treated equally, from the way it is today.

It'll be so cool.

**

If you want to watch it...

You can stream it for free here. It's a 2-hour movie. Please note that after 74 minutes, you have to pause for about 50 minutes. So I suggest that you just mute it while it slowly loads for about 1 hr. Don't leave it for too long otherwise it'll go to the 'please wait for 54 minutes'. In my case it was infinity minutes. Remember that once the internet connection gets cut off (which happens very frequently with stupided streamyx), it will stop loading. So you'll have to refresh the page, or open another of the same page to continue loading the video. The seek can be adjusted to whichever part from which you want to load. Then on another day/after a meal or something, continue watching the rest of the movie. (BTW, if you have the movie, gimme a copy!)