Film conveys “Blindspotting” threat to black men
by Tony Award-winning Hamilton actor Daveed Diggs and his friend and fellow spoken-word artist Rafael Casal. I became familiar with Diggs’ rising star from his recurring role on “Black-ish” as Johan, the nerdy younger brother of Rainbow Johnson who justifies his nomadism with intellectual wit. I also enjoyed Diggs’ supporting-role performance in “Wonder” as Mr. Browne, the innovative fifth-grade teacher in the true story of August Pullman, a young boy who had to undergo multiple facial surgeries.
In “Blindspotting,” Diggs plays Collin, a convicted black felon in Oakland, California, who is three days away from being off parole and out of a halfway house. However, walking straight and narrow for Collin is complicated by temptations of street vices due to his hanging with his childhood best friend Miles, portrayed by Casal. Miles is a tatted-up white guy with a grill (gold teeth) who has a violent temper and a penchant for finding trouble. He’s actually more “hood” than Collin and is comfortable with his black “homies” in Oakland while living with his AfricanAmerican girlfriend and their biracial son.
The interesting part of the narrative for Miles is that he feels threatened by the gentrification of young, white hipsters in his neighborhood. He lacks the formal education they have, and although he is not dumb by any means, as part of the struggling working poor, he is not in their socioeconomic class.
For Collin, gentrification cuts deeply as black families are uprooted from their homes to make room for upscale urban development. He and Miles work for a moving company and Collin always pays specific attention to the photo albums people leave behind, contemplating what their life hardships might be.
The bond of Collin’s and Miles’ friendship is severely tested not by gentrification, but by the emotional torment Collin suffers after seeing a white cop gun down an unarmed black man in the street. From this point, the film takes us on the trajectory of Collin’s path to prison. We are shown the crime he committed and then carried to the climatic showdown between him and Miles regarding the harsh racial realities of their environment.
As Collin continues to wrestle with the shooting he witnessed while trying to turn his life around, he realizes that even though Miles behaves like a thug, Miles will never be viewed as a threat in the manner that black men are. Black males are “blindspotted” — that is, already marked as dangerous due to embedded, systemic biases. After getting thrown out of a hipster party where Miles brutally beats up a black man, Collin yells with distress at his friend, “You are the nigger they are out here looking for!”
“Blindspotting” challenges us to take a deep and honest look at the perception of black men in America. Through the character of Collin, I believe Diggs is trying to show us that on any given day he could be perceived as a “Collin” in real life.
For example, if someone saw Diggs on the streets of Oakland sporting his natural braids and was not familiar with his movie, Broadway and television credits, how would they view him? Would they be apprehensive in his presence?
“Blindspotting” points out that we have a “spot” in our brains to which we are instinctively blind and that it is extremely difficult to retrain ourselves to think differently. The Collins of the world, who often do not get second chances, are mired in these damaging labels with limited opportunities to prove otherwise.