Whitewashed terror

I was in Little Rock for the Jan. 19 screening of the new documentary film about the Elaine Massacre, “We’ve Just Begun,” reviewed by Philip Martin. Although overall I appreciated Martin’s comments about the work, I was a bit put off by what felt to me like a reverberating theme: a warning against believing everything you see in a documentary about white terror against a Black community.

To be fair, Martin’s caution is not just about this film. He was referring in general to all documentaries and other nonfiction works that viewers may be fooled into thinking represent indisputable fact. That is not a helpful warning for adults. We tend to believe claims that are consistent with our current point of view and no amount of bias warning will change that, whether the facts can be disputed or not.

So, I think the people most helped (and by helped I mean affirmed and comforted) by Martin’s warning would be white descendants of Elaine Massacre perpetrators, massacre-deniers, and people who subscribe faithfully to whitewashed accounts of Arkansas history. Hearing perspectives on white terror from the descendants of white perpetrators of racial violence in Elaine and throughout Arkansas history would be enriching.

As is true with this film, we hear from descendants of victims about what happened and the impacts on their families and community. But what about the other side, the white side? What would the descendants of the white perpetrators say about what their people did, how it affected their community, and the nature of the legacy that was handed down through generations of their families? ROANNE ELLIOTT

Centerton