The Jan. 1, 2009 headlines said: \u201c22-year-old, unarmed black man fatally shot by BART police.\u201d For too many Americans, it was just another example of\u2014choose your clich\u00e9 from the list\u2014[police brutality] [urban crime] [gun violence] [New Year\u2019s Eve drunkenness] [racial profiling] [rowdy teenagers getting in trouble..again].<\/p>\n

The headline gave the surface view. The stereotypes in the list kicked in immediately. In reality, we found out in the days that followed, the incident was some of the above, all of the above, and none of the above.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what the newly released movie, \u201cFruitvale Station\u201d makes you think about. In telling the story of the last day in the life of Oscar Grant, \u201cFruitvale Station\u201d avoids clich\u00e9s and hype, hewing closely to the events leading up to Grant\u2019s death, handcuffed, lying on his stomach on the BART station floor, and shot in the back at point-blank range by an overzealous, or confused, or panicked, or racist [choose your descriptor] transit cop.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a \u201ctrue-crime story,\u201d in the usual sense\u2014the ones that are ostensibly \u201cripped from the headlines\u201d and then embellished with outrageous special effects and plot twists. \u00a0Nor is it a superhero story. There are no car crashes, heroic rescues, exploding bombs, severed body parts, or slo-mo shots of bullets. Rather, it\u2019s the straightforward story of one troubled young man, trying to put his life back together for the sake of his girlfriend, his mother, and the four-year-old daughter he adores.<\/p>\n

What we see in this movie\u2014as opposed to the typical American blockbuster\u2014is Oscar\u2019s humanity, the complexities of his circumstances, and the pressures closing in around him. He\u2019s multi-dimensional\u2014not just a \u201cpunk,\u201d as he might be stereotyped by his prison record\u2014and not a punk transformed into a saint. He makes some bad choices. He has trouble controlling his anger. But he\u2019s warm, tender and involved in the details of his daughter\u2019s life [in one scene, he fixes her hair]. He wants to do better, but turning things around is complicated.<\/p>\n

In other words, Oscar Grant is portrayed as a person, not a type.<\/p>\n

Watching this powerful, emotionally wrenching story unfold, with its simply told, up-close feel and dialogue that sounded spontaneous and authentic, I couldn\u2019t help thinking about my own prejudices and stereotyped views of \u201ccriminals,\u201d \u201cvictims,\u201d and people who are culturally different from my own white-bread expectations.<\/p>\n

And, of course, it made me think about Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman and my own\u2014possibly prejudiced and stereotypical\u2014reactions to each of them and to the equally tragic story that played out in Sanford, Florida.<\/p>\n

I highly recommend that you see \u201cFruitvale Station.\u201d It will open your mind, and your tear ducts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Jan. 1, 2009 headlines said: \u201c22-year-old, unarmed black man fatally shot by BART police.\u201d For too many Americans, it was just another example<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[255,843,1656,784,1360,1528],"tags":[2007,1574,2006,2008,1509],"yoast_head":"\n