7 Years Later, 'Fruitvale Station' Sadly Speaks Louder Than Ever.

Opening Remarks

2020 is going to be one of those years, the ones where we look back on with a chill down our spine, a “How did we get through that?” mentality.

But it's only the end of May.

Violent protests are happening across the US

I refrain from politics on this page, not least because I have little knowledge, say or authority on the matter, but that I had always wanted it to be a place for films and films only. But when I heard that some of my friends had participated in riots in San Francisco and New York City, and one of them was trampled and is now hospitalized, I felt it was necessary for inbounding outsiders (i.e. international students such as myself) to understand the gravitas of the circumstances in the United States.

As a Vietnamese, I live in a racially unaware culture, to put it lightly: my parents constantly warned me against going to "black neighborhoods" in my college area; my peers use the n-word, presumably referring to "homies" when they do use it; and the overwhelming descriptions of black people in my community are "big", "strong", "brutish" and "violent".

When I was 12, I went to an international camp. There, I was assigned to a group led by a black teacher named Rodrick. Immediately the day after, some of the students' parents were upset that their children were interacting with Rodrick and requested that the camp remove their children from his group.

That remained, in my knowledge, as my only run-in with blatant racism in my country. Which is why I shouldn't, but will, talk about George Floyd.

George Floyd was murdered on May 25th, 2020, after a white Minneapolis officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his throat for 9 minutes. It was all captured on a bystander's camera.

The officers said George Floyd resisted arrest after reportedly using a counterfeit $20 bill.

George Floyd repeatedly screamed “I can't breathe", “Please" and “Don't kill me" for 5 minutes. Derek Chauvin did not remove his knee even after Floyd became unresponsive.

Derek Chauvin is now being charged for third-degree murder in Minnesota, the average sentencing of which amounts to 12 ½ years in prison. George Floyd is dead.

And unlike many of my friends, I luckily do have a platform to show my anger through peaceful means.

The weight of the situation surrounding violent protests now is hard to stomach: officers are being shot, reporters are getting attacked, lives are lost. It has changed from a matter of “Who blinks first?”, to a nationwide outrage responding to the question of “Who shoots first?".

I’ve always thought that's why films exist: to present a beautiful truth, one that remains impactful and gut-wrenching altogether. In recent times, with the help of social media, films have become a platform for the artistic talents whose communities have been oppressed, silenced and misrepresented to tell their truths, regardless of your skin color.

Ava DuVernay (‘Selma', ‘When They See Us'), Alfonso Cuaron (‘Children of Men', ‘Roma'), Lin Manuel-Miranda (‘In The Heights', ‘Hamilton’), Bong Joon-Ho (‘Parasite', ‘Snowpiercer'), etc. are few of many who have created entertainment and used their voices to speak up about their heritages, their social concerns, and represented their communities in their stories.

And one of these voices, that of Ryan Coogler's, can be heard in ‘Fruitvale Station'.

What is it about?

Michael B. Jordan portrays Oscar Grant

'Fruitvale Station' gained widespread coverage for being one of the first films to speak up on racially-motivated police brutality in the United States and more specifically, the Bay Area.

The film depicts the last day of Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old African-American who was shot in the back by a white officer in a train station whilst handcuffed and facing the ground. It's a quiet, almost mundane feature, wanting to show Oscar Grant as more than the sum of his parts, and that his life was not defined by his death or the outrage that followed, but rather by his choices and aspirations as a human being.

‘Fruitvale Station' accomplished that while being part of a larger historical narrative regarding routine incarceration and stifled human rights against young black men, and provoked a long, hard discussion into the United States' justice system when it was released in Sundance in 2013.

Why it was, and still is, significant?

The film presented Grant in an objective, earnest manner

Knowing the ending, I sat with uneasiness throughout the film. Yet when the event happened, it seemed out of nowhere, almost shocking.

In real life, what happened at Fruitvale Station was one of the first instances of a police shooting recorded on mobile devices, and the video quickly became viral afterwards, leading to violent protests across San Francisco.

The fight between Grant and his friend that had necessitated police to show up had already been broken up by the time of their arrival. When the police searched for the fight’s participants, they picked Grant out for “dressing the same as the ones already identified".

The officer who shot Grant, Johannes Mehserle (whose name was changed in the film), said he mistook his gun for his taser during trial hearings.

Mind you, a taser does not have a trigger, yet Mehserle was charged with involuntary manslaughter, and was released after 11 months in prison.

Whilst the film builds towards the absolutely disgusting act of violence in its climax, it actually focuses much more on the story of a young man trying to break away from perception around his troubled past and racial classification. In barely 80 minutes, we see Oscar Grant (played with perfection by Michael B. Jordan) fired from his job, struggle to make ends meet for his daughter, and grapple with moral dilemmas regarding his marijuana-dealing ways and his compulsion to “go straight".

It's far from a glorification of the individual: never do we see Grant as a role model, but rather as a complex human being shaped by his environment.

Ryan Coogler handled the depiction with care: he interviewed Grant's relatives, sat through hours of public hearing tapes, and didn't start filming until he found “the person who embodied Oscar Grant's kindness". Grant wanted to change, and his kindness is true: his peers all regarded him as a thoughtful person in real life who was always better than what was given to him. But he was also short-tempered and dishonest (lying to his girlfriend and hiding his firing from his relatives).

There was no “black superhero" that some spoke of: Oscar Grant was a real person who wanted to strive beyond his upbringing, yet fell victim to systematic oppression and an unwillingness from authorities to change that.

Closing Arguments

Oscar Grant was killed on New Year's Day, 2009

It pains me that we can now list the black people who have been shot, killed and brutalized by police without repercussions. There's an overwhelming attitude that these blatant acts of murder went unpunished, despite it being caught on camera, despite the consensus being that those acts of violence were unwarranted. Oscar Grant died on New Year's Day of 2009. This film was released in 2013. And it's been 7 years since, yet nothing seems to have changed.

But that is the state of us in this day and age.

We indict the history of racism, yet are apathetic, even hostile towards the underlying reasons of the protests.

We tolerate stupidity, yet condemn those who show intelligence and accountability.

We encourage people to speak up, yet refuse to listen.

We forgot Eric Garner.

We forgot Philando Castile.

We forgot Sandra Bland, John Crawford III, Jonathan Ferrell, Atatiana Jefferson.

And we forgot Oscar Grant III.

But they did not.

If anything remains, the violence that followed the murder has urged us to do one thing: Do not forget George Floyd.