Today I watched a movie that I had been curious about for a while, School Ties. The flick features Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, and of course Ben Affleck. Released in 1992 but set sometime in the 1950’s, the movie tells the story of a Jewish High School kid (Brendan Frasier) who leaves his working class family to attend a ritzy New England prep school on a football scholarship. While attending the school he deals with anti-semitisim from his school mates as the film explores the general mindset of upperclass America during the 1950’s. Eventually Fraser challenges his classmates stereotypes and show them the stupidity of anti-semitism. Besides the fact that all of the actors are clearly way too old to be high school students, School Ties was actually pretty darn good. Particularly for me, someone who can identify with the issues that Fraser faced in my own high school days. Growing up in the Deep South during the early 2000’s, and attending high school from between 2005 to 2008 I had to face similar anti-semitism first hand. In one scene in the movie Fraser comes back to his dorm room to find a swastika painted on a sheet hanging over his bed; and in another Fraser is told by a girl he likes that she could no longer be involved with him solely because he was a Jew. These are both moments that I had to face as well, and it helped me understand the pain that racism could cause someone. So for whoever has to read this I hope you watch this film if you haven’t already, and use it to help open your eyes to the stupidity of racism and the stereotyping of a group of people. Or if you’re someone who faces racism in high school just remember to not give up hope, because you’ll eventually be able to escape to a better place where people won’t be so close-minded.
