Inside Chicago-Made ‘Why Trump? Two Americas’
The separate camps inhabiting Brian Schodorf’s new documentary, Why Trump? Two Americas, are easy to recognize. One believes that racism harms the country. The other denies it exists at all. A fairly black and white dichotomy, no doubt; but each represents a community of real people. They’re worth knowing, especially for viewers who wonder how we got here.
Schodorf offers a tour of both. From southeastern Kansas to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and East St. Louis, Illinois, he goes beyond the soundbites, reporter-on-the-street style. Meeting MAGA supporters and Black Lives Matter activists, priests, authors and bar patrons, he finds people who are eager to share what they’re thinking.
But first, the film provides some context. It comes by way of a lesson about something that happened 1921. That was the year when a white mob brought death and destruction to a thriving, African-American neighborhood in Oklahoma that was once called Black Wall Street. The incident became known as the Tulsa Race Massacre. A hundred years later, on the same day as the city’s annual Juneteenth Celebration, President Donald Trump held a rally nearby.
Schodorf was there, camera in hand. He captures a lot of opinions. One attendee called President Obama “the antichrist.” Another insisted that, “everybody’s special, not just the Blacks.” A third gave up a little wiggle room, admitting that, “racism, to some degree, still exists on a very, very small, miniscule level.”
WHY TRUMP? TWO AMERICAS BRIAN SCHODORF
NOT TO BE RACIST, BUT…
A lot of these statements could start with the smug disqualifier, not-to-be-racist, but… Fortunately, Schodorf lets the people keep talking. In doing so, he keeps the conversation away from a right-versus-wrong argument. Reckoning with the racial history of the United States requires patience, and the filmmaker provides it in Two Americas.
Protesters offer insight during the Trump rally as well. Many of them seemed troubled that the event was held on a day of Black celebration. “You pick that weekend to come down here and cause all this chaos,” says one.
Media personalities and national politicos also join the conversation. Bishop Carlton Pearson, Oklahoma State Senator Kevin Matthews, former Trump communications director Anthony Scaramucci, former Obama senior advisor David Axelrod and former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius among them. Speaking to Schodorf in traditional, news-show settings, they explain how the establishment has alternately supported, opposed and buried the dynamics of systemic racism in the United States.
PAINFUL BEAUTY
Deep and rich footage complements the narrative. It includes a formerly thriving business district in East St. Louis that has become an industrial wasteland without a highway exit. Here, a man finds a job as a poker dealer for a new casino.
There are also small towns, rustic neighborhoods and expansive farmland. They become painfully beautiful examples of a time when life was simpler, at least for some. But for others, as Schodorf notes, they are testaments of “a system that was never built for them.”
‘Why Trump? Two Americas’ is currently streaming in several locations on Amazon Prime. For more information, click here.
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