Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap- Unit 31: Social Action and Community Media

Unit 31: Social Action and Community Media

Documentary- Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap

What is this documentary about? What is its purpose?

Explained is a Netflix original series of short documentaries where each episode provides the viewer with an insight into different social and economical topics, such as crypto-currencies, the rise in 

e-sports and the stock market. In this specific episode, the theme of the documentary is the racial wealth gap in the United States of America. Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap discusses the issue of the massive divide in wealth between African-American's and Caucasian-American's and how this is directly due to the American slave trade. 

The documentary goes on to explain how the 13th Amendment (January 31st 1865)  may have abolished slavery in the United States, however this did not mean that racial discrimination was over. Racial discrimination continued for over one hundred years, not just in prejudice and unjustified hate, but also in the US laws and businesses. The documentary includes an exclusive interview with Charles Brooker, an African-American man who's parents managed to expose the fact that real-estate companies tricked black families out of houses in predominantly white neighborhoods in order to keep the housing prices high. Archive footage shown in the documentary of news reports asking white members of the public in the 1960's if they would want a black family living in their neighborhood revealed that racial discrimination was still normal for many US citizens. When one woman was asked if she thinks a black family moving into the neighborhood would affect the community, she replied: " I think that the property values will immediately go down, if they're allowed to move in her at any number." This shows the viewer that the racial prejudice in America led to less African-American's being able to buy houses in many neighborhoods. As time went on and these houses went up in price, this meant that the caucasian families who now owned the properties became even wealthier, while real estate and property development companies funneled African-American families into low income housing in neighborhoods which were far less developed, since wealthier areas were more of a priority for development. 

The purpose of this documentary is to educate the viewer on the growing wealth gap between black and white citizens of America and how this is a long lasting effect of the slave trade. Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap achieves its purpose by providing the viewer with evidence, such as interviews and stock footage, as well as statistics which show the massive wealth gap and how long this has been growing. 

Does this documentary reach a Local, National or Global audience? 

Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap reaches a global audience as it is a Netflix Original and therefore is available in every country that has access to Netflix. However, you could argue that the contents of the documentary is only applicable to the United States as the long lasting effects of the slave trade are on African-American citizens. Therefore the target audience would be members of the United States who would like to know more about the wealth gap and racial divide in America. 

The purpose of this documentary is to shed light on the sore mistreatment of African-American citizens and how the progress of the past three hundred years has still not been enough to create an equal balance of wealth between in America. The documentary also touches briefly on the the topic of receiving reparations for the slave trade, however unfortunately, the documentary does not offer a particularly in depth discussion on the matter, which is something which could have helped improve the documentary as it would have allowed room for the viewer to question whether this could be beneficial to the improvement of the wealth gap or if the government spending such a huge amount of money could actually make the economy worse off. 

Bibliography:

- (2016). 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery. Available: https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/13th-amendment. Last accessed 19th Nov 2019.

- (2018). Why Everyone Should Watch Netflix’s Explained. Available: https://www.redbrick.me/everyone-should-watch-netflixs-explained/. Last accessed 21st Oct 2019.

 (2018). Explained- The Racial Wealth Gap Photo Gallery. Available: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8453102/mediaindex?ref_=tt_mv_close. Last accessed 21st October 2019.