It’s unlikely that any lecture documentary since “An Inconvenient Truth” has had the stimulating potential of “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America” — and if that sounds like vague praise, it’s not meant to be.
The film presents a talk that attorney Jeffery Robinson (a former ACLU deputy legal director) delivered at New York City Hall on June 10, 2018. His subject is nothing less than the history of anti-black racism in the United States.
For Robinson’s arguments, the historical evidence is apparent, but much of it, as he promises, may be new to many viewers. He shows how the text of Article V of the Constitution protected slavery from amendments until 1808, reads from the secession declarations of the Confederate States, and has a chorus perform the inauspicious third verse of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The film, directed by Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler (daughters of Chicago Seven attorney William Kunstler), intersperses scenes of Robinson traveling across the country. He visits Charleston, where fingerprints of slave labor can still be seen; Staten Island, where he meets Eric Garner’s mother; and his native Memphis, where his parents had to come up with a solution to buy a house as a black family.
Robinson nuances topics—unconscious bias, reparations, how to deal with George Washington owning slaves—that have become trouble spots in society, without ever losing the core of his progressive message. It’s a confrontational film, but never alienating, and so much of what’s in it is compelling.
Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America
Rated PG-13. Discussion and imagery of racial violence and derogatory language. Running time: 1 hour 57 minutes. In theaters.